The food that we eat is made up of both plants and creatures. This food is a vital source of nutrients and energy for our bodies because it promotes development and health. Every person tries to eat enough food, so the problem of nutrition for humans has long been a concern. Modern nutrition concerns include food safety, creating wholesome diets, increasing mineral consumption, and preventing obesity, among other things. Nutritionists look at these problems as well as the accessibility and safety of food in developing nations. Despite the misinformation people may have about nourishment and food during natural disasters or difficult economic times, many people have achieved the nutrition standards with few kids suffering malnutrition in different regions of the world. Therefore this paper is of much important since it will shed some light to people who have not familiarized with the nutritional requirements. Nutrition is a science that studies food and how the food nourishes our bodies (Zimmerman., 2012). It revolves around the processes by which metabolism, digestion and consumption, storage of nutrients and the long term effects of the nutrients to the human bodies.
The human body does not operate properly when there is no adequate nutrition. Severe inadequacy of nutrition may contribute to a disease or even death. The typical diet is lacking in many ways ranging from lack of being speedily consumed to lack of proper nutrition. The factors that have led to food choice among many people include, the texture taste and appearance of the food. Different people have a different range of taste for food, and this affects their choice of food. Due to economic issues, access to fresh fruits and vegetable is limited to some groups especially those who are socially disadvantaged and live in extremes regions. The people who were not exposed to early food after they were born also finds themselves with limited choices of food when they grow old. The culture also affect the choice of food, the geographical area, media publicity through deceiving and genuine adverts, the health concern of an individual especially when prescribed by the doctor and finally the habitat in which an individual has been brought up(Lesley.,2008 pp351).
A healthy diets contains a proper combination of nutrients and energy. It has four characteristics which are moderate, adequate, varied and balanced. When we put in mind the characteristics of healthy diet, then we will find ourselves selecting the foods to get the proper combination of energy and nutrients each day, (Melinda., 2009). A healthy diet is adequate, and therefore enough it provide the body with fiber, nutrients, and energy that keeps the body healthy. The fiber and micronutrients are found in vegetable (Pollan., 2008). Adequate diet also has the presence of fats, proteins, and carbohydrates. Healthy diet is also moderate. This aspect means eating any food in moderate amount, not too much or too little. A healthful diet should also be balance. Being balance means have most of the nutrients required by the body. Varied diet refers to the culture of eating many different foods from different food sources frequently.
According to Michael Pollan, there is need to defend food. He suggested that there is a great change in eating habits in the past decades. Nutritional science and food industry stands to gain much from widespread confusion about what to eat which in most cases it is answered without the guide of an expert. Pollan tries to answer the dilemma of human beings on the foods to eats by proposing that one should eat food that is not too much and mostly constituting of the plants (Pollan.,2008). Therefore according to me, health eating does not only entail visiting a shop and buy the best dinner, but it will go to the point of understanding what nutrients constitute in such foods. The key to health eating is based on these factors. A person should take the right amount of calories to have an optimum energy for use. Eating too much and drinking much contributed to unnecessary weight gain whereas eating and drinking less contributes to loss of weight. One should eat a wide variety of food constituting of much carbohydrates, vitamins, starch. Starchy carbohydrate should comprise a third of the foods that you eat.
Before deciding on what food to choose, it is advisable that a person caries individual research to identify what constitutes in those foods and it should be included in the food labels (Zimmerman., 2012). The following components should be included in food labels to enable the consumers to determine the best diet. The net content of the package, a statement of identity, the ingredients list, the name and address of the manufacturer and lastly the nutritional information. A rational buyer will always look at this label to out rule the best diet from the many. We are also advised to control what determines what we want to eat. Research show that there are two mechanisms that push us to seek food. One is hunger, which is the strong drive for food which push us to seek for the food. This drive is nonspecific. The other factor is the individual appetite. This is the psychological desire to consume certain types of food
Vegetables and fruits should also be taken at least five portions of different variety every day. Fish are also recommended in any balance diet at least once per week. Sugary foods should be avoided due to their contributions in the growth of cancellous cell. Sugary diets are known to contain much calories, and if they are eaten in large amount, they contributed to weight gain and tooth decay. A research suggests that most of the packed food contains high amounts of free sand therefore when it comes to diets, one should not just only rely on free moving packed food (Zimmerman., 2012). You should also avoid eating too much salts to regulate my blood pressure. According to most of the nutritionist suggest that even if we eat food that does not contain any salt, there is no danger since most of the salt is already present in foods that we take. Eating a health balance died helps in maintaining healthy weight. Overweight may lead to weight gain and obesity which may result to health condition by causing certain type of cancer and diabetics. After I take my heath meal, I should involve myself in physical exercise to maintain my healthy weight. We also need to drink more water to avoid dehydration. At least 6 to 8 glasses are recommended per day. We should also take water to detoxify most of the foods that we consume.
We should take the issues of nutrition with great concern especially on matters touching the food sources and the best nutrients. We should not also buy everything with the name of the best diet. A balance diet requires more that preparation, a well thought ingredients that will serve on the vital nutrients required by the body. Pollan suggested that we should not just take food that suits our lives but food that will enable us to grow health. He suggested that most of the western countris diet has contributed to chronic diseases among the members. He also tries to outline how the meals have changed over time among the people. He gives his example with the illustration of her mother, the kind of tradition dishes she used to cook around 1940s and the present diet he is taking. He proposed that there has been a significant difference between the two diets (Pollan.,2008).
According to me, we should stop this growing culture of fast food. Foods that we have no sufficient knowledge of and also taking the deceiving adverts on media about a certain blands of food. We should venture back to the traditional food and conserve the traditional endangered plants species that were consumed. We should also make sure that we eat according to the health eating tips. Most the nutritionist and food industry are focused on self-interest to exploit the consumer (Pollan.,2008). This aspect has raised an alarm on food defense whereby the common citizens should be informed and educated on the matter of what they eat. In contrast to most of the things that can be evident through touch or seen, when it comes to matter pertaining nutrients, we cannot quantify it using this aspect of looking.
The idea that I heard from my elders pertain the issue of nutrition makes me identify there is no close correlation between the feeding habit. During those earlier times, despite the presence of malnutrition in some region and chronic disease that were caused by lack of proper die due to hardships of life, the traditional diet remains outstanding. Over the past decades, there have been increased report in diet related diseases such as cancer which was not at increase during the 1920s. The increase in chromic disease which are related to diet in the recent decade is due to change in the type of food we are eating. From 1960 after the industrial revolution what we eat has greatly been affected since almost all the food are produced using chemical or industrial synthesized process. Chemically produced foods have negative effect to the biodiversity and directly affecting human beings who primarily depend on these animals and plants (Pollan.,2008). This suggest that we need to change the approach and view towards the food that we are constant running to the markets to get. People should go back to grow their food. From here individual can have the choice of what eat.
This time before industrialization most of the people adopted to plant their food crops. They could grow foodstuff using inorganic manure and chemical free. The crops were also native though they took time to grow and get mature. These people were fully aware of any food they took. In the modern society, things have changed. Supermarkets are seen as the gateway for fast foods. Most of the families have even gone to the extent of just buying food and forgotten about cooking (Pollan.,2008). They buy foods in which they do not know the manner in which they have been prepared. They have neglected their responsibility to follow up the nutrition rule by taking same types of food over a period.
Proper diet is known to be the natural cause that strengthen our immunity and also traced in the fore line in fighting of cancer. Many Americans adults believe that they can reduce the chance of heart attack through physical exercise and proper diet. However, most of them are left hopeless about the cure of cancer, but the nutritional science researcher have tried to bring it to their attention that modifying lifestyle and mostly by determine what best to eat can limit the incidences of cancer. The healthful way to eat out requires that an individual should avoid coffee drinks made of syrups or creams. One should avoid eating appetizing foods that is fried or constituting meat or cheese; it is advisable to share the entrée with a friend, one should order boiled meat rather than friend meat. Salad should contain low fats or no fat; steamed potatoes are advisable rather than the rice or potatoes (Zimmerman., 2012).
Conclusion.
Nutrition science is an important study in determination and proposing the best food to take. Nutrition is important to our bodies since it contribute to our healthy growth and immunity. The choice of the best type of nutrient to take should be determined on the nutritional constitutions which is labelled on the product. However, this is just a secondary alternative of determining the optimal food. Due to the tremendous changes in the feeding habits among Americans, I can only propose that the people should embark on traditional agriculture which is free from chemicals (Pollan., 2008).
Work cited
Lutes, Lesley D., et al. "Small changes in nutrition and physical activity promote weight loss and maintenance: 3-month evidence from the ASPIRE randomized trial." Annals of Behavioral Medicine 35.3 (2008): 351.
Pollan, Michael. In defense of food: An eater's manifesto. Penguin, 2008.
Manore, Melinda, Nanna L. Meyer, and Janice Thompson. Sport nutrition for health and performance. Human Kinetics, 2009.
www.malecentrum.sk/data/att/166373
Maureen Zimmerman .an introduction to nutrition, 2012.
https://2012books.lardbucket.org/pdfs/an-introduction-to-nutrition.pdf
