Our Daily Food Intake Requirements

How can we tell what our bodies truly need in terms of our daily food intakes? Are we only taking calorie needs into consideration, or do we need to factor in our daily vitamin and mineral requirements? The average person only takes calorie needs into consideration. Vitamins and minerals cover relatively new ground as far as understanding what our bodies need to remain healthy, and they're not considered as much as they should be when deciding what foods make us the healthiest.

For the past several years, however, our nation has been obsessed with calorie consumption, and counting calories is often the only factor people consider when trying to make choices on healthy eating. The fact that most people in the medical, fitness, and health professions associate food requirements with daily calorie needs, this fact will probably not change in the near future.

So, from purely a caloric standpoint, how do we determine what our daily food intake requirements are? Is there a guide we can use to determine these optimal health levels?

Many people start by taking into consideration your physical activity, your gender, your age, and your current weight. Luckily, there is a sort of guide we can follow to configure our nutritional needs to meet the healthiest levels we can reach. So much consideration has been given to food intake and calorie levels alone, it's amazing to think how healthy everyone could be if they equated vitamin and mineral values as having the same importance and strove to meet those goals every day.

Now that obesity is currently considered a national epidemic, we should take a step back and reflect on how obesity is caused. Being overweight is not a result of having an improperly functioning thyroid gland or a problem with any other system. The simple fact is that obesity is caused by overeating. Our bodies are not able to work off the amount of foods we eat.

Thanks to a recent medical invention, we can now use an armband to discover our daily caloric burn as a result of daily activity. What an amazing invention it would be if it could also go a little further and tell us what our calorie intakes are, exactly how we're burning them, the amount of calories we need, and how many more it is necessary to consume, if any, on a daily basis! If such an instrument existed, the people who wore them would be more aware of the foods they consumed. Imagine if it were equipped with loud sirens that went off when you were eating unhealthy. How many people would overeat then? I am willing to bet that not many would. No one wants to be accused of overeating, and I'd wager people would take great strides to remain below their limits.

Through regulating our food intake, using our health knowledge to make smart decisions, and continuing to educate ourselves as we age, we could easily prevent many health problems we will likely experience when we get older if we don't take these precautions. When society as a whole is more health conscious, they will monitor their daily food levels in a such an active way that obesity is wiped out. Such a healthy society would not be burdened with such diseases as diabetes, hypertension, and various cardiac problems. Sadly, we live in a world where those illnesses exist as a result of obesity and not following nutrition.

But how many doctors and drug representatives would have a smaller income if the nation were leaner, healthier, and got sick less often? As baby boomers get older and endeavor to hang on to their youthful good looks and levels of health, it will become more and more important to educate ourselves individually on how much food we need and, more importantly, what all we don't. Then again, perhaps the day will come in the future where you are offered an armband to help control your caloric intake. Just don't let the alarms go off!