What is Nutrition?

Nutrition is the process of providing or obtaining the food we need to grow and be healthy in relation to your body’s needs. Good nutrition means eating the right amount of the right nutrients. This is one of the keys to leading a healthy lifestyle and preventing diseases such as diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease and even some forms of cancer.

A healthy diet can also boost your mood and brain power, help you take care of your skin, build up your immunity, help your body and brain to grow and develop, and give you energy for the daily activities you do.

Each Food Has a Purpose

There are different types of nutrients in different foods and they each have an important role to play. These are:

• Carbohydrates: these mainly provide the body with the energy it needs.
• Proteins: these are needed for the growth, maintenance and repair of body tissue.
• Fats: apart from providing energy, fats are needed for building cells and to help absorption of the fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E and K. Fats supply essential omega 3 and 6 fatty acids that cannot be produced by the body and have to come from our diet.
• Vitamins and minerals: these are essential for a great variety of functions in our body. From healing wounds, to bolstering our immune system, to keeping our bones strong.

In order to stay healthy, we require all these nutrients, as well as clean drinking water. It’s important to remember that no single food will contain all the nutrients you need, so it’s important to try and include a balance and variety of foods on a regular basis.