NUTRITION AND PSYCHOLOGY

 

           Nutrition and psychology

                 Mental health is just as important as physical health

INTRODUCTION TO NUTRITION:

Nutrition is an important part of every person from its birth to till its death it plays a critical role. Better nutrition can maintain the healthy life style of the person however this bad nutrition can may lead to many chronic diseases non-communicable diseases like blood pressure, diabetes, heart diseases, hypertension, diabetes and many other long term diseases that can not be cured easily. Overall, good nutrition supports person to stay healthy and live a healthy and enjoyable life style. If a person did not feel well than he can not enjoy the true taste of life. so in general a person must need to used food as a medicine and medicine as a food. A well saying that “it is a health that is real wealth”.

In general nutrition can be defined as

 “ The science of food of food and their components (nutrients and other substances) including the relationships to health and disease (action, interaction and balances), possesses within the body (ingestion, digestion, absorption, transportation, function and disposal of end products from the body) and the social, economic, cultural and psychological implications of eating”    

                                  This definition shows that nutrition is the science of food which means the production, slaughtering, transportation and consumption of food and after that further its ingestion, digestion, transportation and utilization in human body. Relationship to health and disease means that after utilizing food its effect on human body that either the type of food in taking has a good impact in person body or a cause of disease in it. While the social, economic, cultural psychological implications of eating shows the adherence of these disciplines with nutrition.

So in general this definition shows that nutrition interact every part of our life. if we did not choose it wisely than it may have a very adverse effects in our lives.

A nutritionist is a person who studies the science of nutrition.

INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY:

PSYCHOLOGY as the science and academic discipline that is composed of two words “psycho” and “logy”. Psycho means mind and logy means to study so, generally it can be defined as:

 “The scientific study of human mind and behavior”

A psychologist is a person who are involved in the study of psychology including the mental processes, brain functions and behaviors.

As there are many people who feels confusion in two terms psychology and philosophy. These both are distinct disciplines but share the same roots. As both involves the primarily study of human beings. Philosophy studies what the human condition is and psychology studies why the human condition is.

Psychology has four basic goals describe, explain, predict and change.

As psychology is a broad discipline which are further divided into many interdisciplinary subjects which may include:

behavioral psychology, social psychology, research psychology, forensic, neuroscience, industrial and organization psychology.

Now let’s discuss how psychology adhere to nutrition.

ADHERENCE OF PSYCHOLOGY TO NUTRITION:

Adherence means stickiness and faithfulness towards any thing.

As Psychology and Nutrition are both interdisciplinary subjects. Nutrition depicts what to eat and psychology is related to the human behaviors and nutrition psychology describes the relation of food to our behaviors that how food fluctuates our emotions, feelings and behaviors.

Nutrition psychology is an interdisciplinary field which develops a more comprehensive understanding of diet-mental health relationship (DMHR).

Food is the main ingredient that every person requires to live and this food has a direct impact in one person’s behavior. So the selection of food matters a lot. A very well saying that:

             “Food may be essential as a fuel for body but good food is the fuel for soul”

This picture shows the list of some food items which helps a person to get rid of depression and anxiety. Like these foods there are some other foods which are the cause of depression depicted in the picture below.

As there are the majority of people who love to eat junk food and highly processed foods. These foods triggers some of the hormones that has a direct impacts on our nervous system and many other systems of our body starts to work more rapidly than the normal period of their working and a systematic imbalances occur that has an impact on our behaviors. Like the person having highly processed food can easily be depressed and shows anger rapidly. This shows that food has a direct impacts in our emotions. It shows the impact of nutrition to psychology.

There is another case in which depressed person did not feel hungry and has a feeling of fullness. This is what how psychology interacts to nutrition.

For a newborn baby without proper nutrition their cognitive and intellectual abilities cannot be developed properly. Nutrition during this period is considered as the critical in which one person developing its creative abilities. Some children’s did not get proper nutrition during this age period due to which they feel difficulties through out the life.

Therefore, in generalized Nutrition and psychology are interdisciplinary subjects which depends on each other. With proper nutrition and without a psychological disorder a person can feel good and live a happy life.