Nutrition, Health and Balance

A balanced Diet is one that provides an adequate amount of essential nutrients that promotes health and prevents disease.

Essential Macronutrients

·         Carbohydrate

·         Fat

·         Protein

·       

Macronutrients- are the main components that make up food and provide calories the body needs to keep working. Carbohydrates are broken down in the body and broken down and stored in muscles and liver then released when needed. Carbohydrates fuel the brain to help focus and helps with mental attitude.

The healthier dietary fats are the monounsaturated, polyunsaturated and Omega-3 fatty acids  Both the Monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fat have been studied to improve blood cholesterol levels, which reduces the risk of heart disease and reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes 

We need our protein and amino acids because our metabolism, hormones, cells, organs, muscles, connective tissue and bones could not hold together without the help of protein. The most abundant protein in our body is called collagen which is a component of the bones, tendons and ligaments that form our joints. Muscles contain actin and myosin proteins that allow the muscles to work properly. Proteins in the blood maintain the balance of fluid in the body. Antibodies are a protein that the immune system creates to fight and prevent a bacteria or virus from causing infection or disease. 

Micronutrients: 

        Vitamins

·                Minerals

     Micronutrients are vital to the proper functioning of all of your body's systems.  if your body doesn't get the small quantities of micronutrients that it needs, serious health problems can result. Micronutrients promote bone formation, energy production, metabolism, help heart maintain normal rhythm, red blood cell production, thyroid gland development and helps regulate water and electrolytes withing the cells.

Digestion of macronutrients

When you  eat, the saliva breaks down the chemicals in the food , which helps make the food easier to swallow. Your tongue helps out, pushing the food around while you chew with your teeth. When you're ready to swallow, the tongue pushes a tiny bit of chewed up food called a bolus  toward the back of your throat and into the opening of your esophagus, the second part of the digestive tract. 

Once food has entered the esophagus, it doesn't just drop right into your stomach. Instead, muscles in the walls of the esophagus move in a wavy way to slowly squeeze the food through the esophagus.

The stomach churns food from the esophagus with help from muscles int the walls of the stomack and gastric fluid.

The small intestine breaks down the food mixture even more so your body can absorb all the vitamins, minerals, proteins.

leftover waste — parts of the food that your body can't use — goes on to the large intestine.

 it passes through the part of the large intestine called the colon (say: CO-lun), which is where the body gets its last chance to absorb the water and some minerals into the blood. As the water leaves the waste product, what's left gets harder and harder as it keeps moving along, until it becomes a solid

References

Mayo Clinic. (2014). See how your Digestive System Works. Retrieved from http://www.mayoclinic.org/digestive-system/sls-20076373

Sizer, F. & Whitney, E. (2013).  Nutrition: Concepts and Controversies (13th ed.).  Mason, OH: Cengage Learning.