Macronutrients:
carbohydrates, fats, fiber, proteins, and water
Micronutrients:
minerals and vitamins
Diet Matters
What
is diet?
By Definition: Diet is a food consumed by an organism or group. In
simple language diet is something what a person eats or drinks during
the course of a day.
Dietary habits and choices play a significant role in health and
mortality, and can also define cultures. A poor diet can have an
injurious impact on health, causing deficiency diseases such as scurvy,
beriberi, and kwashiorkor; health-threatening conditions like obesity
and metabolic syndrome, and such common chronic systemic diseases as
cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and osteoporosis.
What
is America eating?
Agriculture revolution : With traditional methods of soil enrichment ,
plants obtain the minerals and other substances required to make
natural chemical compounds in their leaves, stems and roots that
discourage insects eating them. Until 1940s farmers returned
essential nutrients to the soil by mulching, manuring and crop
rotation. These methods were used successfully to maintain
the soil quality since agriculture began. The human greed
and to make bigger profits agriculture revolution began by
additing fertilizers , pesticides and additives to the soil. In
the 1940s manufacturers began to produce large amounts of
synthetic pesticides and their use became widespread. Some sources
think 1940s and 1950s was the beginning of the “pesticide era”.
Environment :
Pesticides and additives
Organophosphate
pesticides have increased in use, because they are less damaging
to the environment and they are less persistent than organochlorine
pesticides. These are associated with acute health problems for
workers that handle the chemicals, such as abdominal pain,
dizziness, headaches, nausea, vomiting, as well as skin and eye
problems. Additionally, many studies have indicated that
pesticide exposure is associated with long-term health problems
such as respiratory problems, memory disorders, dermatologic
conditions,cancer, depression, neurological
deficits,miscarriages, and birth defects. Summaries of
peer-reviewed research have examined the link between pesticide
exposure and neurologic outcomes and cancer, perhaps the two most
significant things resulting in organophosphate-exposed workers.
A study published by
the United States National Research Council in 1993 determined
that for infants and children, the major source of exposure to
pesticides is through diet.A study in 2006 measured the levels of
organophosphorus pesticide exposure in 23 school children before
and after replacing their diet with organic food (food grown without
synthetic pesticides). In this study it was found that levels of
organophosphorus pesticide exposure dropped dramatically and
immediately when the children switched to an organic diet.
Empty Foods: Food processing
Freezing,
Drying, Cooking, and Reheating
Nearly every food preparation process reduces the amount
of nutrients in food. In particular, processes that expose foods to
high levels of heat, light, and/or oxygen cause the greatest nutrient
loss. Nutrients can also be "washed out" of foods by fluids
that are introduced during a cooking process. For example, boiling a
potato can cause much of the potato's B and C vitamins to migrate to
the boiling water. You'll still benefit from those nutrients if you
consume the liquid (i.e. if the potato and water are being turned into
potato soup), but not if you throw away the liquid. Similar losses also
occur when you broil, roast, or fry in oil, and then drain off the
drippings.
The table below compares the typical maximum nutrient losses for common
food processing methods. This table is included as a general guide
only. Actual losses will depend on many different factors, including
type of food and cooking time and temperature. For additional data on
specific preparation methods, please see the USDA Table of Nutrient
Retention Factors (2003).
Typical
Maximum Nutrient Losses (as compared to raw food)
Vitamins
Freeze
Dry
Cook
Cook+Drain
Reheat
Vitamin A
5%
50%
25%
35%
10%
Retinol Activity Equivalent
5%
50%
25%
35%
10%
Alpha Carotene
5%
50%
25%
35%
10%
Beta Carotene
5%
50%
25%
35%
10%
Beta Cryptoxanthin
5%
50%
25%
35%
10%
Lycopene
5%
50%
25%
35%
10%
Lutein+Zeaxanthin
5%
50%
25%
35%
10%
Vitamin C
30%
80%
50%
75%
50%
Thiamin
5%
30%
55%
70%
40%
Riboflavin
0%
10%
25%
45%
5%
Niacin
0%
10%
40%
55%
5%
Vitamin B6
0%
10%
50%
65%
45%
Folate
5%
50%
70%
75%
30%
Food Folate
5%
50%
70%
75%
30%
Folic Acid
5%
50%
70%
75%
30%
Vitamin B12
0%
0%
45%
50%
45%
Minerals
Freeze
Dry
Cook
Cook+Drain
Reheat
Calcium
5%
0%
20%
25%
0%
Iron
0%
0%
35%
40%
0%
Magnesium
0%
0%
25%
40%
0%
Phosphorus
0%
0%
25%
35%
0%
Potassium
10%
0%
30%
70%
0%
Sodium
0%
0%
25%
55%
0%
Zinc
0%
0%
25%
25%
0%
Copper
10%
0%
40%
45%
0%
Diet & Nutrition : What is Nutrition
Nutrition is a process of
the body using (Diet)food to sustain life.
The council on Food and Nutrition of the American Medical Association
defines nutrition as “The science of foods, the nutrients and the
substances therein, their action, interaction and balance in relation
to health and diseases. Nutrition science is the area of knowledge
regarding the role of food in the maintenance of good health. Thus
nutrition is the study of food at work in our body.
Health is defined by the World Health Organization of the United
Nations as the “ State of complete physical, mental and social well-
being and not merely the absence of disease and infirmity (or ill-
health/illness)”
According to Dr Carl Pfeiffer an American doctor and pyschiatrist
"with an adequate intake of micronutrients - essential substances
we need to nourish us - most chronic diseases would not exist. Good
nutritional therapy is the medicine of the future"
Nutrition focuses on the role of nutrients,
There are seven major classes of nutrients:
Macronutrients: carbohydrates, fats, fiber, proteins, and water.
Micronutrients : minerals and vitamins
Basically, nutrition consists of diet (what you take in) and metabolism
(what happens to it after it enters your body). Proper nutrition
requires the proper ingestion and equally important, the absorption of
vitamins, minerals, and food energy in the form of carbohydrates,
proteins, and fats.
Nutrition and Dental Problems
In the early part of the 20Th century Dr Weston Price, who was
dentist, became interested in the relationship between human
nutrition and tooth decay. Dr Price also made some other
observations besides tooth decayed, there were deformities in the
facial bones which left those affected with malformed dental
arches and crowding of the teeth. Moreover, this deformities were
correlated with lower IQ’s with personality disturbances and with
a dramatically higher incidence of degenerative diseases such as
tuberculious.
In 1939, he published "Nutrition and Physical
Degeneration", a book that details a series of ethnographic
nutritional studies performed by Price across diverse cultures.
Some of the cultures studied include the inhabitants of the
Lotschental in Switzerland, the inhabitants of the Isles of Lewis
and Harris in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland, the Gaeltacht areas
on the western islands of Ireland, the Eskimos of Alaska and
Canada, the Native Americans, among the inhabitants of New
Caledonia, Fiji, Samoa, the Marquesas Islands, Tahiti, Rarotonga,
Nuku?alofa, Hawaii, the Masai, Kikuyu,
Wakamba and Jalou tribes of Kenya, the Muhima of Uganda, the Baitu and Watusi of Rwanda, the Pygmies, and
Wanande in the Congo, the Terrakeka, Dinka and Neurs of Sudan, the
Aborigines of Australia, the inhabitants of the Torres Strait, the
Maori of New Zealand, the Tauhuanocans, Quechua, "Andes
Indians", "Sierra Indians" and "Jungle
Indians" of Peru.
In his studies he claimed to have found that plagues of modern
civilization (headaches, general muscle fatigue, dental caries or
cavities, impacted molars, tooth crowding, allergies, heart
disease, asthma, and degenerative diseases such as tuberculosis
and cancer) were not present in those cultures sustained by
indigenous diets. However, within a single generation these same
cultures experienced all the above listed ailments with the
inclusion of Western foods in their diet: refined sugars, refined
flours, canned goods, etc.
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