Good health is essential for a driver - your job (and your life) depend on it.
We are what we eat and so our general health is completely dependent on us getting enough - but not too much - of certain basic ingredients. many of the ailments of the Western world are caused by eating too much of the wrong types of food, and unfortunately the effects of this are not felt immediately but tend to accumulate over a long period. This is why starting out with good eating habits as early as possible is vital.
Leaving aside vitamins and trace elements, the important constituents (good and bad) in our diets are:
These are present in meats, eggs, fish, nuts, beans and dairy produce. they contain what is called 'amino acids'; these are not only broken down to give us energy but they are also essential for building bones and muscles, and helping these to heal if they are damaged. They help towards creating enzymes which enable us to digest our food, and to make the essential new cells in our body to replace those that are constantly in need of replacement.
In short, protein is absolutely essential to general health. Unfortunately the body cannot store it, and so it is important for us all to eat enough of it every day.
These are also part of a healthy diet and they provide us with the glucose which normally provides the majority of the energy we use up. Unfortunately, though, there are good carbohydrates and bad ones. Healthy ones such as most non-root vegetables, fruits, and whole grains contain essential vitamins and trace elements, as well as a good amount of fibre.
Bad carbohydrates, however, are highly processed foods which make up much of the bulk of 'convenience meals'; and the ones that we need to avoid as much as possible are sugars, hydrogenated fats, and white bread, which has been so highly refined as to remove most of the goodness from it!
Rice is a staple carbohydrate for many people but the brown unrefined variety is far better for health than the more commonly used polished white rice. This is because the brown rice has on its surface essential fibres and vitamins, but by polishing the rice all that is left is practically pure carbohydrate which, although it can be useful in a diet, cannot deliver everything that the body needs to remain healthy.
However, white rice cooks far more quickly than brown rice, which is important amongst people who are short of fuel (or, indeed, time to cook food properly). This is a direct cause of much under-nourishment.
We absolutely have to have it because it is essential to assist in carrying nutrients through our bodily fluids, and without it our nerves would simply cease to function and our muscles (including the most important one, the heart) would not receive the necessary stimuli from the brain and so they wouldn't work anymore!
Salt is being constantly lost by the body through excretion from the bowels and by perspiration, which means that it needs to be constantly renewed. Unfortunately, though, most of us consume far too much of it, and this can lead to thickening of the blood and subsequently an increase in blood pressure, which in turn can cause heart attacks and strokes. It is fairly easy for us to moderate our intake of salt when we are cooking fresh food ourselves, but there is no way that we can know how much of it is in those sausages, tinned beans, beef burgers or convenience foods that we are so fond of. Often manufacturers use far too much of it, not only to enhance the flavour of the product but also to act as a preservative, so too much reliance on these foodstuffs can, without any exaggeration, be dangerous for our health.
This is a carbohydrate, but unlike other forms it doesn't break down to provide us with energy but instead most of it passes straight through our bodies into our large intestines. On the debit side it can produce unpleasant gases (you know what I mean) but it also helps to keep our digestive system healthy and operating properly. Not only is it an aid to preventing constipation but there is also some evidence that it helps to protect against heart disease, strokes, diabetes, and cancers of the bowel.
Fibre is found in plant-based foodstuffs such as pulses, beans, oats, wheat, fruit, vegetables, oats, and seeds. Wholegrain bread, breakfast cereals, brown rice and the skins of potatoes (how many people peel these off just to eat the far less healthy potato itself).
These generally get a bad press but again there are good ones and bad ones. Good fats (unsaturated ones) are essential for a healthy diet because they contain complex compounds that the body requires and, not least of all, they help us to absorb vitamins such as A, D and E which are fat soluble but do not dissolve in water. However, just like proteins and carbohydrates, any fat that we eat to excess is not used up to make energy but gets deposited as body fat. So, we put on weight and our hearts and lungs have more work to do to pump enough blood and oxygen around our bodies to keep us functioning.
Saturated fats are present in certain plant based foodstuffs, such as palm oil, which is the most widely used vegetable oil on earth; and animal sources including dairy products. There tends to be high quantities of saturated fats in products such as pies and sausages, savoury snacks, biscuits, cakes, and hard cheeses. The problem with saturated fats is that they are said to increase our bad cholesterol levels which can clog up our arteries, causing heart attacks and strokes.
Unsaturated fats are actually claimed to help create good cholesterol, which lowers the level of the bad variety! These can be found in oily fish such as trout, mackerel, sardines, and herring (your breakfast kipper is actually a smoked herring), sunflower oil, rapeseed oil, and corn oil. Unfortunately food manufacturers tend not to use these oils, preferring the palm oil which is cheaper. This is another good reason for you to make sure you cook all your own food from fresh ingredients and leave anything which has being manufactured on the supermarket shelf.
Our bodies absolutely need glucose, which is a form of sugar, because it is the main food source for the cells of our body. However a healthy body produces enough already, from the breakdown of fats, carbohydrates and proteins. A certain amount can be stored in the liver, where it is available for release if the amount of circulating glucose falls. Insulin, which is produced by the pancreas, regulates the amount of glucose that the liver releases.
The sugar products that we consume contain negligible quantities of necessary minerals or vitamins but they do provide calories. Once those calories have been burnt off and the liver has replenished it's stock the surplus glucose is deposited as body fat. Consuming too much fat therefore leads to obesity, which is a primary cause of heart disease and type II diabetes. There are a number of experts who believe that high levels of sugar itself can prevent the pancreas from creating insulin, and that it is at least partly a cause of type II diabetes, but this is a complex matter and still not fully understood.
However; the fact remains that too much sugar can (a) lead to an increase in glucose levels, creating extra energy, but when this falls the body can suffer from an energy deficit until the pancreas takes over and releases more from the liver; and (b) it can make us fat (apart from rotting our teeth).
Sugars naturally occur in many fruits; adding it to our diet is of no benefit whatsoever to our health, but it can be a huge disadvantage. To many people however it tastes good, which is why so many food manufacturers pack it into their products.
Many drivers eat snacks whilst on the move, since they have schedules to keep to and they are reluctant to stop unless it is absolutely necessary. This is undesirable from the point of view of maintaining a decent weight but it can also affect your concentration. It is far better to have balance meals to eat regularly, and since it is also essential for you to have regular rest breaks you should fit in these meals at the same time.
Hunger can be very distracting which is why foodstuffs containing sugar should be avoided; this gives an immediate boost to your energy levels which then dies off rather quickly, leaving you feeling peckish. Protein-based foods such as cheese, fish, eggs, meat and beans digest slowly and you therefore have the benefit of them over a longer period.
Meals should be light and regular, particularly when driving at night since heavy meals can make you drowsy and lower your reaction times. You should choose easily digestible foods; salads, wholemeal bread, pasta, vegetables and dairy products are suitable. Highly spiced foods such as curries are not a good idea since you are unlikely to be as alert as you should be after eating one, and they can also prevent you from sleeping properly.
Foods containing a lot of sugar should be avoided completely if possible because of the dip in your energy levels that you will probably experience later.
If you do have to snack, then fruit and vegetables are far preferable to processed foods since they again metabolise slowly providing you with energy over a longer period.