What is the role of diet in preventing underweight, overweight, and obesity?

Being underweight, overweight and obese can be traced back to our diet. But how can we prevent each of these through diet? 

Let's take a look at what can be done.

The most important thing to do to prevent underweight, overweight,or obese individuals is get to know them and find out what is going on in their life so that you can correct what is wrong. Then you can assist them with whatever needs they have whether physical, emotional, environmental or something else. Having a proper diet, access to healthy food, learning how to eat, when to eat and what to eat are all very helpful in preventing all three of these conditions.


Underweight: The first thing in preventing this is to find out what the circumstances are. Do you have access to good, healthy nutrient rich food to eat? Do you have any emotional problems that are causing you to be underweight? Are there any physical problems causing you to be underweight such as a disease, maybe cancer? Are you working out to much? Yes you can actually work out to much for your body to stay healthy.

Once the potential cause is established you can find a way to increase the caloric intake of the underweight person, help them find access to programs that can get them the food they need. If it is an emotional or physical issue then you can find them the help that they need in order to fix the cause, not just treat the symptom. You need to bump up the caloric intake if it is shown that the lack of calories is the problem but you need to make sure they are whole foods, full of nutrients to restore the body to health. 

Overweight: The same conditions as above would be a concern such as an emotional or physical issue. It may be that you do not have access to good, healthy food and you are consuming to many empty calories trying to fill up. Do you get exercise? So what is making you overweight? 

If it is emotional or physical you can find sources that can help get these issues under control. If it is a lack of healthy food then finding sources for them is essential. It may mean cutting calories or increasing exercise to balance the intake of calories and the output of energy. By getting this issue taken care of you can avoid the next one.

Obesity: We need to once again ask the same questions, is it emotional, physical or poor choice in food. Are you physically working out or are you unable to? Are there any diseases that could be bringing this to light?

It may be more than diet that is needed to take care of obesity. But educating the individual about proper foods, proper portion sizes, when and why they should eat is a good start. Cutting calories and increasing exercise as tolerated is very important. It may be that surgery, such as gastric bypass, may be needed to get this person to a healthy weight.

For each of the conditions it is vital to get a healthy, wholesome diet started. By eating foods that nourish the body instead of just fill it with empty calories each of these could be reversed.

A healthy lifestyle involves many choices. Among them, choosing a balanced diet or healthy eating plan. So how do you choose a healthy eating plan? Let's begin by defining what a healthy eating plan is.

According to the Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2010, a healthy eating plan:

• Emphasizes fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and fat-free or low-fat milk and milk products
• Includes lean meats, poultry, fish, beans, eggs, and nuts
• Is low in saturated fats, trans fats, cholesterol, salt (sodium), and added sugars
• Stays within your daily calorie needs (CDC, n.d.)

Eat new foods, you may be very pleasantly surprised. Make sure you are burning off the calories that your body isn't using so that you do not put on extra fat.

Reference:

CDC (n.d.) Healthy Eating for a Healthy Weight, Retrieved from: http://www.merckmanuals.com/professional/nutritional_disorders/nutrition_general_considerations/overview_of_nutrition.html?qt=&sc=&alt=