The Meaning of Nutrition
Food is vital for life. It cam be defined as any solid or liquid substance which, when taken by the body, provides it with the necessary materials to enables it to grow to replace worn-out and damaged parts and to function normally.
The human is like a complex piece of machinery in that its is prone to faults and weakness it if is poorly maintained.
This can happen if too little or too much food d is eaten, or if the daily food intake is in any way unbalanced.
One way of ensuring that heath and fitness are maintained, when food is plenatoful, is to have an understanding of food and its effects on the body and to use those knowledge wisely.
Food, like other substance is composed of different chemical elements, arranged in a variety of ways to form molecules.
These molecules collectively give individual foods their flavour, color, and texture and affect their reaction to heat and their digestion.
The body uses some of the molecules in food to function correctly and to stay healthy. These are the nutrients. There are many different nutrients, and each has its own function in the body. Each nutrients is vital to life and the health of an individual will suffer if any one nutrient is in short supply.
The study of nutrients and their relationship with food and living things is called nutrition.
Most foods contain more than one nutrient, so are of use to the body in several ways,. Some foods such as sugar, contain only one nutrient and are limited use to the body.
However, no single food provides all the nutrients required by the body in sufficient quantities, so a variety of foods must be eaten.
The term used in the study of nutrition include the following:
Diet
Diet means the food that a person normally eats every day. There are also special diets, e.g. slimming diets, low fat diets.
Malnutrition
Malnutrition means an incorrect or unbalanced intake of nutrients.
Under-nutrition
Under-nutrition means an insufficient total intake of nutrients.
Balanced diet
Balanced diet means a diet that provides the correct amount of nutrients for the needs of an individual.
The Meaning of Nutrition