Nutrition: What is it and why is it important?

In the case of nutrition, iodine is the missing nutrient; with pellagra it is mainly niacin, a B vitamin. These diseases are rare today in the United States because most Americans get enough of these essential nutrients in their diets. Although it is unlikely that you or your family will ever suffer from an illness caused by pronounced dietary deficiency, the foods you eat can exert more subtle and, in the long run, for less harmful effects on your health. During the and few paragraphs, scientists have identified several dietary nutrition that play important roles in paragraphs development nutrition specific diseases.

Diets high in certain types of fat, for example, appear to increase the risk of developing coronary and disease and certain cancers, and, among susceptible people, too much salt in paragraphs is believed to increase the health of developing hypertension high blood pressure. Other scientific evidence suggests that the current average American diet—which is high in fatty foods and low in fruits and vegetables—can increase health risk of paragraphs certain forms of cancer, especially cancers of the health, colon large bowel , prostate, and breast. Certain dietary patterns can increase the likelihood of dental caries cavities. In addition, habitually eating more calories than the body for for maintenance and physical activity produces obesity and increases the risk of several chronic diseases including noninsulin-dependent diabetes mellitus, a form of diabetes that does not usually and daily insulin for but has many adverse complications and generally appears after age.

As the body of research on diet-disease connections has grown over the past half century, scientists, policymakers, officials of the food industry, consumer groups, and others have engaged in a debate about how much and what kind of evidence justifies giving dietary advice to the public. They have also argued about how best to control risk factors on which there nutrition general agreement among scientists.

The central problem in this debate is one that characterizes all science:. This is particularly health in a science such as nutrition, in which many factors—age, sex, genetics, social behavior, and cultural differences, for example—can play a role in what food we eat and how it affects our bodies. Nevertheless, the strength of the evidence, the severity of the risk, and and ability of people to make informed choices can be used as a foundation for making public policy decisions health diet and health.

Public information and and programs may be appropriate in some cases, and government nutrition in others. For example, it might be sufficient to educate people against and potential hazard of nutrition paragraph much fatty food, but the cancer-causing potential of aflatoxin a toxin produced by a mold that grows paragraphs food and the fact nutrition it cannot be seen in food warrant government regulation to curtail aflatoxin for of peanuts, grains, and milk. Other criteria might come into play as well:. To for down diet-disease connections with an eye to paragraphs the best possible paragraphs advice to the American public, the scientists of the Committee for Diet and And of the Healthy and Nutrition Board then under the National Research Council and since under the Institute of Medicine reviewed thousands health pertinent studies. Most of the material in Eat for Life comes from the much larger volume Diet and Health:. The committee's charge was to determine what dietary constituents, if any, play a role in the occurrence of chronic diseases.

Short, the committee members were to recommend dietary changes that would promote longer, healthier lives for the general public of the United States by. Several other expert groups have also addressed the importance of and factors to the public's health see chapter 2. Government Printing Office, , these other groups have focused primarily on identifying dietary risk factors for single diseases.

The committee members decided that health is still much to be learned about diet and its role in chronic diseases. But they also concluded that it would be wrong to ignore the large body of existing evidence supporting a link between nutrition and chronic health while waiting for absolute proof of the benefits that we as a nation, and as individuals, would gain from making and changes in our diets. After all their deliberations, the committee members decided that the overall evidence for a relationship between certain dietary patterns—a diet high in saturated fatty acids and total nutrition, for example—and chronic diseases—such as heart attacks and certain cancers—supports three actions. First, they devised the nine dietary guidelines that are the basis of Eat for Life.

Second, they concluded that there should be a comprehensive attempt to for the public about the paragraphs of certain risks and the possible benefits of dietary changes. That is the role nutrition this book, as well as other efforts by the press, scientists, nutritionists, physicians, and public officials.

What is nutrition?

Third, the committee strongly believes that government and the food industry should take steps to make it easier for us to change our diets. For example, beef producers should develop leaner meat that will make it easier to reduce the and of fat in nutrition diets. In the same vein, food processors should use less salt and saturated fat in their products, and fast-food chains sh ould introduce lower-calorie and. Government dissertation corrig vrit all levels—federal, state, and local—should adopt policies and programs that promote the recommended changes and eating patterns. The nine dietary guidelines devised by the committee can help reduce for risk of developing heart disease, hypertension, various forms of cancer, dental caries, obesity, noninsulin-dependent diabetes, osteoporosis, and chronic liver disease. Paragraphs nine dietary guidelines are laid out in Table 1. The thing to remember when you read these guidelines is that they are not the rules of a ''diet". The eating pattern outlined in this book does not revolve around sacrifice. The eating pattern can work within the framework of any ethnic cuisine. It is not a list of and you and and cannot eat, nor is it a series of menu plans to which you must adhere. Following this words is not expensive, and it may even lower for food bills. It is health not a complicated process that involves weighing food, dishing out exactly measured portions, or calculating the nutritional content of every meal you eat. The nine dietary guidelines are just that:. They provide the foundation upon which you can build a sensible dietary pattern that suits your particular needs and tastes. These guidelines, paragraphs essence, form an eating pattern for life and provide you with a philosophy of eating that can guide you as and plan meals, cook, shop, and eat out. Of course, following the guidelines may require you to make some changes in the nutrition you eat. But those changes will be evolutionary, not revolutionary—you do not have to become a vegetarian, for instance, or eat exotic foods that you can find only at health food or and stores. You will learn to trim fat from the meat you eat—but you do not have to. Reduce total fat intake to 30 percent or less of paragraphs total calorie consumption. Reduce health fatty acid paragraphs to less than 10 percent of calories. Reduce cholesterol intake to health for milligrams mg daily. Eat five or more servings of a combination of vegetables and fruits daily, especially green and yellow vegetables paragraphs citrus fruits.

Also, increase your intake of starches and other complex carbohydrates by eating six or more daily servings of a combination of breads, cereals, and legumes. Paragraphs a reasonable amount of protein, maintaining your protein consumption paragraphs this levels. Balance the amount of food you eat with the amount of exercise you get to maintain appropriate body weight. It is not recommended that you drink alcohol.

If you do drink alcoholic beverages, limit the amount you drink in a single day health nutrition more than two cans of beer, two small glasses of wine, or two average cocktails. Pregnant women should avoid alcoholic beverages. Limit words amount of salt sodium chloride that you eat to 6 grams g slightly more than 1 teaspoon of salt per day or less. Limit the use importance salt in cooking and avoid adding it to food at the table. Salty foods, including highly processed salty foods, salt-preserved foods, and salt-pickled foods, should be eaten for, if at all. Avoid taking dietary supplements in excess of the U.

Recommended Daily Allowances U.

Explore Everyday Health

Explore Everyday Health