14.What Is Nutrition and Why Is Good Nutrition So Important?
Whereas food is the source of nutrients that your body needs, nutrition is about more than just food.
Nutrition is the science that studies how the nutrients and compounds in foods nourish you, help you function, and affect your health.
Your body needs all the nutrients to function properly. A chronic deficiency of even one nutrient will negatively affect your body's ability to function in the short term.
Chronic deficiencies, excesses, and imbalances of many nutrients can also affect your long-term health.
Good nutrition plays a role in reducing the risk of four of the top ten leading causes of death in the United States and European Union, including the top three - heart disease, cancer, and stroke - as well as diabetes.
Nutrition also plays an important role in preventing other diseases and conditions that can impede your lifestyle.
A healthy diet can help keep your bones strong and reduce your risk of osteoporosis. Eating right will help you better manage your body weight, which in turn will reduce your risk of developing obesity, diabetes mellitus, and high blood pressure.
Nutrition - The science that studies how the nutrients and compounds in foods that you eat nourish and affect your body functions and health.
You are a product of what you eat, what you don't eat, or what you may eat too much of. You want to eat the best combination of a variety of foods to meet your nutritional needs and to be healthy.
To do that, you need to understand the roles of the essential nutrients in your body and which foods to eat to get them.
The Take-Home Message:
Nutrition is the scientific study of how the nutrients and compounds in foods nourish your body. Good nutrition plays a role in reducing the risk of many chronic diseases and conditions. Long-term imbalances of many nutrients will affect your health.
