Food vs Nutrition
We eat all sorts of foods for sustenance (and to satisfy our taste buds) but not all food items are equally wholesome or beneficial for our bodies. Our bodies require a healthy balance of all the nutrients on a daily basis which unfortunately is not available to us because of our predisposition to fast foods and junk food. It is all too easy to crib about being very busy and not getting time to eat only those food items that are healthy and nutritious, but the fact remains that we pay for what we eat today later in life. The imbalance of nutrients or the lack of nutrients takes its toll on our bodies and we not only go out of shape but also develop ailments that require medication. It is therefore essential to pay attention to not just food but the nutrition that we are getting out of it.
Food, nutrition and health are closely related words. Our health depends upon what we eat. The food that we consume may either contain the nutrition our body needs or none at all. It is both the quantity and quality of nutrition from food that decides our health. If good health is ultimately what you desire, it is important to have a sound knowledge about nutrition to be able to eat what is good for our bodies while at the same time avoiding all the garbage that we have been eating all our life thinking it to be good for us. The primary factors affecting our health are not just nutrition, but also exercise (physical activity), sound sleep and a relaxed attitude towards life. But we will keep ourselves confined to nutrition alone in this article.
What is nutrition? Many of us suffer from bad health as there is very little understanding of the concept, and surprisingly, despite its great significance in our lives, nutrition is not even a subject at school levels. As living beings, we have a body that has certain needs to be performing at an optimum level. Nutrition refers to the act of consuming foods to aid in growth and to replace worn out tissues. Nutrition involves giving to body what it needs, not what we like to eat. The most basic requirements of our bodies are essential nutrients like proteins, fats, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals, and water.
Now it is a fact that not every food item has all of these macro nutrients in proportions that our bodies require which means that we need to have a variety of foods to fulfill our daily requirements of these nutrients. In general, we need to eat lots of vegetables and fruits as they contain the vitamins and minerals along with carbohydrate, milk and dairy products for fat and proteins, and grains and meat products for proteins and more of proteins and fats. We need to avoid junk and fast foods at all cost, or at least keep them down to a bare minimum to remain health and fit.
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In brief: • As living beings, we need food for sustenance and growth • While nutrition is possible through foods, not all foods are equally nutritious • We need a variety of foods to fulfill our daily requirement of essential macro nutrients.
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