NUTRITION DEMYSTIFIED

A balanced healthy diet is essential to maintaining a long and healthy life. We are being bombarded with advertisements for health food, dietary supplements, the latest diet theory, etc.. There is so much information that it is overwhelming for the average consumer. The following is a brief guide to help you find a basic understanding of nutritional concepts.

Common Definitions:

Nutrition

A series of processes by which a person assimulates food for promoting growth and replacing worn or injured tissues.

Fats

An oily, yellow or white substance formed in the bodies of animals and some vegetables such as coconut, palm and palm kernel oils (Saturated fats). In chemical terms these fats belong to a class of glyceryl esters of fatty acids that are insoluble in water. There are three types of Fats:

Saturated fats

These are found in animal and dairy products and some vegetables usually the seeds.

Monounsaturated fats

These are found mainly in olive, peanut and canola oils. This type of fat does not contribute to high blood cholesterol.

Polyunsaturated fats

These are found mainly in safflower, sunflower, corn, soybean and cottonseed oils and some fish. This type of fat does not contribute to high blood cholesterol.

Sugar

A sweet, usually crystalline substance extracted chiefly from sugar cane and sugar beets and used as a food and sweetening agent. These added sugars provide calories with few vitamins or minerals.

Cholesterol

Cholesterol is a fat-like substance present in all animal foods - meat, poultry, fish, milk and milk products, and egg yolks. Both the lean and fat of meat and the meat and skin of poultry contain cholesterol. In milk products, cholesterol is mostly in the fat, so lower fat products contain less cholesterol. Egg yolks and organ meats, like liver, are high in cholesterol. Plant foods do not contain cholesterol. As you can see Cholesterol and fat are not the same thing. Dietary cholesterol, as well as saturated fat, raises blood cholesterol levels in many people, increasing their risk for heart disease. Some health authorities recommend that dietary cholesterol be limited to an average of 300 mg or less per day.

Nutrition Guidelines

The best nutrition advice is to follow the Dietary Guidelines for Americans developed by USDA and HHS jointly. There are seven guidelines for a healthy diet for Americans ages 2 and up. The seven guidelines are:

1. Eat a variety of foods to get the energy, protein, vitamins, menerals, and fiber you need for good health.
2. Balance the food you eat with physical activity - maintain or improve your weight to reduce your chances fo having high blood pressure, heart disease, a stroke, certain cancers, and the most common kind of diabetes.
3. Choose a diet with plenty of grain products, vegetables, and fruits which provide needed vitamins, minerals, fiber, and complex carbohydrates, and can help you lower your intake of fat.
4. Choose a diet low in fat, saturated fat and cholesterol to reduce your risk of heart attack and certain types of cancer and to help you maintain a healthy weight.
5. Choose a diet moderate in sugars. A diet with lots of sugar has too many calories and too few nutrients for most people and can contribute to tooth decay.
6. Choose a diet moderate in salt and sodium to help reduce your risk of high blood pressure.
7. If you drink alcoholic beverages, do so in moderation. Alcoholic beverages supply calories, but little or no nutrients, drinking alcohol is also the cause of many health problems and accidents and can lead to addiction.

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© 2001, Ciree Loftus

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