Why Is It So Important To Be Healthy?

Your body needs dozens of nutrients every day and the strength to utilize them just to stay alive, as well as to do all of the things you need to do. When you get what your body needs, your good health supports these processes and accepts daily challenges. When you don't, your complex metabolism breaks down, creating symptoms from mild fatigue and muscle pain to life-threatening organ failures. Nurture your health to avoid the difficulty of restoring it or to avoid suffering a premature death.

To Meet Daily Demands

Brain function, digestion and all your other metabolic tasks require a balance of protein, minerals, fatty acids, carbohydrates and vitamins from your diet. If you become deficient in any one nutrient, such as the iron necessary to make hemoglobin in red blood cells, your health will suffer. In the case of low iron, an anemic condition reduces your blood count, and your body cells may not get the oxygen and nutrients that they need via the blood.

To Avoid Injury and Pain

Your body must be physically challenged every day in order to keep up its musculoskeletal and cardiopulmonary strength for common and high-intensity activities. Staying healthy through exercise keeps your muscles and bones strong yet pliable and your heart and lungs fit. If you don't work out, at least at a basic level, you will be more prone to sprains, strains, fractures and shortness of breath when you do ask more of your body. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services considers 250 minutes of aerobic activity and two sessions of muscle-group strengthening per week adequate for fitness maintenance.

To Safely Maintain Weight

Good nutrition and exercise work together to help you achieve a healthy weight without sporadic dieting. Many "crash" diets result in a return to weight gain as your body craves greater nutrition after being deprived of it. Eating healthy meals derived from all the food groups -- dairy, protein, vegetable, fruit and grain -- provides a steady nutrient and calorie intake, allowing you to avoid the cycle of deprivation and excess. Daily exercise helps you to burn off all the calories that you consume and remain at an appropriate weight.

To Prevent Illness

Adequate but not excessive body mass reduces your risk for many diseases, and a nutritious diet strengthens your immune system to fight off the viruses and other threats to which you are exposed. Individuals who remain at a healthy weight have less chance of contracting type 2 diabetes, cancer and heart disease than those who are overweight. According to the National Institutes of Health, healthy people tend to get colds and flus less often and are less likely to develop asthma and allergies.