Woman Psychology, Nutrition and Impact on Environment

A woman has an important role in deciding the nutritional level of the family which further effects society, a young female, she is more conscious about her figure and looks. Later on in life, she dies,emotions feeling during prenatal and postnatal condition and decide the healthiness level of her child. And as a mother, she is the one who develops the right attitude of her children toward the nutrition. She plays a critical role in educating the child about healthy food and to develop young ones taste for a healthy diet. Lack of awareness among woman about the right food may consequence malnutrition population of children which has an impact on the society and environment.

The multibillion-dollar diet industry in our country has focused on what is measurable. That includes everything from cm, inches, and pounds to calories, to morality, which informs us how foods are good or bad (this week, month or year). This is why weight loss strategies in our current culture impact on woman psychology and direct her to : eat this, count your calories, don’t eat carbs, don’t eat fat, don’t eat sugar, eat protein is in, more green is always better, track your progress, check your inches etc.

It's quite visible in the “fit is the new skinny” and cross-fit models of fitness and body image. It’s intense, calculated, dynamic, and usually ruggedly physical. This approach works for many females, but it does not work for all – in fact, the group that seems to have the hardest time in reducing the weight with these types of strategies is, well, women. It is better if women to step into a more “feminine,” right-brained approach to their relationship with food. This is a powerful consideration for many females who want to end the painful cycle of diet, deprivation, and defeat. So need to Transform Your Relationship with Food™. That means more with feelings, emotions, intuition and even dreams. This is a feminine approach which means creating a positive relationship with food versus a dominant or measured interaction. This relationship builds on respect, listening, honor, and enjoyment, happiness versus restriction, managing numbers, and iron-willed discipline. It’s about learning how your brain and body actually eat food. Women can a relationship with food by the steps and can teach to their children

1. Slow down and cherishing your food: it is the first step in creating a positive relationship with our body because it creates a space of awareness. When we rush in our meal or push ourselves to do the next thing on our list we can not able to notice what truly nourishes us. when we eat slowly, our appetite is naturally regulated – our digestion is empowered through the physiologic relaxation response, and we can actually enjoy and assimilate what we eat – without hungering for more.

2. Honoring our body

To honor our body means to listen to its signals, means listening to our needs and desires We should sleep when we are tired. Honoring our body is working in partnership with our body, versus overriding its messages, and making it conform to external expectations. It means adding in with some real-life superfoods.

3. Permission to the body to experience pleasure

There is great power in pleasure. Allowing ourselves to experience true pleasure moves our body into a relaxation state. When we are in a relaxation state we support our metabolism, immune system and digestion.

The three steps are intertwined and feed into each other – creating a flow that allows us to listen to our own deep inner wisdom – and this gives our heart and mind to work together to fulfill psychological as well as energy need of the body.

There is one short story of Alice 30-year-old female, got divorced and lose the weight without changing anything she ate. … by Sarris J, et al. Lancet Psychiatry. 2015

Sarris noticed that she had “disowned” her body and had cast out any sense of pleasure and fun. She hadn’t been touched or massaged in 6 years. She went to the gym but hated exercise machines. She ate her meals quickly and didn’t really feel “nourished” by food. She dressed in clothing that was outdated and unflattering. And she complained about how she couldn’t feel comfortable in her own skin.

The strategy that she uses with weight loss clients like Alice is very simple – let’s achieve all the results that Alice expect in the end as a result of weight loss, in the beginning. Meaning, it was time to love your body right now. It was time to receive pleasure now. It was time to be the deal with by now. Then and only then could lasting weight loss be possible. How could we treat the body with punishing exercise, a flaccid diet, negative self-talk, and constant unlove – and expect to be happy at the end of it all?

So, I coached Alice in baby steps. Start getting some touch. Pay for a regular massage. Slow down with food. Eat in with some sensuousness and appreciation. Buy some fabulous new clothes. Give up exercise machines and take the dance class you’ve always been interested in. Pamper yourself more. Show your body some love.

Needless to say, this was all groundbreaking for Alice. And she embraced it with anticipation, and a nervous excitement. After a number of months exploring these different voices within her, making some peace, and integrating her past with more insight and compassion, after 6 months of working together, Alice was truly enjoying the food. She wasn’t in dieting consciousness, she wasn’t doing punishing and boring exercise, she had “reclaimed” her sensuality through touch and beauty care and dance, she was going on dates with different men, and she was falling in love with her body. But here’s the real eye-opener – she lost 25 lbs. The weight came off gradually and without any dieting whatsoever. In so many ways, Alice had simply re-birthed herself as a woman.

Of course, if we continue to look at weight as if it’s exclusively a bunch of ugly invasive body fat that we need to hate and attack, then we will continue to battle with it, and wonder why we keep losing. It’s time to let go of the fight altogether, and dive deeper into our humanity, and into our metabolism that is influenced by more than mere calories and exercise.

This is just one example, one story of the profound connections between our relationship with food, weight, pleasure, and sex. There are plenty more connections and magical ways that the body can heal and transform and shape-shift once we begin to see weight as more than just “calories in, calories out.”

The human body is profoundly complex and deeply impacted by the soul inhabiting it. Nutritional medicine as mainstream in psychiatry, Prenatal and postnatal mood of woman and effect on child development

Some researches have indicated that the women’s’ antenatal mood is a marker for qualities in the postnatal environment that affect child development cannot be ruled out. data suggest that there are known pathways for the familial transmission of risk for mental illness, genetics, environment, and gene X environment interactions, there is another possibility: that some of the risks are conferred prenatally via changes in women’s mood–based physiology affecting fetal neurobehavioral development.

Adequate nutrition is very important beginning in the prenatal period (probably earlier) and extending through childhood is essential for children’s health and development. Advancement in development of neuroscience has documented not only the impacts that nutritional deficiencies can have on brain structure, functioning, and behavior but also the impacts (positive and negative) that environmental interactions and opportunities can have. So our understanding of how nutrition is related to children’s development now extends beyond calories and proteins to include the essential roles that micronutrients have on brain development and functioning, and ultimately on children’s cognitive and socio-emotional development. Collaborations between psychologists and nutritionists have strengthened and models linking nutrition and child development and family and environmental conditions that children require both healthy nutrition and an interactive, responsive social environment to facilitate early development.

Studies have shown that toxins have direct effects on the processes of neurogenesis, neuronal migration, cellular differentiation and synaptic refinement that are occurring during the prenatal period, there also is evidence for the interaction between these types of prenatal exposures and maternal psychosocial health. Risk of developmental delay in children exposed prenatally to tobacco smoke has been found to be much greater among those infants whose mothers also experienced material hardship during pregnancy[3]

The prenatal period is a critical time for neurodevelopment and is thus a period of vulnerability during which a range of exposures have been found to exert long-term changes on brain development and behavior with implications for physical and psychiatric health. For example, maternal consumption of essential fatty acids during pregnancy is linked to lower birth weight and decrements in cognitive and motor function, while fetal exposure to PCBs and methylmercury, via seafood in women’s diet, is linked to neurocognitive deficits [3].

Deficiency in many micro– and macronutrients, such as folate and/or overall calorie nutrition could directly alter brain development or 2) maternal stress, secondary to famine, could have neurotoxic effects on brain regions relevant to mental illness. Though these mechanisms are not mutually exclusive and could both contribute to the increased risk of psychopathology observed in these studies, there are extensive studies on prenatal stress in animals that provide support for the latter interpretation and largely rule out genetic factors for the prenatal stress effects [5].

Clinical studies link pregnant women’s exposure to a range of traumatic, as well as chronic and common life stressors (i.e., bereavement, daily hassles, and earthquake), to significant alterations in children’s neurodevelopment, including increased risk for mixed-handedness, autism, affective disorders, and reduced cognitive ability[6]

More recently, maternal antenatal anxiety and/or depression have been shown to predict increased risk for neurodevelopmental disorders in children and to confer risk for future mental illness. Reports show that elevated levels of antenatal depression and anxiety are associated with poor emotional adjustment in young children [7]

The impact of women’s anxiety (and/or depression) during pregnancy has been found to extend into childhood and adolescence, as well as to affect the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, predicting attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms in 8–9 year old children [8]as well as alterations in HPA axis activation in 4 month olds in our laboratory

Even Maternal depression is a risk factor for cognitive and socio-development in children. Maternal depression mainly occurs after the baby birth in women. It can be mainly due to the etiological factors such as Poverty, Marital Conflict, lack of natural resources. The postpartum disorder is a serious illness beginning with hallucinations, illusions, and impairment in functioning. The association of maternal behavior, depression and child outcomes is complex. Research suggests that poor Maternal health may be a risk factor among the young children that may affect in their later life.

Studies conducted in developing countries have shown that children of mothers with depressive disorders have increased the risk of poor growth and delays in cognitive development and exploratory behavior. Depression, recognized as a principal source of disability throughout the world, has been associated with micronutrient deficiencies, including iron, zinc, polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), and vitamins B-6, B-12, C, D, and E. In March 2009, the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, published a special issue, entitled Maternal and Child Mental Health: Role of Nutrition, edited by a psychologist (MMB) and a nutritionist (Usha Ramakrishnan, Ph.D.).

Woman role as a motivator for the right nutrition for a child

Nutrition education has three essential components: a motivational phase, an action phase, and an environmental component (Contento, 2008). A good and correct nutrition is very important for young people because they are at the age when it is essential to have enough nutrients for a healthy body and brain development. But children prefer to eat sweets or fast food rather than healthy food.Healthy Food equals eating natural products which ensure sufficient nutrients and a balanced caloric Mother can important role in cultivating children's tastes for good nutrients.

Nutrition is very important for a healthy body and mind. To identify what is essential for children, to know about right nutrition. many nutrition factors count, such as 1. The motivation of young people for a healthy diet; the Knowledge child possess about right nutrition and their attitudes for a healthy lifestyle. It is known that the mother can influence the development of her children’s behavioral skills. The success of achieving a right nutrition depends on parents’ attitude towards food because it is necessary to make smart decisions about what children should eat and apply them in real life.

Mother and children’s education on healthy food is something that in our culture and society does not get enough attention. It is very important for women to educate her young children’s behavior to consume natural foods, vegetables, fruits and to change their preference for fast food or sweets.

In 2009, the Responsive Feeding and Care for Growth and Development Consortium was formed to focus on how caregiver or mother-child interactions are related to the development of healthy eating patterns. The concept of responsive feeding has origins in Baumrind’s theory of parenting styles, as applied to caregiver-child interactions during feeding. Although the provision of healthy, micronutrient-rich food is essential, children’s growth is also influenced by responsive feeding, defined by the context in which feeding occurs, the interaction between the caregiver and child (particularly in response to food refusals), and the promotion of children’s autonomy. These concepts have been applied to situations where children experience aberrant growth – both undernutrition and overweight. In both situations, principles of responsive feeding, parenting, and early child development, together with nutrient intake, play primary roles in facilitating healthy mealtime behavior and growth.

Around 90% of the world’s children under 5 years of age live in developing countries are undernutrition. Undernutrition is a major problem that begins early in life with high rates of low-birth-weight (approximately 25% in some Asian and African countries) and causes the death of almost 10 million children annually. Appalling as these figures are, recent evidence has shown that over 200 million children under 5 years of age in developing countries are not reaching their developmental potential, largely due to chronic undernutrition so effect their early learning opportunities. Undernutrition affects not only body development but also the brain development of the child. So children do not adequate preparation for school, millions of young children are at risk for poor academic performance and behavioral problems, potentially resulting in poor economic productivity and increased risk for psychopathology – conditions that undermine the well-being of adults and ultimately jeopardize the human capital of families and entire societies.

Nutrition research provides information on how environmental degradation can lead to major nutrition-related health problems such as malnutrition, infectious disease, contamination etc..

Malnutrition and micronutrient deficiencies. Diabetes and coronary heart disease that is caused by reduced intake of nutrients and non-nutrients as increased reliance on processed foods or a narrow species base by industrial societies and urban populations. Major public health problems of global importance such as tuberculosis, gastrointestinal diseases, measles, and respiratory disease all due to the interaction of nutritional and environmental factor.

Environmental pollution from industrial and agricultural chemicals such as heavy metals, organochlorines, and radionucleotides may compromise people’s nutritional status and health either directly or through changes in diet. Chemicals like Herbicides and pesticides cultivated food may make them unfit for consumption.

Persistent organic pollutants (POPS) transported in the atmosphere can have adverse effects on traditional food systems far removed from major sites of pesticide use. Environmentalist and nutritionist suggest that vegetarian diet has a less bad impact on the environment than nonvegetarian diet

Most estimates claim that between 1,800 and 2,500 gallons of water go into producing each pound of beef. Beef production includes everything from providing water to the cattle to watering fields to produce grain for the cattle to eat. According to The Sierra Club, that same amount of water “could produce 16 pounds of broccoli, 25 pounds of potatoes, enough soybeans for three pounds of tofu or enough wheat for nearly five pounds of whole wheat bread.”

Not only does producing beef use a lot of water, but it also has the potential to contaminate our waterways. According to the Government Accountability Office, an estimated 1.6 million tons of animal waste is created in the U.S. alone and this waste creates unsafe levels of antibiotics, phosphorus, nitrogen and other things in our soil and drinking water.

Undernutrition and malnutrition not only because of the economic cause but keeping the not right attitude and taste toward food by children as Many studies have shown that when young people tested, consumption of fruits and vegetables is low, in many cases once or twice per day. This result led to the conclusion that healthy foods do not play a central role in their diet, they prefer to consume chips, sweets, roasted meat or fast food. Given this situation, in a few years, childhood obesity rates could rise alarmingly. Blom-Hoffman et al. implemented a „program focused on increasing fruit and vegetable knowledge and vegetable consumption during school lunch”; a similar program may be necessary for our country too (BlomHoffman et al., 2004). About similar “Age effects”- most children, teenagers and young people are tempted to eat a lot of sweets and fast food, which results in increasing rates of obesity in the young population. The studies performed by Abbot et al. in 2009, confirm our hypotheses of unhealthy eating habits in the young generations and not enough knowledge about food safety (Abbot et al., 2009).

It is important that mothers should be educated and She should do discussions with children, young people for correct nutrition, they are provided with new information that will prove useful in daily life. The health of the population of any country can be maintained only if our young generation increases the consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables, rather than canned food, to which sweeteners, coloring agents, and preservatives have been added. Moreover, the study emphasized the necessity of changing the eating habits of children and young people.