Why is Nutrition Important?
Nourishment, aliment and nutrition, is the supply of food materials required by any organisms to stay alive. In human medicine and any branch of science that deals with living things, nutrition is the practice of utilizing and consuming of edible food. In hospitals, it refers to the food requirements of the patient, including solutions that are delivered via the intragastric or intravenous tube.
Nutritional science is the study of how our body breaks down the food (also called catabolism) and how it can create and repair tissues and cells (also called anabolism). When anabolism and catabolism are combined, it creates metabolism. The nutritional science examines how our body responds to edible food. To know more about anabolism, visit this site.
Fast facts
Our body requires at least seven types of nutrients.
Not all nutrients can provide the necessary energy, but they are still very important, like fiber and water. Micronutrients are essential but need to be taken in small amounts.
Vitamins are an essential organic compound that the body can’t synthesize.
What is nutrition?
As biochemistry, genetics and biology advances, nutrition-focused more on metabolic pathways and metabolism (biochemical steps where the substances in our body are transformed from one component to another). Nourishment also focuses on how conditions, problems and diseases can be reduced or prevented with the right and healthy diet. Similarly, it also involves how to identify specific types of conditions and diseases caused by dietary factors like malnutrition or poor diet, food intolerances and food allergies.
Nutritionist versus dietitian
Registered dieticians need to study nourishment, food, and dietetics from approved programs and accredited schools or universities to work as a registered dietician. They compete for a very strict and rigorous internship and required to pass a licensure examination to be a full-fledge registered dietitian.
A nutritionist, on the other hand, is sometimes self-taught or with formal education, but they do not have any titles like RDN or RD. The two terms are sometimes interchangeable, but they are not the same.
Dietitian
Dietitian is the communication and interpretation of the science of foods. It helps people make practical and informed choices about lifestyle and food in both disease and health. Part of dieticians’ program includes both community and hospital settings.
These professionals work in different areas, from health care settings to private practices, corporate wellness, research and education, while some of them work in the food industry like hotels and restaurants. A registered dietitian needs to have a legitimate post-graduate or bachelor’s degree to work in the field as a dietician.
To know more about dietitian, you can check out https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dietitian.
Nutrition
It is the study of nutrients found in edible foods, how the human body uses them, and the relationship health disease and the diet involve. Big food manufacturers, hotels, restaurants and even health care providers employ food scientist nourishment experts. These professionals can also work as an educator, journalists or even research scientist. A lot of them work as experts in the field of food science and technology.
There are a lot of overlaps between dietitians and nutritionists when it comes to their role and study. Some nutritionists work in the healthcare facilities, food science and technology and food industry. And some dietitians work in corporate wellness, education and research.
Types
Nutriments are a source of nourishment, a food component, for example, carbohydrate, protein, vitamin, fat, fiber, water and mineral.
Macronutrients are nutriments that people need in large quantities. On the other hand, micronutrients are nutriments that people require in small amounts. Macronutrients can be split into both macronutrients that provide and do not provide energy.
Do you want to know more about the basics of macronutrients? Click here.
Energy macronutrients
As the name implies, it provides energy and is measured either in Joules or kilocalories. One kilocalorie equals to 4185.8 joules. It includes carbohydrates, proteins, fats, fiber and water.
Carbohydrates (four kilocalories per gram)
Carbohydrate molecules include disaccharides, polysaccharides like starch and monosaccharides like galactose, fructose and glucose. Nutritionally, polysaccharides are often favored over monosaccharides since that are more complicated and take a lot longer to break down and absorbed in our bloodstream. It means that they do not cause a significant increase or decrease in the body’s blood sugar levels, which are sometimes related to vascular and heart diseases.
Proteins (four kilocalories per gram)
There are 20 organic compounds, or amino acids can be found in nature that is combined to form proteins. Some of them are important to our bodies, which means they need to be ingested and consumed. Some of them are not important or non-essential amino acid since our body can live without them.
To find out more about amino acids, visit https://medlineplus.gov/ency/article/002222.htm.
Fats (nine kilocalories per gram)
Fats are considered triglycerides. A three-molecule fatty acid combined with an alcohol glycerol molecule. Fatty acids are considered as simple compounds or monomers, while triglycerides are regarded as complex molecules or polymers.
Our body requires fats for health reasons because they serve a lot of functions. It includes lubricating joints, assisting in the absorption of specific vitamins, helping organs to produce hormones, inflammation reduction and preserving the health of our brains.
Fiber
It consists of carbohydrates, but because it cannot be absorbed by the body that easily, not much of the starches and sugars get in our bloodstream. Fiber is an essential part of our diet, nutrition, fuel for intestinal bacteria and health.
Water
As you know, around 70% of our body is consists of water (the non-fat mass of our body). It is an essential component of a lot of human body processes. Nobody thoroughly knows how much water our body needs. But according to science, our body needs one to seven liters of water every day to avoid dehydration.
Everyone knows that water requirements are closely related to age, physical activity, body size, environmental temperatures, various states of health, as well as dietary health. For example, people who consume a lot of sodium chloride or salt requires a lot of water compared to another person with the same body type, weight and height.
There are claims that “when you consume a lot of water, the healthier you will get” is not backed by any scientific evidence. The factors that influence water requirements are so extensive that accurate advice on the water intake will only be valid depending on each person.
