Food or nutrition is the primary source of energy and hence health for our body. Nutrition is the science that studies what and how we eat and the effects it has on our health, such as what food or food components may cause disease or adversely affect health.

It also studies food and dietary supplements that can help us to improve our performance, promote our health and help in the cure or prevention of disease. For example, eating food that is rich in fiber can reduce the risk of colon cancer. Also, supplementing daily food intake with vitamin C strengthens your teeth and gums and improves the immune system of your body.

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There is a variety of diseased states that can be caused by and cured by changes in diet or supplements. Imbalances in our diet, deficiencies of a particular kind or the excess of a particular form can equally affect our health negatively as they can lead to conditions such as scurvy, obesity and osteoporosis.

In today’s polluted environment, the ingestion of elements that play no role in maintaining or protecting your health such as lead and mercury is also a major health hazard.

Exercise is crucial to maintaining physical fitness. It helps maintain a healthy weight, promotes the building and maintenance of healthy bones, joints and muscles, engenders physiological well being, reduces surgical risks and strengthens the immune system.

Proper nutrition is no less important to good health than exercise and when you are exercising regularly, it is even more important to have good nutrition. This helps the body recover after strenuous exercise. On the other hand, proper rest is also important.

We have established that proper diet and nutrition are crucial to maintaining your health. Maintaining a healthy diet involves making choices of what to eat and in what quantity, with the overall aim of maintaining your best and most healthy condition. This involves the intake of necessary nutrients by eating the right amount of food from all the food groups and drinking the right amount of water. Often, we need to consume these essential nutrients as additional supplements to ensure that the body is at its best.

You might be surprised to learn that a lack of proper ‘nutrition’ can also be responsible for weight gain. Our modern diet is unfortunately rich in carbohydrates, fats and sugars but lacking in crucial nutrients such as vitamins and minerals. These nutrients are responsible for ensuring that your body performs at its best. They are the crucial ‘supplements’ that your body needs to survive the stressed out, badly nourished life that most of us lead.

What is the ideal diet?

A healthy diet should achieve all of the following objectives:

• It should have sufficient calories to maintain one’s metabolic needs and to power you through whatever activities you undertake. However, the number of calories should not be so high that it causes your body to begin storing excess amounts of fat. Stored fat should never be more than 30% of your body mass.

• A good diet should have sufficient quantities of fat including monounsaturated, polyunsaturated and saturated fat. This should be balanced by omega 6 and omega 3 lipids.

• It should also avoid saturated fats as much as possible, as well as trans-fats or trans-fatty acids as they are sometimes known.

• A good diet should also include a significant amount of amino acids (which are complete proteins). This provides replenishment to your cells and transports proteins throughout your body. All the essential amino acids are present in both animal and plant protein.

• There must be complete avoidance of directly poisonous substances such as heavy metals and carcinogenic substances.

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One should also avoid high doses of certain foods that may be alright in small doses but not in large doses, such as:

• Food or substances with directly toxic properties such as ethyl alcohol.

• Foods that could exhaust the normal functions of the body such as eating refined carbohydrates that need extra dietary fiber to be digested.

• Foods that could interfere with other body processes, such as refined table salt.

The checklist seems simple enough because a simple list is exactly what it is. It is just a basic guide – a list of the dos and don’ts for your diet. Your lifestyle is becoming increasingly complex as is the food we eat. The optimal diet has to be more than just the basics. It must include the basic food groups, as well making allowances for your specific health issues and aims.

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