Eating habits have a direct impact on people's quality of life. Proper nutrition can contribute to maintaining good health, while a disordered diet can lead to chronic diseases that make it impossible for us to lead a normal and healthy life.
Changing our eating habits is not a very complicated task, but above all it requires will and knowledge that will allow us to do it successfully. Therefore it is not necessarily easy either.
Good health is the result of the proper functioning of the various organs and systems that make up the body. This requires a multitude of reactions and processes at the cellular level, within which many substrates called nutrients that we obtain from food take place.
Nutrients
These are chemical compounds essential for the growth, reproduction and development of life at the cellular level.
Nutritional characteristics:
- Specific chemical structure.
- Cannot be formed or manufactured in our own bodies.
- When not digested in sufficient amounts it leads to health problems.
- Consuming adequate amounts of nutrients helps prevent chronic diseases.
Nutrition
The set of processes through which food is converted into nutrients. This is an involuntary process involving digestion, absorption, and conversion of food into nutrients.
Nutritional objectives:
- Provides energy to maintain the functions of the body's organs and systems.
- Provides substances necessary for the regeneration, growth and repair of body structures.
- Provides substances required for the regulation of metabolism.
Classification of nutrients
Nutrients are classified according to their participation in the metabolic reactions of the organism in two nomenclatures:
- Non-essential nutrients: they are not defining for the organism. The body can normally make them from essential nutrients.
- Essential nutrients: They are very important for the organism. The body cannot manufacture them, so they must be obtained from the environment. They are divided into two major groups.
Classification of Essential Nutrients:
- Macronutrients: They are composed of carbohydrates, proteins and lipids [fats].
Properties of macronutrients:
- Must be consumed in large amounts.
- They provide the major portion of the metabolic energy that the body uses in its functioning.
- They contribute to the structuring [tissues and systems].
- They regulate and maintain inherent system functions.
Micronutrients: These are the various vitamins and minerals.
Characteristics of micronutrients:
- Only small doses are used.
- They regulate the metabolic and biochemical processes of our organism.
Food
Term that applies to any product or substance that, when consumed, provides nutrients to the organism.
Human nutrition: Process exercised at a conscious level in which the individual obtains from the outside world a variety of substances that are necessary for him.
Food composition
Nutrients:
- Water: main component of the body. It is part of the digestive process, the transport and dissolution of nutrients, and the elimination of waste through urine, as well as other functions.
- Fiber: A large group of substances found in the structure of plant cell walls. Among their functions is the potentiation of beneficial physiological effects.
- Bioactive components: These are located in animal and plant tissues.
- Food may also contain: additives and contaminants.
Alcoholic beverages: Drink in moderation [below 30g of ethanol per day], source of energy. Granted several health benefits. Excessive consumption leads to serious disorders in the organism.
Food groups:
- First group: milk and its derivatives.
- Second group: meat, eggs and fish.
- Third group: legumes and nuts.
- Fourth group: vegetables.
Requirements of a good diet:
- Variety: Containment of all food groups to generate all nutrients.
- Sufficient and balanced: Supplement for daily activity without excess.
- Allocation: Age, sex, training and state of health, among others, are taken into account.
- Beneficial to health: must not contain any element harmful to health. Examples: Excessive alcohol consumption, consumption of harmful substances or allergens.
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