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The role of food and diets on human health and particularly on body mass, physical activity and human

behaviour and the consequences on the National Health Services cost.


Key words

Diet, food, human health, body mass, chronic diseases, human behaviour, National Health Services, anthropometry, public health, physical activity
Objectives

Quality of life is high dependent on the diet. Nowadays human beings are exposed to a very demanding activity with little time for leisure activities which leads in many cases to stress. Thus it is our objective to launch a discussion on the influence of the effect of diets in the predispose to physical activity and how this can change quality of life and the whole aspects related to quality of life and human behaviour. Recently a colleague (Dr. Helena Moreira) has presented a PhD thesis which content can be sumarized in the following paragraphs: Menopause accelerates decline in muscle mass, which associated with obesity, decreases functional independence of women. Abdominal obesity is, compared to total adiposity, a better predictor of the risk of type II diabetes mellitus, dyslipidemia, coronary heart disease and hypertension. Evaluation of the modification of several compartments of body mass (fat, bone, etc.) and independent effects of internal and subcutaneous abdominal fat mass are essential to understand its relationship with nutritional status and metabolic and cardiovascular disorders. The use of precise methodologies in the appreciation of the amount and distribution of these components and their relationship with anthropometrics procedures, revealed useful instruments in the prediction of abdominal adiposity and another components of body mass, in the validation of non-invasive techniques and in the evaluation of the health risks, facilitating interpretation in the context of public health. The measurement of habitual physical activity and the understanding of its relationship to nutritional and metabolic factors are also important in health promotion and counselling. The aim of this proposal is contribute to a book and another texts materials concerning exercise, body composition and health in postmenopausal women, namely focus on:

the independent effects of age, menopause, general obesity and body fat distribution on the cardiovascular risk factors in a relative large group of Portuguese women; abdominal adiposity predictive equations, based on anthropometrics measures and developed among sedentary women; total and regional body composition changes in women after a periodized physical training; the independent contributions of aerobic exercise training and changes in body composition on the improvement of the metabolic profile and arterial pressure produced by exercise training.

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