Information and communication technologies, social networking and mass media stream have become efficient instruments to influence and formulate people’s mental and physical health. This paper presents an in-depth analysis of four important aspects and reasons for choosing of healthy diet by people: beauty, mental health, medical treatment and finally, people’s desire to be trendy. There is a number of reasons and justifications of why people opt for any type of the healthy diet and if earlier it was mainly a way of medical treatment and mental health support, nowadays it has become very popular and fashionable to look slim, beautiful and be well-informed about the recent dietary recommendations and trends. As far as the first aspect is concerned, beauty and slim figure have become the primary concerns of young mothers, who indeed need some additional advice and consultation. Healthy diet is the most suitable and optimal in this case, because there is not enough time for going to the gym.
The recent studies of the issue have shown the dramatic growth in the people’s chronicle diseases and the article provided by the World Bank has proven, that more than 90% of diabetes, 70% of stroke, 80% of CAD and 70% of color cancer can be efficiently treated by the combination of healthy diet, moderate alcohol consumption, nonsmoking and avoidance of overweight (Dusenbury, Gaziano, Koplan, Nugent, Puska, Willet 838). It is important for this research to show how different changes in people’s lifestyle can eventually rebuild and totally reorganize their life. It has also become very important to be trendy and always updated. Therefore, many people have found a healthy diet as a way of self-expression. It has been also discovered, that online health systems and programs gain their popularity due to their interactive and therefore amusing profile: they design the steps for the patients, take into account one’s preferences, goal-setting strategies, send motivation and reminder messages and automatically adapt to the improvement of the participant’s habits. In most cases several aspects are combined and people are aware of many advantages a healthy diet can bring.
Analysis of sources
Source 1.
Demeester, Michel; Guillen, Sergio; Hoyo, Eva; Ngo, Joy; Sanna, Alberto. “New technologies
for promoting a healthy diet and active living”. Nutrition Reviews 67 (2009): 107-110. Web. 29 Apr. 2016.
I found this article on the website of Oxford University Press, when typed such keywords as “technology”, “health” and “diet”. I chose it, because it presented a concept of information and communication technologies in general and narrowed down its focus to the promotion of healthy eating habits in the cyberspace. It is credible, because was initially performed in the International Life Science Institute and was developed by the scientists involved in the MyHeart project by the European Commission. It is also a rather objective piece of academic writing, because one does not notice any bias or very subjective opinions about the influence of new technologies on people’s eating habits. The data performed are extremely relevant for my research, because they directly refer to the World Health Organization research. This text serves as a kind of base for my research, because it shows and explains, why a healthy diet should be promoted as such.
Source 2.
Hearn, Lydia; Lester, Leanne; Miller, Margaret. “Reaching Perinatal Women Online: The
Healthy You, Healthy Baby Website and App”. Journal of Obesity (2014): 1-9. Web. 29 Apr. 2016.
The second source is more practical and even represents a kind of advice and suggestions to young mothers, who rely on the Internet sources, when choosing a diet for themselves and their babies. I have found this text, when I entered such key concepts as “diet”, “online”, “health” on the Research Gate website, which consider to be a reliable and easily accessible source. The article has been initially published in the Journal of Obesity and is credible, because the representatives of different Australian schools united their efforts to provide a practical overview of the current situation in this respect. The article has been written in a highly objective tone and it has been emphasized, that the literature review of models and instruments were conducted. I consider it to be a relevant source, because young mothers are the main target group of such blogs, because they usually spend of their free time in front of the computers. This text helps me to analyze another reason for choosing of healthy diet - desire to be beautiful and look slim, even after having born a child.
Source 3.
Stanley, Jonathan. Diet and the effects on emotional wellbeing and mental health. London:
National Children’s Bureau, 2006. Print.
I chose this source to analyze one of the four aspects covered in the paper, namely the impact of healthy diet on one’s mental health and well-being. The National Children’s Bureau in Great Britain has provided this source to show that malnutrition leads to the mental health problems. I found this text, when I typed such keywords as “mental”, “nutrition” and “diet”. It is a peer-reviewed text, that provides sufficient statistical data and therefore can be defined as a credible one. As for its objectivity, it is not fully neutral and non-biased, because company, which supported his study, was the National Children’s Bureau. They have observed the real data and provided a number of case studies to support their point of view. It is a valuable and relevant source, because its empirical part serves as a reliable evidence for the theoretical assumptions.
Source 4.
Dusenbury, Courtenay; Gaziano, Thomas; Koplan, Jeffrey; Nugent, Reachel; Puska, Pekka;
Willet, Walter. “Prevention of Chronic Disease by Means of Diet and Lifestyle Changes”. In Breman, J.; Jamison, D. (ed.) Disease Control Priorities in Developing Countries. Washington (DC): World Bank, (2006): 833-850. Print.
I found this source, when I searched for the information about the impact of healthy diets on the physical health and mainly, progress of diseases. Such keywords as “health”, “diet” and “lifestyle” have helped to find this valuable source, provided by the World Bank. It is credible, because there are various data from different countries, which were officially recorded by the organization. To my mind, this text has been written in a highly objective tone, because during the reading one is able to analyze and take an objective position of an observer. This article shows how a special diet and nutrition can influence people’s lifestyle and moreover, prevent from the development of serious physical diseases. The aspect of treatment has been well analyzed and investigated with the help of this particular text.
Source 5.
Papadaki, Angeliki; Scott, Jane. “The Mediterranean Eating in Scotland Experience project:
evaluation of an Internet-based intervention promoting the Mediterranean diet”. British Journal of Nutrition 94 (2005): 290-298. Web. 29 Apr.2016.
Greek cuisine and Mediterranean diet particularly have become very popular among the Internet users and the article published not by famous stars, but medical experts, is very useful for this research. I found this text, when entered such words as “diet”, “Internet” and “promotion” on the website of the National Center for Biotechnology Information. It is credible, because The University of Glasgow has a high reputation and not fully objective due to its quasi-experimental base. Nevertheless, I consider this source to be reliable for my paper, because it helps to illustrate, whether the data provided by different webpages can be reliable or not. Also, this article helps to reveal an idea of the fourth aspect of healthy diet – people’s desire to be trendy and express themselves through a healthy lifestyle.
