How To Get The Right Food And Keep Our Body Healthy
For centuries people have been aware that food plays a significant part in the human condition. The human body requires a variety of foods to sustain its normal physiology, as well as the energy it needs to function. When all food sources are depleted, the only thing left is survival. And, of course, food plays a large role in how we feel, look and act. People need different types of food for different purposes, some of which are briefly mentioned below.
In order to understand what food supplies our bodies, it’s important to first know about what food is made of. Basically, food is any material ingested to provide nutrition to the organisms. Food is generally of animal, plant or even fungi origin, and is made up of essential nutrients, including vitamins, proteins, carbohydrates, fats, or minerals. So, whether we see food as sources of pleasure or as a necessity, we always derive nutrition from it. To illustrate this further, plants get their food through the leaves, stems, roots, seeds and stems of various plants, while animals get their nutrition primarily from meat or milk.
Food is broken down into several different kinds, depending on what it is and how it is consumed. The five main groups of food are: vegetable, protein, fruit, dairy and other. These categories can be further sub-divided into several sub-groups, depending on how the nutrients within them are consumed. For example, fibre forms the major component of fruit and vegetables, but this fibrous food loses many of its nutrients when it is digested. This is why many fruits and vegetables are recommended as dietary requirements rather than merely being part of a healthy diet.
Vitamins are nutrients found in food. We get these through the fruits and vegetables we eat, but most of us don’t get enough vitamin D from our diet. Vitamin D plays a vital role in maintaining health, but it is only present in certain foods such as fish and fortified egg yolks. In order to get vitamin D from food, it is recommended that we consume foods that are rich in vitamin D such as cod liver oil or fortified breakfast cereals. Foods that contain a high level of vitamin D include oily fish, butter, egg whites, mushrooms, carrots, spinach, sweetbreads, liver, sardines, halibut, tuna, mussels and other seafood. If you don’t eat enough vitamin D, your body will not be able to maintain healthy bones, teeth and other essential organs and you may get the disease called osteoporosis.
The third group of food that we need to be concerned about is fat. Foods that are high in fat are commonly thought to contribute to heart disease and obesity, but this is simply not true. There are always exceptions, but overall, eating unprocessed foods may help reduce the risk of heart disease. Unprocessed foods include skinless potatoes, bananas, avocado, sun-dried tomatoes and other fruits that have little or no processing. This means that we can control what goes into our bodies and what goes out. While it is important to keep our bodies within lean limits, the amount of fat that we put on our bodies is not something that we need to be concerned with.
Eating foods that have the vitamins, minerals and nutrients that they need may help prevent chronic disease and protect us against heart disease and other health problems. Foods that are high in fat, processed or packaged, refined sugars, salt and processed oils may help prevent the onset of obesity and may help reduce the risk of cardiovascular diseases. Learning how to prepare and eat whole foods can not only help prevent chronic disease, but it can also keep our bodies healthy and fit.