Nutrition Know-How

Nutrition Know How

What you eat has a lifelong effect on your health and well-being. To look and feel your best, you have to eat adequate amounts of the proper foods. Many teenagers don't always choose the food that is best for them. They may not want to eat what the rest of the family is eating, or they may eat poorly at school. The food at the school cafeteria is required by law in the United States to meet certain nutritional standards, but you may not be eating their food.

Nutrition, Nutrition, Nutrition
Adults are always talking about good nutrition and eating the right foods. Isn't it enough to eat the things that we enjoy eating? Not necessarily, unless you like eating foods rich in vitamins, minerals and other essential nutrients. Sounds boring? It doesn't have to be. If you are going to eat well, you have to take some of the initiative and responsibility for what you eat. You'll be doing your family a big favor, as well as learning how to take care of yourself.

Nutrients build your body and allow it to function. Each nutrient has at least one specific job, and no other nutrient can cover for any of the others. Because you need many different nutrients to stay healthy, you have to eat a wide variety of foods in order to get all of them. If you stick to just one or two favorite foods, you'll run short of the nutrients you must have to stay well.

A lot of the foods that we like to eat don't have much nutritional value. These foods are referred to as "junk food" or empty calories, because while they provide calories that can be turned into energy, they don't provide much else in the way of things our bodies can use.

There are six types of nutrients: protein, carbohydrates, fats, vitamins, minerals and water. In simple terms, nutrients are the chemicals your body gets from food. If your body gets the right fuel, just like a car, it will run smoother. Nutrients in food allow your body to break down the food you eat into energy so you can function. When you go for a run, swim a few laps or even talk on the phone, you are using energy your body has produced. When you are taking a test, you're using brain power, which is really energy that is coming from the food you had last night for dinner and this morning for breakfast. One nutrition key is to never skip breakfast, especially on the morning of a test. Your body has not received energy for more than 12 to 15 hours and will not be able to function at its peak without that boost you get from food.


A Closer Look at the Nutrients Our Bodies Need

Vitamins and Minerals
These nutrients don't supply your body with energy, because they don't have calories. However, they are necessary because they help your body convert food into energy. Using our car analogy, vitamins and minerals are like spark plugs in a car, not the gas. The thirteen vitamins--A, C, D, E, K and the eight B vitamins (thiamine, riboflavin, niacin, B6, pantothenic acid, biotin, folacin, and B12)--can be divided into two types: fat-soluble and water-soluble. You do not need to consume the fat-soluble vitamins every day in order to maintain their proper levels, because they are stored in your body fat and liver. But the water-soluble vitamins, the B-complex vitamins and C, dissolve in the water in your system. So, these vitamins should be consumed every day (with the exception of B12, which your liver stores).

Vitamin A promotes normal bone growth and healthy skin, hair and eyes, and helps with night vision.

Vitamin C strengthens blood vessels, helps the immune system, heals wounds and helps heal broken bones.

Vitamin D helps absorb calcium for strong bones and teeth. (Your body produces this from sunlight.)

Vitamin E ensures that Vitamins A and C are not destroyed by oxygen and are properly used by your body. It also helps form red blood cells.

Vitamin K, called the clotting-factor vitamin, enables your liver to produce a blood-clotting factor to control and prevent internal bleeding.

Vitamin B-Complex (eight different vitamins and minerals) breaks down carbohydrates and fat to energy, works to give you a healthy nervous system and healthy skin, helps you digest food and utilize minerals in foods you eat, is important in the production of red blood cells, and works with proteins to build and repair tissues.

Thiamine helps keep your nervous system healthy and breaks down carbohydrates into energy.

Riboflavin breaks down carbs, proteins and fats so your body can use them for energy and repair.

Niacin works with riboflavin to convert proteins into energy.

Calcium is needed for healthy bone and teeth development, helps with muscle function and helps blood to clot.

Iron ensures that the body produces red blood cells, which transport oxygen. (It is needed to produce hemoglobin, the red oxygen carrying pigment in blood.)

Folic acid is needed to produce genetic material (DNA and RNA) that is needed during and before pregnancy to prevent birth defects.



Protein
Every single cell in your body is made up of protein. Hair and fingernails consist of fibers of protein called keratin. Collagen is the protein that strengthens your skin, blood vessels, bones and teeth. Even your muscles are held together by the protein fibers called myosin and actin. In fact, about 1/5 of your body weight is protein. Every chemical reaction that takes place in your body--and that is a lot--is dependent on proteins. These important nutrients help us build new cells and repair damaged body tissue. Because your tissues are constantly being destroyed and rebuilt--and because, unlike carbohydrates, your body has no means to store protein--you must make sure you get enough of this important nutrient to keep all your vital processes functioning. During digestion, large molecules of protein are broken down into smaller, simpler units called amino acids. The body requires 22 amino acids in specific patterns to make human protein and thus perform its necessary functions. Your body can produce all but nine of these amino acids. The nine that can not be produced are called essential amino acids, because they must be supplied by your diet. In order for your body to properly use proteins, all of the essential amino acids must be present in your system. A food that contains all of the essential amino acids is called a complete protein. Examples of foods high in protein include meats, fish, lentils, nuts, dairy products (such as cheese or yogurt) and beans.

Carbohydrates
Most of our energy comes from carbohydrates. Carbohydrates are chemical compounds of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. They provide us with calories, which can be converted into energy. There are two types of carbohydrates: simple, which are sugars; or complex, which are starches. It's a good idea to try to eat more complex carbohydrates, because your body get longer sustained energy from these foods. Examples of complex carbohydrates include potatoes, pasta, bread, rice, lentils, cereals and fruits and vegetables. Compare these to the simple carbohydrates like cookies, candy bars and other sugary foods, which provide a quick jolt of energy but then leave your body craving more. These simple carbohydrates are known as "empty calories" because they lack vitamins, minerals, fiber or anything of value to your system.

Fats
While too much fat is bad for your health, we do need some to survive. By cutting down on your fat intake, you can reduce your chances of developing heart disease or cancer, not to mention staying in better physical shape and maintaining a healthy weight. There are three types of fat: saturated, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated. Saturated fats are the worst type because they raise the cholesterol level in your blood, which can lead to heart disease. The more saturated the fat is, the more solid it will appear at room temperature. This includes animal products such as butter, cheese, milk and meats. Monounsaturated fats are the types in nuts and fruit, and polyunsaturated fats are found in oils. If you are trying to reduce the fat content in your diet, try broiling rather than frying your food, use skim milk rather than whole milk, use low-fat salad dressing or yogurt and cut down on red meats.

Fiber
OK, you're right: There is no nutritional value in fiber. But we do know that fiber absorbs water, helping to both keep away hunger pangs and keep the colon healthy by allowing bowel movements to be regular, softer and easier to pass. Fiber has an important role in protecting us from certain diseases, such as heart disease, high blood cholesterol, some cancers and bowel conditions. It can also keep us leaner (people who eat a lot of fiber are less likely to be overweight). Fiber is present in the cell walls of all plants, but is NOT found in any food obtained from animals. It can be found in all foods of plant origin, like fruits, vegetables and nuts. It is also found in unrefined breads, cereals, brown rice, corn kernels and beans. Cellulose and pectin--found in all stringy vegetables and apples (and other fruit)--cannot be digested, but they are important as roughage.

Water
Our bodies are about 2/3 water, and we need to ensure that we keep up this balance in order to remain healthy. That's why it is recommended that you drink at least eight glasses of water every day. This will keep all your organs hydrated so that they can function properly. Water also helps to flush toxins and other impurities out of your body. Water serves many other crucial functions, including respiration, digestion, metabolism, body-temperature regulation and excretion. Water is also responsible for dissolving and transporting nutrients through the body. Only oxygen is more important to sustaining human life than water. So drink a tall glass of water and stay healthy!