Published 4:34pm Saturday, June 2, 2012

Are nutrition and health related? Is healthy eating important? Of course.

Like a finely-tuned racing car, your body needs the right fuel (food) and regular maintenance (exercise, lifestyle and mental attitude) to achieve its true health potential. Nothing is more important than healthy eating. Put in the wrong fuel or let it go without regular use and theres no way it can deliver its full power and performance. Without healthy eating, your bodys engine will cough, splutter and eventually stall.

The importance of good nutrition to achieve optimal health is unquestionable. The importance of good nutrition is central to maintain good health in a dilapidated environment, fight off disease, correct imbalances in the body and provide energy and enthusiasm for life. Optimum health is linked to the importance of good nutrition.

But, the point is that the importance of good nutrition is linked to ones capability to get the proper nutrients from food.

Nowadays, industrial food marketed in the food chain are filled with additives which affect the quality of food. In order to value the importance of good nutrition, natural supplements like vitamins and minerals have to be added to the diet.

Each year, the average American eats 12 pounds of food additives and a gallon of pesticides, not to mention all the air-born pollutants that are inhaled. Its no wonder our bodies are overworked, overburdened, and no longer able to adequately eliminate all these foreign substances. Diet-related diseases include, but are not limited to, coronary heart disease, hypertension, stroke, diabetes, various cancers and osteoporosis. These diseases take the lives of millions of people each year and cost billions of dollars in health care.

On Wednesday, Tianna Bechly, RD LD, Clinical Dietitian for Mayo Clinic Health System-Austin will be with us at 1 p.m. to discuss the New myPlate Diagram, Healthy Eating Tips, Healthy Snack Ideas, Easy Exercise Ideas, and then finish with a general Q&A session.

To sign up for this informative class please call or stop by the front desk at the senior center everyone is welcome. Call 433-2370 ext. 3.

Monday: Blood pressure, 9 a.m.; cards (Pinochle, Duplicate Bridge), 12:30 p.m.; Exercise with Evie, 1 p.m.; Zumba, 5:30 p.m.; Zumba, 7 p.m.

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