Your food and dietary habits play a vital role in maintaining a healthy weight and health. Nutrition plays a vital role in your physical and mental health development. Therefore the importance of nutrition must be addressed as well.
Hence, following a proper diet to avoid malnutrition is necessary, which is the reason for many health issues. Therefore, choosing proper nutrition based on your diet and body requirements is necessary.
In this article, let’s see the Importance of nutrition to our body in detail.
So read the article till the end to find all answers to your question.
What is Nutrition?
Nutrition is an important element in the human body required for developing the human body and the human brain. It is vital in providing you with a healthy life and stronger immunity. You can supply your body with proper nutrition by including foods high in nutrient content like carbohydrates, protein, fats, vitamins, minerals, dietary fibre, water, etc.
Ensure all these nutrients are supplied to your body sufficiently to avoid malnutrition. A diet with proper nutrition will help you to lower the risk of developing several chronic diseases, help maintain a healthy body weight, and also helps promote healthy pregnancy in women. The importance of nutrition plays a supplement role in supplying sufficient nutrients to your body; failing to attain this will result in malnutrition.
What is the Importance of nutrition for our body?
Consuming food with proper nutrition helps to provide a sufficient amount of energy to your body. It helps your body function properly, grow appropriately, and keep your body healthy. But for this, you must consume enough carbohydrates, fats, proteins, water, vitamins, minerals and other nutrients.
But we must see that we do not opt for more processed, fatty, and salted foods as they will drain out the energy from our body; instead, you can consume fresh whole natural meals that fuel the body with sufficient energy.
You may be wondering why the nutrients are necessary for our body; So let me tell you here further:
Good energy levels:
Food rich in nutrition helps to provide you with a sufficient amount of energy for your body to perform your day-to-day activities. Food with more nutrition provides your body with more amount of energy to your body. But taking more nutrients doesn’t mean you have to eat entire food simultaneously; instead, you can divide the food into small portions and consume it more.
Manages Weight:
Taking the appropriate amount of nutrition in your diet helps provide sufficient energy for your body. You must check on your body’s requirements before you opt for consuming nutrition to your body. If you take more nutrition than the required amount, the excess energy will be stored in your body as fats. Or if you take less nutrition, your body will end up malnourished. Therefore another importance of nutrition is that it helps manage body weight also.
Read also: Amazing Salad Recipes for Weight Loss
Supports ageing:
Your diet plays a major role in your ageing process and helps to manage your lifespan by providing a quality life. Healthy food keeps our digestion system and immune system, enabling the body to function properly and resist the early signs of ageing.
Brain Functioning:
The most importance of nutrition is the mental development of individuals. Some foods increase brain power and are rich in nutrients like omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids, like broccoli, pumpkin seeds, and blueberries. Henceforth a proper meal plan is also the reason for proper brain functioning.
Enhances Immunity:
Lastly, another amazing benefit of consuming food high in nutrients is that it boosts your immunity. Nutrients like Vitamin-A, Vitamin b2, B6, Vitamin-C, Selenium, Zinc, Vitamin-E, and Vitamin-D are important nutrients to boost your immune health.
So these are some importance of nutrition for our body.
List out the main nutrients required to function in the human body.
Here is the list of some main nutrients required for the development of the human body;
Protein:
Protein is one of the essential nutrients required for the development of the human body. It helps build muscle mass and new tissues and repairs all the damaged skin cells in our body. Protein is also an effective nutrient that helps build the hormones and enzymes in our body that plays a vital role in metabolism and sexual development. Some best examples of high-protein foods are eggs, almonds, greek yoghurt, cottage cheese, milk, lentils etc.
Functions of Protein:
- One of the main functions of the protein is to enable tissue growth in the body.
- They help maintain the fluid balance in the body to manage the fluid levels.
- They provide an essential amount of energy needed to carry out regular tasks.
- They help transport materials within the body.
- They also help your immune system to develop.
So these were some important functions of the protein.
Carbohydrates:
Carbohydrate is an ideal nutrient required for our body, providing you with a sufficient amount of energy. Carbohydrates comprise three main compounds: hydrogen, oxygen, and carbon. Carbohydrates help our body to supply the energy for the formation of the cellular constituent. Sugar, Starches, Fibre and Gum are the four types of carbohydrates produced in our body. Some best examples of carbohydrate-rich food are bread, potatoes, candies, cookies, puddings, cakes, sugar, soda, chips etc.
Functions of Carbohydrates:
- Carbohydrates are the primary sources of energy for the body.
- They help in the regulation of blood glucose in the body.
- Carbohydrates help in the breaking of protein molecules in the body.
- They help to maintain the blood glucose in the body.
- They provide the carbon skeleton for the synthesis of some non-essential amino acids.
So these were some important functions of carbohydrates.
Fats:
Yes, you’ve heard it right! When we hear the word fats, we always have a negative impact: they are bad for our health. But it is not so. Fats are also essential for our body up to a specified limit, providing our body with sufficient energy. Fats provide 9 calories per gram. Some best examples of foods high in fat are butter, cheese, cream, chocolates, soybean, sunflower, cardamom and more.
Functions of fats:
- One of the main functions of fats is to store energy in your body which can be used later to provide your body with energy.
- Fats are necessary for your body to provide energy if it is at a moderate level to maintain good health.
- Fats are necessary for your body to produce and regulate hormones from your body.
- Fats supply your body with essential fatty acids to your body to maintain proper and good health.
- Some vitamins like vitamins A, D, E, and K are fat-soluble vitamins that cannot function without adequate fat intake.
So these were some of the functions of fats.
Vitamin:
Vitamins are essential nutrients that help our body to function properly and regulate our body processes effectively. Vitamins are required by the body to grow and develop normally and naturally. Some important body vitamins required for growth are vitamins A, B, C, D, E, K, B-6, and B-12. For a healthy body, all the vitamins must be present in a sufficient amount in your body if not resulting in which can cause nutritional deficiencies in the body. Fruits like blueberries, blackberries, strawberries, and more are some of the best examples of foods rich in vitamins.
Functions of Vitamins:
- Vitamins help the body to maintain good health.
- They help your body fight against ageing.
- They help the muscles and ligaments function smoothly in your body.
- They help the bones, nails, and teeth to stay healthy and function properly.
- These nutrients help in the formation of new cells.
So these were some of the functions of vitamins.
Minerals:
Sodium helps to maintain the fluid of your body and makes the functioning of cells properly and helps it function properly. The average amount of supplement consumption per day is around 2400 gms. Some rich sources of minerals include meat, cereals, fish, fruits, vegetables, milk, dairy foods, nuts, etc. Minerals are necessary for three main reasons building strong bones and teeth, controlling the body fluids inside and outside the cell, and helping the food turn into energy.
Functions of the Minerals:
- Minerals help your body to enable the functioning of the organs like bones, muscles, and heart properly.
- Minerals are also helpful and important in forming the enzymes and hormones in your body.
- Minerals are the immune boosters which help maintain your immunity system.
- Minerals help improve the nerves and muscle function in the body.
- Minerals help in the production of a sufficient amount of energy.
So these were some of the important functions of the minerals.
What are the causes of malnutrition in the human body?
Some common causes of malnutrition in the human body are due to the following reasons;
Lack of food:
One of the main reasons for malnutrition in someone’s body is the lack of food, which is usually common in low-income societies. Due to the lack of sufficient food, most people suffer from malnutrition problem.
Loss of appetite:
Loss of appetite is also one of the reasons for the prevailing malnutrition in the body. The causes for loss of appetite is the result caused due to several reasons like some underlying diseases like cancers, tumours, kidney problems, chronic infections, mental illness and depressive disorder etc. These are some factors that result in the lack of appetite.
Unhealthy diet:
An unhealthy diet is also one of the reasons for malnutrition in the body of many people. People who lack an appropriate diet or have poor knowledge of diet may suffer due to malnutrition, which is also common and extremely unhealthy. It is due to the availability of limited knowledge on the type of food you want.
Certain Health Conditions:
Certain Health Conditions like heart disease, kidney disease, or mental disorders like depression or other mental illnesses can cause reduce your appetite. They will reduce your food intake, resulting in a malnutrition diet.
So these were some of the causes of malnutrition in the body of many people.
How to overcome malnutrition?
Malnutrition shouldn’t be taken lightly and is a subject of concern; therefore, you must try and find a way to come out of it; You can follow these steps to overcome malnutrition.
Balanced Diet:
Have a balanced diet, and try to follow the schedule suggested by your dietician. Try to include every nutrition in your food and have a balanced diet plan for good health and a good nutrition supplement for your body. Have a balanced nutrition plan and try to consume all the nutrition like carbohydrates, water, fats, minerals, protein, and vitamins.
Be Active:
You can still eat and work out without fulfilling your nutrition needs. Even you must have a proper workout schedule, or else if you keep on stuffing yourself with food alone, the excess energy will form out in the form of fats and will form as calories which will make you overweight. Therefore along with a proper diet plan, it is also necessary for you to be active with your physique.
Body Check-up:
Having a proper body check is necessary for your body to combat any further and oncoming problems. It helps you detect if you have any problems with your health. Having a proper body check-up is as necessary as anything.
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