Nutrition 101
What is Food?
What you think food is may be the key to everything.What does food mean to you? Does it mean tastes? Do you find yourself feeling comforted when you eat, or when you have a full belly? Or do you get joy from eating?
Life is rich with experiences, and for many people food is one of them. But food was designed for something much more important: to sustain life. Food is the vessel that carries energy for your body, the building blocks for your body to live and regenerate, and the elements that your body needs to operate at top efficiency.
Your body is an incredible and complex machine. And like any complex machine, there are certain things that it requires in order to work right. For example, take another very common machine - your car. What does a car need for proper operation?
- A car needs gasoline for energy,
- one type of oil to lubricate the engine,
- another type of fluid to make your transmission work,
- yet another fluid to make your power steering work,
- yet another fluid for your brake systems,
- another lubricant for your axles,
- yet another fluid to wash your windows,
- and gasses to make your air conditioning work.
What happens when these requirements are not met? Without gasoline, your engine won't even start. Fill the gas tank with the wrong fluid and the engine will not run - or worse, become damaged or destroyed. Deprive the engine of oil, and the engine self destructs. Each fluid, lubricant, and additive is designed to give the car's part exactly what it needs.
Granted, a car is a complicated piece of machinery. A modern car has about 10,000 moving parts. Even imagining all of those parts, designed to move together in harmony, can be mind-boggling.
But imagine if you can, your body. Your body has about 100,000,000,000 moving parts (no, that's not a typo. That's 100 trillion). That means your body has 10,000,000 (ten billion) times the number of parts in a car. All moving together in a stunning dance of synchronicity. And just like a car, your body needs a variety of things to operate properly, or it - just like a car - will grind to a stop at the most inconvenient time.
Food was designed to provide your body with those essential things. Energy (like gasoline to a car). Nutrients, vitamins, and minerals (like the lubricants and fluids for a car). Each one specifically designed to provide your body with a unique, specific, and essential element. Without each one, in the proper amounts, your body will not function.
In general terms, food provides your body with:
- Energy, which gives your body the fuel it needs to function. Energy is usually measured in Calories.
- Nutrients, a fancy word that means elements that your body needs to function. They are:
- Carbohydrates, one of the three main sources of energy. Carbohydrates include sugars, starches, and fiber. Carbohydrates are the only fuel that your brain can utilize?
- Proteins, another one of the three main sources of energy. Proteins are required for the structure, function, and regulation of cells in your body. They provide the building blocks for muscles and other tissue.
- Fats, the third main source of energy. Fat is necessary for your body to use some vitamins and regulates cholesterol levels.
- Vitamins, required for proper function of the cells in your body.
- Over 19 different vitamins, which are necessary for everything from your eyes, bones, skin, to your brain and nerves.
- Minerals, also required for proper function of the cells in your body.
- Over 14 different minerals, which are necessary for preventing heart problems, tooth decay, osteoporosis, muscular problems, and more.
- Water, required for a variety of tasks. Removes waste, carries nutrients, and regulates temperature. Your body is 60% water, and your brain is 70% water.
Once you think about food this way, things start to make more sense. You need to give your body the essential nutrients, vitamins, and minerals it needs. Food is designed to give your body these essential elements. So the question is: What foods give your body what it needs? Does every food have all the vitamins, nutrients, and minerals that your body needs? Which foods provide you with the best nutritional values (hint: it's not fries and a Coke). What nutritional value does an order of fries and a Coke have?
