Wednesday, July 22, 2009

A Good Balanced Diet

A good balanced diet is very important for all of us, no matter what your age is.

It is important because it provides right amount of each nutrients in our body.How do we get right amount of nutrients in our food? Well, we have to look at our daily eating habits like what do we eat in snacks, lunch, dinner etc…. To stay healthy our body needs good quality food with nutrients in them.
There are 5 important nutrients; our body would not survive without it.
Carbohydrates, Proteins, Fat, Vitamins and Minerals are five very important nutrients. I will discuss each one of them in detail:

1. Carbohyderates:
Main source of carbohydrates are sweet and starchy foods such as bread, biscuits, cereal, rice, potatoes, pasta, bananas and other fruits. Carbohydrates are a superior short-term fuel for organisms because they are simpler to metabolize than fats or those amino acid portions of proteins that are used for fuel as per Wikipedia. They are used for energy.


2. Protein:
Meat, chicken, eggs, fish, beans, peas, lentils, and nuts are the good source of protein. We need protein to build cells in our body as well as to make blood and restore and repair tissues.
When we eat protein base food, digestive juice in stomach and intestine starts working. They break down the protein in food into basic units which is specified as amino acids.

3. Fats:
One of components in food. Some foods including most fruits and vegetable have almost no fat. You can find fat in butter, margarine, cooking oils, red meats, cheese and cream etc. Fat is one of the three main components of the food like Carbohydrates and Protein. The body uses fat as fuel source. You need some fat in your diet for good health. Fats are also used for energy. Muscles use a mixture of fats and glycogen.

4. Vitamins:
It is essential to have vitamins in our food for the normal growth and development of our body. Our body is one powerful machine and capable of doing all sorts of things by itself. Our body is able to get the vitamins it needs from the food we eat. Different food contains different vitamins .That is why, it is very important we eat a variety of food to get all different kinds of vitamins. Vitamins and Minerals are substance that can be found in food we eat. So, when we eat foods that contain fat soluble vitamins, the vitamins are stored in the fat tissue in our body.

5. Minerals:
are also as important as vitamins. Iron, Calcium, Potassium etc are the few example of minerals. Like vitamins, all these different kind of mineral we get from variety of food. Beans, Baked potatoes with skin, green leafy vegetable like spinach, kale, and broccoli. Why do we need Iron? The body needs iron to transport oxygen from lungs to entire body. Calcium helps us to build strong bones so; we can stand up straight, walking and jogging etc. Dairy products like milk, cream, cheese etc are the main source of calcium. Potassium is one of a mineral also like other minerals very important for our body. It keeps muscle and nervous system work properly. Banana, broccoli, tomatoes are some example of potassium contain food.

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