Nutrition helps in living a healthy life and also focuses on preventing disease and problems. Nutrition involves certain disease and conditions caused by dietary foods such as malnutrition, food allergies and food intolerance.
Dietitian Vs Nutrition
Dietitian is the communication and interpretation of the science of nutrition. It helps in making practical choices about food and lifestyle in both disease and health. Dietitian works in most of the areas like health care, research areas while a small amount of work in the food industry.
Nutrition is the study of food nutrients on how the body uses nutrients and the relationship between health, diet and disease. Nutrition is a source of nourishment, a component of food, like protein, carbohydrate, and vitamin. Nutrients are of two types
• Macronutrients are nutrients we need in relatively large quantities
• Micronutrients are nutrients we need in relatively small quantities
Energy macronutrients provide energy which is measured in kilocalories or joules. These macronutrients include
• Carbohydrate –kcal per gram which includes monosaccharide, disaccharides and starch
• Protein-4kcal per gram which there are 20 amino acids where organic compounds are found in nature which can combine to form proteins. Some amino acids are essential as they are to be consumed and other amino acids can be produced
• Fats -9kcal per gram, where fats are triglycerides where three molecules of fatty acids combined with one molecule of alcohol glycerol. Fats are essential in the diet as they serve many functions in our body.
There are Macronutrients which do not provide energy but they are still important. They are
• Fiber which consist mostly carbohydrates but it is not much consumed by our body.
• There is nearly 70% of water consistent in our body as nobody is damn sure about the need for water content for our body.
As like macronutrients, there is a need for micronutrients for our body
• Minerals are necessary for our body whereas dietary minerals are chemical elements for the needs of our body except for carbon, hydrogen and oxygen.
• Potassium should be given importance because lack of potassium leads to nervous system and heart problems whereas an excess amount of potassium leads to heart problems
• Chloride is a key element for producing stomach acids as it is important for the transport of molecules between the cells.
• Sodium is a systemic electrolyte which is essential in regulating ATP with potassium and it is important for the function and nerves and regulating body fluids
• Calcium is very important for muscle, heart and digestion. Calcium deficiency leads to cramps and excess of calcium leads to the stone problem in the urinary tract
• Phosphorus is important for the structure of DNA and acts as a transporter of energy. An excess amount of phosphorus leads to kidney failure
• Magnesium is good for bones and manages muscle problems. Deficiency leads to problems in the nervous system and excess amount leads to low BP and breathing issues
• Iron helps in carrying oxygen compound in the blood and excess amount of iron results in anemia and an insufficient amount of iron in the body causes heart problems.
