Holistic weight reduction - Part9 - Understanding Good Nutrition

BEFORE WE CAN PROCEED to discuss weight reduction, it is necessary to understand what good nutrition is. It is the appropriate intake of food to provide the needs of the body for energy production to support life as well as physical and mental activities at optimum levels, to consume the necessary vitamins, minerals and building materials to maintain the organs and skeleton where they can function at a healthy pace, to provide adequate amounts of fluid to sustain the integrity of the internal environment of the body and to preserve mental status at the level at which the emotional and physical stresses that are inevitable do not compromise the ideal function of the body-mind unit.

Once we determine the needs of the body for energy on the basis of an average of daily activities in the form of a caloric estimate (because we cannot predetermine the amount of activities that will need to be performed each day), then we can proceed to apportion how that energy needs to be taken into the body in the form of desired food items. The general rule recommended by the American Nutrition Society is that, except under conditions of rehabilitation from illness, pregnancy and lactation, the energy necessary must be taken into the body as 40% Carbohydrate (CHO) 30% fat and 30% Protein. My own feeling is that this over-emphasizes the need for protein and may not be feasible for most human beings for economic reasons, protein being the most expensive item among the three food resources, and because of the fact that animal protein, which is the commonest form, used in America contains a significant amount of hidden fat. If one can get rid of the bias that has been built up against fat in this country, and one uses unsaturated seed oils, it would be possible to build up a diet of 40% CHO, 40% fat and 20% protein. Where vegetable protein from nuts and legumes is consumed instead of animal protein, 30% protein may be acceptable. Fish may be a better choice than animal protein because it also contains beneficial omega-3 oils within it.

Vitamins, iron, calcium and other trace minerals are important elements that must be present in foods that can claim to provide adequate nutrition. These can be obtained from the foods that already contain energy sources, especially meat as well as dairy products. But vegetables and fruits are also important sources of vitamins and minerals. In addition they contain ingredients that are known to protect against cancer. The bulk provided by vegetables is also an important nutritional component of food, because regular bowel habits are essential to good health and to prevent diseases of the gastrointestinal tract. Adequate fluid intake is important for normal kidney and bowel function and also for maintenance of normal blood pressure. Restriction of certain elements such as the common salt, chemical additives and preservatives also must be considered to be part of the provision of good nutrition.

About the Author : Abe Kurien MD, is a proponent of holistic medicine. He writes profusely on subjects of Weight reduction. His enlightening articles can be found on the smatix weight reduction section : Nutrition Information