Serious Health Mistakes

1. Skipping Breakfast

Breakfast is too important a meal to pass up in the morning.
As you sleep, your body’s metabolism slows down considerably. When you awake, your body needs food to get your metabolism going again. Skipping breakfast thus results in low energy levels. Although some may try skipping breakfast in an attempt to cut calories and lose weight, they actually tend to eat more throughout the day to compensate and may thus gain more weight.
Sometimes you may skip breakfast due to lack of time, but this is most unwise. Remember that for every activity you will engage in, be it work or school, you need energy. Your body cannot function efficiently without energy. Those who do not eat breakfast also feel fatigued at the end of each day and always need pain killers to relieve the headache.
Studies have shown that children who don’t eat breakfast do not perform well in school, are less capable of handling complex mathematics, are irritable and will generally be slower in class. This not only applies to children but to adults as well.
If you made the mistake of having a heavy lunch, then a tug of war ensues, with the stomach on one end and the brain on the other. The bulk of the blood supply is diverted to the stomach, with very little to the brain. When the stomach wins, you sleep.
Studies have also shown that eating breakfast increases your ability to perform better mentally.

OBESITY

Body Mass Index

One is said to be obese if their body weight is in excess of the ideal body weight by more than 20%, or if their Body Mass Index score (BMI) exceeds 30Kg/m2. [BMI = weight (kg)/ height (m) x height (m)].
Obesity is a chronic disease like hypertension and diabetes, which can and should be treated. (Chronic – the condition develops with time of improper life style).
Obesity usually occurs as a result of unhealthy eating behavior coupled with a sedentary lifestyle.




    
Consequently, obesity is the imbalance between energy intake and energy expenditure where
excess energy consumed is stored as fat.

Obese people have excess body fat to the extent that health may be impaired.

Waist circumference

 

Obesity can also be estimated using waist circumference. The higher the circumference, the higher the risk of getting health problems associated with obesity. You may have a normal BMI as discussed above but if your waist circumference is still high, it means you have Trunkal obesity, which is equally dangerous.

Illustration of Waist Circumference

Male;

• Slight risk: ≥ 94 cm
• High risk: ≥ 102 cm

Female;

• Slight risk: ≥ 80 cm
• High risk: ≥ 88 cm