Food is any material consumed to supply nutrition to an organism. Food is normally of animal, plant or fungus origin, and usually contains necessary nutrients, including proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins, or other minerals. Food is divided into several groups: animal feeds; vegetable foods; fruits, vegetables, nuts, legumes, seeds and nuts; alcoholic beverages; medicines and medical preparations; bakery products; processed foods; and other dietary components. Cereals, pastries, biscuits, confections, ice cream, butter and other processed food are examples of food, which are not digested by humans. Fungi also contain food, but are incapable of digesting it.
Food that can be classified under the classification of dietary fiber includes vegetables and fruits, whole grain cereals, whole grain breads, bran cereals, brown rice, whole grain pasta, and various legume and bean products, which are very beneficial for your health. These foods have been proved to lower bad cholesterol and increase good cholesterol in your body, which are two important factors for a healthy heart. However, a balanced diet including all these specific types of food will help you to control your blood cholesterol level. Certain foods can increase cholesterol level, so it is very important that you take proper precaution while eating them.
A proper diet should contain all the essential nutrients in the right proportion, so that it becomes a powerful weapon in battling food scarcity. Today, there are numerous myths related to nutrition and food security. The myth says that you don’t get enough nutrients in your food if you take meat or consume grains, which is completely wrong. Nutrition is related to proper food intake rather than consumption of quantity. One of the major reasons behind food scarcity is lack of adequate nutrition, which results in chronic diseases, such as cancer, infertility and other age-related problems.
If you consume more calories than you use, the extra calories remain unused and get stored as fat. Hence, it becomes necessary to change our lifestyle in order to adopt healthy habits. First of all, it is very important to take enough food in daily so that our body receives all the nutrients it needs and also remains healthy. Eating healthy food keeps us away from various diseases, including obesity, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and many others.
Carbohydrates play an important role in maintaining a healthy body weight. Carbohydrates provide energy for the body, which is required throughout the day for its various functions. However, excessive consumption of carbohydrates can lead to obesity, which is highly associated with a number of serious diseases. The best way to remain fit and healthy is to consume sufficient amount of carbohydrates, including complex carbohydrates such as whole grains, brown rice and wheat bran, which provide enough energy and contribute positively towards good health. A well-maintained good immune system helps to fight against the common cold and other infectious diseases.
The best way to keep people fit and healthy is to adopt a healthy lifestyle. Adopting a good food security plan will help to achieve all this. Food security is an important aspect of nutrition because even when a person is healthy and has adequate food storage facilities at home, if they are hungry, they cannot make smart food choices. For instance, a diabetic may not eat fruit that contains high levels of natural sugar because he may fear that the natural sugar in the fruit may give him a sudden boost of energy and then he will have a sudden craving for sweets which he will likely binge on, causing a diabetic episode. Hence, food security becomes an essential component of nutrition.
