Nutrition in Human Body

Everyone hopes to have a good health, but not everyone understand the importance of nutritional foods to our health. Appropriate nutrition is a necessary condition to maintain a good health. In our daily life, the main source of nutrition comes from variety of foods we eat. Health starts with nutritional foods. It is the intention of this article to help you to have appropriate nutritional foods by introducing some basic knowledge of the relationships between nutrition and health, and nutrients foods.

Nutrients are necessary for human bodies to maintain energy to move, and generate chemical substances such as enzymes for metabolic activities. The nutrients that are essential to human bodies may be categorized into three types. The first category includes carbohydrates, fats, and proteins. They are the primary source of energy. Carbohydrates are the principal dietary source of energy. Fats supply energy and essential fatty acids, and they help absorb the fat-soluble vitamins. However, some kinds of fat, especially saturated fats, increase the risk for coronary heart disease by raising the blood cholesterol. Proteins are polymers of amino acids that are needed for synthesis of body proteins in muscle, organs, bone and skin, and for synthesis of enzymes, certain hormones, antibodies and a host of specialized products (Human amino acid requirements: can the controversy be resolved).

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The second category includes various kinds of vitamins, such as A, B-12, B-6, C, D, E, biotin, choline, folate, and thiamin. They play a wide variety of roles in making our bodies work normally. For example, vitamin A is important to vision, vitamin C is important to the prevention of certain cancers and cardiovascular diseases, vitamin D is important to the absorption of calcium, vitamin E has antioxidant properties, etc. The third category includes various kinds of minerals, such as calcium, iron, magnesium, iodine, fluoride, sodium, and zinc. Appropriate amounts of minerals are very important to our health. For example, calcium is essential for healthy bones; iron is an essential nutrient that carries oxygen, fluoride is important to healthy teeth, etc.

Healthy foods are the best source of nutrients. All of the nutrients are available from foods. Carbohydrates are abundant in present in grains and potatoes. Unsaturated fats occur in vegetable oils, most nuts, olives, avocados, and fatty fish like salmon. (Human amino acid requirements: can the controversy be resolved 220). Proteins are available from most foods, among which meat, milk, eggs are considered to be excellent in both protein quantity and quality. Vitamins exist in vegetables, fruits, animal products, and fortified foods. For examples, vitamin C is abundant in citrus fruits, berries, melons, tomatoes, green peppers, and leafy green vegetable. Minerals are mostly