What does food do in our bodies?

"Nutrients are the nourishing substances in food that are essential for the growth, development and maintenance of body functions. Essential meaning that if a nutrient is not present, aspects of function and therefore human health decline.

When nutrient intake does not regularly meet the nutrient needs dictated by the cell activity, the metabolic processes slow down or even stop."

- Perspectives in Nutrition, Wardlow and Insel

Food is component that important to our daily life. While balancing diet is the best way to eat healthy and get a good body healthcare.

In this blog, we will discuss about the important of food in our daily life and what the best food we must eat to get healthy body. Example, food is the things that can give us energy to move and do works. Food is also important because they give nutrition to us to do works and this nutrition also needed by our body.

But, if we just eat what we want, it also cannot help our body. This is why, balancing diet is also included in this title. Balancing diet give us a good amount of food nutrition needed by our body.

So in this blog, we will discuss about the important of balancing diet and their effect to our body.

Edible or potable substance (usually of animal or plant origin), consisting of nourishing and nutritive components such as carbohydrates, fats, proteins, essential mineral and vitamins, which (when ingested and assimilated through digestion) sustains life, generates energy, and provides growth, maintenance, and health of the body.

Eating a balanced diet means choosing a wide variety of foods and drinks from all the food groups. It also means eating certain things in moderation, namely saturated fat, trans fat, cholesterol, refined sugar, salt and alcohol. The goal is to take in nutrients you need for health at the recommended levels.

Healthy eating Tip 1: Set yourself up for success
Start slow and make changes to your eating habits over time. Trying to make your diet healthy overnight isn’t realistic or smart. Changing everything at once usually leads to cheating or giving up on your new eating plan. Make small steps, like adding a salad (full of different color vegetables) to your diet once a day or switching from butter to olive oil when cooking. As your small changes become habit, you can continue to add more healthy choices to your diet.

Healthy eating tip 2: Moderation is key
Try not to think of certain foods as “off-limits.” When you ban certain foods or food groups, it is natural to want those foods more, and then feel like a failure if you give in to temptation. If you are drawn towards sweet, salty, or unhealthy foods, start by reducing portion sizes and not eating them as often. Later you may find yourself craving them less or thinking of them as only occasional indulgences.

Healthy eating tip 3: It's not just what you eat, it's how you eat
+ Take time to chew your food and enjoy mealtimes. Chew your food slowly, savoring every bite. We tend to rush though our meals, forgetting to actually taste the flavors and feel the textures of our food. Reconnect with the joy of eating.

+ Eat breakfast, and eat smaller meals throughout the day. A healthy breakfast can jumpstart your metabolism, and eating small, healthy meals throughout the day (rather than the standard three large meals) keeps your energy up and your metabolism going.

+ Avoid eating at night. Try to eat dinner earlier in the day and then fast for 14-16 hours until breakfast the next morning. Early studies suggest that this simple dietary adjustment—eating only when you’re most active and giving your digestive system a long break each day—may help to regulate weight. After-dinner snacks tend to be high in fat and calories so are best avoided, anyway.

Healthy eating tip 4: Fill up on colorful fruits and vegetables
+ Sweet vegetables. Naturally sweet vegetables—such as corn, carrots, beets, sweet potatoes, yams, onions, and squash—add healthy sweetness to your meals and reduce your cravings for other sweets.

+ Fruit. Fruit is a tasty, satisfying way to fill up on fiber, vitamins, and antioxidants. Berries are cancer-fighting, apples provide fiber, oranges and mangos offer vitamin C, and so on.

Healthy eating tip 5: Eat more healthy carbs and whole grains
+ Healthy carbs (sometimes known as good carbs) include whole grains, beans, fruits, and vegetables. Healthy carbs are digested slowly, helping you feel full longer and keeping blood sugar and insulin levels stable.

+ Unhealthy carbs (or bad carbs) are foods such as white flour, refined sugar, and white rice that have been stripped of all bran, fiber, and nutrients. Unhealthy carbs digest quickly and cause spikes in blood sugar levels and energy.

Diabetes
Although there are some uncontrollable factors that may predispose you to developing diabetes, it is a preventable disease with a healthy lifestyle. Obesity, high blood pressure and increased cholesterol are strong risk factors for developing diabetes. According to the American Diabetes Association, good nutrition is one of the best ways to prevent diabetes. The ADA recommends choosing a balanced diet full of whole grain foods and fresh fruits and vegetables. Before being diagnosed with diabetes, many people find that they have prediabetes. This is a condition in which blood glucose levels are higher than normal but not high enough to be diabetes. Oftentimes, establishing good nutrition and exercise habits can prevent prediabetes from progressing to full blown diabetes.


Anemia
Anemia occurs when red blood cells are unable to carry enough oxygen to your body's cells. Symptoms of anemia include fatigue, sensitivity to cold temperatures, headache and a fast, irregular heartbeat. Anemia has various causes, and some are related to deficiencies in certain nutrients. The Mayo Clinic indicates that iron deficiency anemia affects 1 to 2 percent of American adults. Your body needs iron to make hemoglobin to transport oxygen throughout the body, and it is found in meat and poultry. Anemia can also be caused by a lack of vitamin B12, which your body needs to make red blood cells. Vitamin B12 is found in fortified grains and animal products.


Osteomalacia/Rickets
Osteomalacia and rickets are caused by a deficiency of vitamin D, calcium or phosphate. Osteomalacia occurs in adults, while rickets occurs in children. Osteomalacia and rickets cause soft, weak bones, pain and muscle weakness. Sometimes these diseases result from an inability to absorb vitamin D or not getting enough sunlight so that your body can make its own vitamin D. Vitamin D also regulates blood levels of calcium and phosphate. These diseases can also occur from not getting enough vitamin D, calcium or phosphorus in the diet. These vitamins are found in dairy products, fortified foods and vegetables. Replacing the missing nutrients in the diet will relieve most symptoms of these diseases.