The keyword is ‘moderation‘

‘But coffee kills!’, ‘but fast-food is not healthy’, ‘I read that tomatoes hurt your kidneys’

These are few examples of the many arguments you hear people saying. One has to ask: would the cup of coffee kill you if taken once a year? A month? A week? A day? How often is too much? Would decaf coffee have the same effect on you and with the same frequency of use? The questions above apply for fast-food consumption as well.

What we have to understand is that the results of many studies are being misrepresented in the media, mostly for the sake of simplifying the results so that everybody can understand what they mean. I am not arguing that fast food is a healthy diet or calling for consuming coffee 10 times a day, what I am saying is that there is no such thing as black and white: if you consume food “A” then you’ll end with heart disease. If you consume food “B” then you’ll end with kidney problem and food “C” will give you a long healthy life! Wouldn’t life be much easier that way?

There are many factors influence your health, your diet is one important factor, other factors include your genetic build up, your physical activity, your level of stress, etc.

Let me explain: in almost all of the above factors moderation has a very important role in keeping us healthy. Our bodies need meat to supply us with proteins and iron, we eat meat a lot and we end with colon problem, uremic acid and gout problems. Our bodies’ need vitamins, overusing vitamin tabs can get us poisoned with them. Physical activity is extremely useful and studies showed that they help prevent many diseases including heart diseases and some types of cancer, but we do not rush into extreme physical activity or our bodies won’t tolerate and we might suffer some heart issues because we did not simply worked our bodies little by little.

My message is: be cautious of the “this is harmful or this is useful effect”, please do not understand them in abstract form but know that in many instants they mean the effect is related to certain frequency of use and to some specific age group. If you have any doubt please go ahead and inquire from the study authors as what they mean or simply do a more extensive search on the net.

Stay well.