Health and nutrition

HEALTH AND NUTRITION

One can attain good hralth only by taking good nutrition ; What you eat will determine how long you will live, how obese you become, how often you fall sick, how physically fit you are, and a host of other vital factors. Nutritious food also helps you in maintaining your body weight.

Four essential nutrients required by our body are:

1.Carbohydrates

2.Fats

3.Protein and

4.Water

1.Carbohydrates: Carbohydrates are the main form of energy . Your body has the easiest time digesting carbohydrates like starch and sugar. Carbohydrates are broken down into individual fructose, glucose, units and so they are easy to digest.

2.Fats:They are essential for body to perform many corporal functions. Even saturated fats are indispensable because they help in strengthening your immune system and they are also good for liver and lungs and help calcium absorption.

3Proteins: Proteins are the building block your body uses to create new muscles tissues and repair any injured tissues.

4..Water: Water helps in washing out the dangerous toxins that your body takes in, from the air you breathe, the food you eat. Water also cushion the joints of your body. Water also carries oxygen and nutrients into all your cells and also helps in regulating the temperature of your body.

5.Vegetables and Fruits provide maximum Nutrition:

Different colored fruits and vegetables signify different nutrients. So, it is always advised to go for different colored fruits and vegetables to have all the required nutrients. Yellow and orange items typically are high in beta-carotene and dark leafy vegetables are high in Vitamin C. Cooking vegetables in oil also drains the nutrients present in vegetables. So, its always better to go for a quick steam with just a slight bit of water rather than boiling. Remember that it hardly matters how healthy your items are, if you drown them in oil.

6.Vitamins

Following are different tpes of vitamins:

Vitamin B1, Vitamin B2, Vitamin B3, Vitamin B6 ,Vitamin B12

Vitamin C ,Vitamin D ,Vitamin E, Vitamin K

Vitamins are organic substances in food, which are required in small amounts but cannot be synthesized in adequate quantities by the body and therefore have to be provided from the environment.

Contrary to popular belief, deficiencies of vitamins still occur in affluent countries, for example deficiencies of folate, vitamin B and Vitamin D and C.

These are particularly common in people on fad diets, veganand alcoholics.

Deficiency diseases are more prevalent in developing countries.

Following is a brief introduction to vitamins and their sources:

Vitamin A: Retinol. Carotene compounds responsible for transmitting light sensation in the retina of the eye. Deficiency leads to night blindness.

Dietary Sources of Retinol

Liver (richest natural source)

Milk

Butter

Cheese

Egg yolk

Fish and Liver oils

(Retinol or carotene is added to margarine in Britain and other countries.)