Food and Happiness - Lemma Koubaytari

 

The chemistry of happiness is simple and complicated at the same time. Philosophers have thought deeply about this topic throughout the history. Everyone has his own view (or views), with no global agreement or consensus. I am not an exception in that regard. I tried to exercise my own philosophy for happiness and have my own thoughts. let me share a brief summary of what does happiness mean to me in the next upcoming lines. 

 

To be in a good state of health from physical and psychological standpoint, along with your beloved ones, is what make you feel and be happy. Now, let’s focus on the first part of the equation. How can we be healthy? Let’s ask this question in a different way, what can make us be unhealthy so we can avoid it? This is a very broad and important question, but let’s tackle it in sort of a simple way. Etiologies of “poor health” can be divided into two categories, modifiable and unmodifiable. For instance, we do not get to choose our genes. There are many hereditary diseases that when we have them, we cannot really avoid them. In addition, some health issues are more dominant in specific gender. In general, autoimmune diseases (when somebody’s own immunity system attacks his or her body) are more dominant in females. So, what about modifiable factors? Some of those are very well known and, at times, there is no disagreement upon them. Smoking is an obvious example. No one in our times deny the bad consequences of smoking on the health. Smoking is strongly linked to malignant tumors, such as lung cancer. Our diet is another critical example of what could potentially make us healthy or unhealthy (happy or unhappy).

 

Our body organs work in an amazing way to keep us functioning well. Each one of the cells we have requires fuel (and oxygen) to continue to perform its job in a perfect manner. The nutrients we get with our diet are divided into macro- and micro-nutrients. Macronutrients consist of carbohydrates, fats, and proteins. On the other hand, micronutrients include vitamins and minerals. The diet we consume has to be balanced in order to fulfill all those cells’ needs. Any imbalance in what we eat can lead to health problems. That includes both, under-consuming and over-consuming certain nutrients. This crucial idea can be more clarified with few examples. 

 

Diet that depends mainly on carbohydrates and fat inevitably leads to obesity. This is a very serious and, unfortunately, extremely common medical condition, especially in the United States of America. High blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol, heart attacks, and strokes are all linked to obesity and high carbohydrate and fat content in the diet. In addition, lack of fresh, green vegetables consumption can lead to vitamin deficiencies. Our bodies have countless chemical reactions that occur around the clock. Those reactions need “facilitators” called enzymes, which cannot function appropriately without the essential vitamins and minerals. Furthermore, over-consuming animal proteins, such as meat, can cause elevated levels of uric acid (a metabolite results from purines breakdown, which in turn contained in animal protein) in the blood. High uric acid levels can trigger gout, a medical condition caused excruciating joint pain, especially in the feet.

 

Food is a source of happiness in two ways. First, with appropriate healthy choices, people can live longer, while enjoying their physical and mental strength and independency. Second, tasty food, without any doubt, is so pleasurable, especially when we share our healthy meals with the ones we care about and love