Healthy Eating: How to achieve it?

INTRODUCTION Evolution did not give us humans the strength and speed of large carnivores, or the specialized digestive tract of herbivores. The diet of hominids was mostly limited to fruits, roots and insects, which is why our species made everything possible to develop, over the years, a technology that would allow them to get food, which was scarce, make it available, safe, transportable and with storage capacity for times of need. (1) The first technological transformation appeared 2 million years B. C. in the Paleolithic where stone tools for hunting and preparing food in addition to fire for cooking dominated our food culture over 95 % of our existence as a human species. The transformation produced a large increase in the quality and diversity of the diet (e.g., large animals, tubers, nuts) and was accompanied by the development of a larger brain and the appearance of the Homo sapiens. Only about 12000 years B.C., with the domestication of cereals (wheat, rice, maize) and animals (cattle) the Agricultural Revolution started, leading to a huge increase in the available calories and consequently to a massive expansion of human population and the beginning of civilization. But due to protein and micronutrient deficiencies it also introduced famines and diseases, which led to several centimeters height reduction in the transition from the nomadic hunter –gatherer to the sedentary agricultural-village lifestyle. Finally, barely 200 years ago, in the 19th century, the third revolution in food technology took place allowing mass production of concentrated sugars and refined flours, initiating a period that could be referred to as based on food commodities. In the last 50 years a new revolution appeared with the emergence and fast acceptance of highly processed foods, which resemble natural food but actually represent a new radical creation, so that they should not be referred to as food commodities but as real industrial products by food companies . The vast variety of highly processed products found on the market today originate from the extreme chemical and mechanical handling of three vegetable species corn, wheat and soyand from animals fed with these food commodities, which transformed the diversity of species with which we fed to the monotonous variety of industrial products of our current diet. During food processing water removal facilitates the extension of the product s shelf life and lowers transportation cost, but, in turn, it increases the amount of calories per bite of food. As people regulate food intake more by volume than by calories, in the long-term regular food energy density is directly related to body weight and inversely related to diet quality. High energy density diets promote overconsumption, especially in the context of oversized portion promotion, because the brain loses the ability to use internal mechanisms of satiety in the modern food environment. Highly processed products are concentrated in calories but deficient in fiber, micronutrients and phytochemicals, plant substances that may facilitate some of the protective effects of vegetables and fruits against diabetes, heart disease and cancer. A serving of 238 grams and 90 kcal of strawberries has 5 grams of fiber, a significant amount of various vitamins and minerals and dozens of phytochemicals, whereas a ten times lower serving, 23.8 grams, of Strawberry Fruit Gushers Splash has also 90 kcal, but only a negligible amount of strawberries, possibly for marketing purposes, and virtually none of the beneficial constituents of fresh strawberries. (1) We should note that highly processed food puts its emphasis in sugar, salt and fat because products are seasoned with an intense taste, often facilitated by artificial ingredients which allow bypassing endogenous satiety mechanisms and produce addiction-like behaviors. Observational studies suggest that a diet based on highly processed products from the food industry, such as fast foods, cause excessive weight gain and chronic disease. Food processing is a fundamental aspect of human culture and industrial methods are needed to supply the nourishment of a world population now exceeding 7 billion people. The current problem is that an unhealthy dietary pattern has been created based on a manufactured, durable, highly palatable diet, aggressively presented on the market , ready to eat or by simple heating, composed of highly processed, cheap ingredients and additives. A more adequate use of technology motivated by long-term individual and public health needs, and not by the short-term economic considerations of food industries is required.