Nutrition And Your Health, Understanding Nutrition

NUTRITION AND YOUR HEALTH

Let’s explore the Importance of Good Nutrition. Good nutrition enhances your quality of life and helps prevent disease. It provides you with the calories and nutrients your body needs for maximum energy, health and wellness. Calories, are units of heat that measure the energy used by the body and the energy that foods supply to the body.

CALORIES is energy that supplies your body fuel for everything you do, from exercising and playing sports to doing your homework and talking with friends and every other usual activities.

NUTRIENTS are substances in food that your body needs to grow, to repair itself, and to supply you with energy. Making healthy food choices will provide your body with the nutrients it needs to help you look your best and perform at your peak.

WHY DO YOU CHOOSE TO EAT THE KIND OF FOOD YOU EAT?

Have you ever wondered why you choose the foods you do? Taste, of course, plays an important part in your choice of foods. You probably won't eat a food--even if you know it's healthful--if you don't like the taste.

To gain insight into your eating habits, it's important to understand the difference between your
physical need for food and your psychological desire for food -- Note the difference between hunger and appetite. (Your real need for food and your psychological desire for food) Distinguishing between the two can help you make more healthful food choices.

HUNGER AND APPETITE
Hunger is an inborn response, is a natural physical drive that protects you from starvation.  When your stomach is empty, its walls contract, stimulating nerve endings. The nerves signal your brain that your body needs food. When you eat, the walls of the stomach are stretched and the nerve endings are no longer
stimulated. You have satisfied your physical need for food. The physical need for food isn't the only reason people eat. People also eat in response to a familiar sensation--for example, the aroma of freshly baked bread? In such cases you are eating in response to appetite rather than hunger.

HUNGER is a desire, rather than a need, to eat. Whether you are responding to hunger or to appetite when you eat, many factors influence your food choices and eating habits, including your emotions and a number of factors in your environment.

GOOD NUTRITION INCREASES THE QUALITY OF YOUR HEALTH, LIFE AND HAPPINESS
Good nutrition is essential for health throughout life but particularly during adolescence--one of the fastest periods of growth you'll experience. Healthful eating provides you with the nutrients you need for growth and development, gives you energy for your activities, enables you to stay mentally alert, and helps you feel good and look your best.

EAT FOR HEALTH

A healthful and balanced eating plan also helps prevent unhealthful weight gain, obesity, and type 2 diabetes-- Making healthful food choices now also lowers your risk of developing many life-threatening diseases. These conditions include heart disease, stroke, cancers, high blood pressure, and osteoporosis, etc.

SURVIVAL
To survive, the human body needs the nutrients found in what they eat as food.

NUTRIENT CLASSIFICATION
These nutrients are classified into six groups: carbohydrates, proteins, fats, vitamins, minerals, and water.

Each plays a unique part in maintaining the normal growth and functioning of your body. Together, they are essential to your overall health and wellness.

1. CARBOHYDRATES
Do you like rice, corn, oats, millet, yam, beans, potatoes, pasta, and bread? These foods are rich in carbohydrates.

Carbohydrates are the starches and sugars present in foods. Made up of carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen, carbohydrates are the body's preferred source of energy, providing four calories per gram. Your body uses energy from carbohydrates to perform every task, including sitting and reading the words on this page.

Depending on their chemical makeup, carbohydrates are classified as either simple or complex carbohydrates. Most nutritionists recommend that 55 to 60 percent of your daily calories should come from complex carbohydrates.

COMPLEX AND SIMPLE CARBOHYDRATE
Simple carbohydrates are sugars, such as fructose and lactose are sugar (found in fruit and milk, respectively). Simple carbohydrate sucrose, occurs naturally in many plants, such as sugarcane and sugar beets, and is refined to make table sugar. Sugars are added to many manufactured food products.

Complex Carbohydrates, are starches, that are found in whole grains, seeds, nuts, legumes (dried peas and beans), and tubers (root vegetables such as potatoes and yam). The body must break down complex carbohydrates into simple carbohydrates before it can use them for energy.

THE WORK OF CARBOHYDRATES
Your body converts all carbohydrates to glucose, a simple sugar that is the body's main source of energy. Glucose that your body does not use right away is stored in the liver and muscles as a starch-like substance called glycogen (GLI-coh-jen).

When more energy is needed, your body converts the glycogen back to glucose. However, it's possible to take in more carbohydrates than your body can use right away or can store as glycogen. When this happens, your body converts and stores the excess carbohydrates as body fat. You can avoid consuming excess carbohydrates by learning how to make Right food choices and maintaining healthful eating habits.

FIBER
Fiber is an indigestible complex carbohydrate that is found in the tough, stringy parts of vegetables, fruits, and whole grains. Fiber helps in cleaning the colon and that is why all plant foods contains fiber, although it can't be digested and used as energy, fiber helps move waste through the digestive system and thereby helps prevent intestinal problems such as constipation. 

Eating enough fiber throughout your life may promote health by reducing your risk of heart disease. Some types of fiber have also been shown to help control diabetes by reducing blood glucose levels.

To stay healthy, you need to eat (daily) 1 gram of fiber for every 5 lbs. you weigh. Fruits and vegetables with edible skins and whole-grain products such as bran cereals, oatmeal, and brown rice, corn, millet, and wheat are excellent sources of fiber.

PROTEINS
A vital part of every cell in your body, are nutrients that help build and maintain body cells and tissues. Proteins are made of long chains of substances called amino acids. Your body can manufacture all but 9 of the 20 different amino acids that make up proteins. The 9 that your body can't make are called essential
amino acids--you must get them from the foods you eat.

COMPLETE AND INCOMPLETE PROTEINS

The proteins in food are classified into two groups, complete proteins and incomplete proteins.

Complete Proteins contain adequate amounts of all nine essential amino acids. Good sources of complete proteins are:

• Soybeans
• Quinoa
• Buckwheat
• Rice and Beans
• Ezekiel Bread
• Hummus and Pita Bread

Incomplete Proteins lack one or more of the essential amino acids. Sources include beans, peas, nuts, and whole grains. Consuming a combination of incomplete proteins, for example, rice and beans or peanut butter and bread, is equivalent to consuming a complete protein. You don't have to combine the incomplete proteins in one meal to get this benefit, you just need to eat them both over the course of the day.

THE ROLE OF PROTEINS
Proteins have many functions. During major growth periods, such as infancy, childhood, adolescence, and pregnancy, the body builds new cells and tissues from the amino acids in proteins. Throughout your life your body replaces damaged or worn-out cells by making new ones from protein. The body also uses protein to make enzymes, hormones, and antibodies.

Enzymes are substances that control the rate of chemical reactions in your cells. Hormones regulate the activities of different cells, and antibodies help identify and destroy disease-causing organisms.

Proteins also supply the body with energy, although they are not the body's main energy source. Like carbohydrates, proteins provide four calories per gram and excess protein is converted to body fat.

FATS

Some fat in the diet is necessary for good health. Fats are a type Soft fatty substance that does not dissolve in
water. Fats provide more than twice the energy of carbohydrates or proteins - 9 calories per gram.

The building blocks of fats are called fatty acids, molecules made mostly of long chains of carbon atoms, with pairs of hydrogen atoms and single oxygen atoms attached. Fatty acids that the body needs, but cannot produce, are called essential fatty acids.

Depending on their chemical composition, fatty acids are classified as either saturated or unsaturated. Most fats are a mixture of these two types.

SATURATED AND UNSATURATED FATTY ACIDS

A saturated fatty acid holds all the hydrogen atoms it can. Fats high in saturated fatty acids are usually solid at room temperature. Animal fats and tropical oils--such as palm oil, palm kernel oil, and coconut oil--have a high proportion of saturated fatty acids.

Fats in beef, pork, egg yolks, chicken, fish, meat, dairy foods are higher in saturated fatty acids and can be very harmful to consume, a high intake of saturated fats is associated with an increased risk of heart disease.

Most vegetable fats--including olive, canola (never eat this one as it is very bad), soybean, corn, and cottonseed oils contain a high proportion of unsaturated fatty acids. An unsaturated fatty acid has at least one unsaturated bond, a place where hydrogen can be added to the molecule.

Unsaturated Fats are usually liquids (oils) at room temperature. In contrast to saturated fats, unsaturated fats have been associated with a reduced risk of heart disease.

The Role of Fats
Besides providing a concentrated form of energy, fats are essential for other important health functions. They transport vitamins A, D, E, and K in your blood and serve as sources of linoleic (lih·noh·LAY·ihk) acid, an essential fatty acid that is needed for growth and healthy skin.

Fats also add flavor and texture to food, and, because they take longer to digest than carbohydrates or proteins, they help satisfy hunger longer than other nutrients do. Foods that are high in fats also tend to be high in calories, and consuming excess amounts of fat increases your risk of unhealthful weight gain and obesity. Most nutritionists recommend eating only moderate amounts of fat -- no more than 20- 30 percent of your total daily calorie intake. (I say less)

VITAMINS
Vitamins are compounds that help regulate many vital body processes, including the digestion, absorption, and metabolism of other nutrients.

Vitamins are classified as either water-or fat-soluble. Water-soluble vitamins, dissolve in water and pass easily into the blood during digestion. The body doesn't store these vitamins, so you need to replenish them regularly through the fruits and vegetables you eat.

Fat-soluble vitamins are absorbed, stored, and transported in fat. Your body stores these vitamins in your fatty tissue, liver, and kidneys. Excess buildup of these vitamins in your body can be toxic.

MINERALS
Minerals are substances that the body cannot manufacture but that are needed for forming healthy bones and teeth and for regulating many vital body processes.

WATER
Water is vital to every body function. It transports other nutrients to and carries wastes from your cells. Water also lubricates your joints and mucous membranes. It enables you to swallow and digest foods, absorb other nutrients, and eliminate wastes. Through perspiration, water helps maintain normal body temperature. It's important to drink ½ your body weight plus 16 ounces of water a day to get the proper amount for health. Plain water is the best sources of this nutrient, but fresh lemon may be added per SOP.  Beverages containing caffeine, such as tea, coffee, and soft drinks, are not good choices—they cause you to lose some water through increased urination. Certain foods, such as fruits and vegetables, also contain some water.

No single food provides all the nutrients your body needs. That's why it is so important to eat a balanced variety of nutrient-rich foods each day. There are tools to help you select the most nutritious foods in the appropriate amounts.

BUILD A HEALTHFUL EATING PLAN.

EAT IN THE MORNING – Eating breakfast has many health benefits. It is important to “refuel” your body after not eating for many hours during the night. Breakfast provides the glucose that is the primary energy source for the body and the brain. Starved by ten to twelve hours of fasting during the night, our body has a vital need to recharge its batteries in the morning. That's actually where its name originates, "breaking the fast!"

A good breakfast helps to provide interesting nutrients for our health: enemy, proteins, minerals, micro-nutrients, vitamins and fibers. In the absence of breakfast, there is a tendency to satisfy our hunger with high sugar and fatty snacks during afternoon.

Choose a variety of whole grain products. Most of your daily food choices should be whole grain products. Whole-grain products are rich in complex carbohydrates and fiber, as well as some vitamins and minerals. Examples of whole-grain products include whole-wheat bread, oatmeal, millet, and brown rice, dry beans, corn, etc.

Choose a variety of fruits and vegetables daily. Fruits and vegetables are rich in vitamins and minerals; some are high in fiber. Eating a variety of these foods will keep you healthy and may help protect you from many chronic diseases.  Just do not eat fruit and vegetables at the same meal.

Keep food safe to eat. You can reduce your risk of illness by cooking foods thoroughly, handling food with clean utensils, refrigerating perishable foods, and washing your hands before and after you handle foods. These steps make it less likely that food will cause sickness from harmful organisms and other contaminants. (Fats, Oils, and Sweets and soft drinks and refined products) is not a food group; these products should be consumed sparingly.

WHOLE GRAINS ARE – Wheat, rice, barley, millet, corn, guinea, corns, dry beans, etc. are rich in complex carbohydrates very appropriate in calories and fiber they provides the body and cells energy, about 50-60 percent of your meals should come from whole grains.

Refined Grains and foods such as white bread, pasta, and all other products made from white flour lacks fiber and are inappropriate in simple and complex carbohydrates. They make your blood sugar levels to rise rapidly and cause the pancreas to produce insulin rapidly which can trigger a lot of problems in our system. Refined foods should really not be consumed.

FRUIT – apples, avocados, bell peppers, eggplant, pawpaw, mangoes, oranges, okra,  tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, pineapples, pumpkin, guava, pears, banana, watermelons, lemons, soursop, etc.

They are low in calories and rich in vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and disease preventing properties such as vitamin C, phytochemicals and lots more. You should have 3 pieces of fresh fruit per fruit meal.

VEGETABLES - Cabbages, carrots, beetroots, broccoli, kale, cauliflower, onions, garlic, potatoes, yams, and green leaves, etc.  Vegetables, are low in calories and fats but contain good amounts of vitamins and minerals. Vegetables are rich sources of calcium, magnesium, potassium, iron, beta-carotene, vitamin B-complex, vitamin-C, vitamin-A, and vitamin K. About 50 -60 percent of your foods should come from vegetables.

***Remember to cook COARSE vegetables as eating raw COARSE vegetables and juicing them on a regular basis depletes the body of the necessary minerals to have good health.  

MEAT – is animal flesh and is NOT a good source of protein and SHOULD NEVER BE CONSUMED. You can get all the protein the body needs from fruit, nuts, seeds, grains, and vegetables.

By following a healthy diet rich in whole grains, fruits and vegetables you will notice that you have more energy, a better mood, and an overall improved sense of well-being.

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