Nutrition Health Article

Water

Water helps to regulate body temperature, transports nutrients to cells, and rids the body of waste materials.

Origins

Unlike plants, human beings cannot manufacture most of the nutrients that they need to function. They must eat plants and/or other animals. Although nutritional therapy came to the forefront of the public's awareness in the late twentieth century, the notion that food affects health is not new. John Harvey Kellogg was an early health-food pioneer and an advocate of a high-fiber diet. An avowed vegetarian, he believed that meat products were particularly detrimental to the colon. In the 1870s, Kellogg founded the Battle Creek Sanitarium, where he developed a diet based on nut and vegetable products.

Purpose

Good nutrition helps individuals achieve general health and well-being. In addition, dietary modifications might be prescribed for a variety of complaints including allergies, anemia, arthritis, colds, depressions, fatigue, gastrointestinal disorder, high or low blood pressure, insomnia, headaches, obesity, pregnancy, premenstrual syndrome (PMS), respiratory conditions, and stress.

Nutritional therapy may also be involved as a complement to the allopathic treatments of cancer, diabetes, and Parkinson's disease. Other specific dietary measures include the elimination of food additives for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), gluten-free diets for schizophrenia, and dairy-free for chronic respiratory diseases.

A high-fiber diet helps prevent or treat the following health conditions:

• High cholesterol levels. Fiber effectively lowers blood cholesterol levels. It appears that soluble fiber binds to cholesterol and moves it down the digestive tract so that it can be excreted from the body. This prevents the cholesterol from being reabsorbed into the bloodstream.
• Constipation. A high-fiber diet is the preferred nondrug treatment for constipation. Fiber in the diet adds more bulk to the stools, making them softer and shortens the time foods stay in the digestive tract.
• Hemorrhoids. Fiber in the diet adds more bulk and softens the stool, thus, reducing painful hemorrhoidal symptoms.
• Diabetes. Soluble fiber in the diet slows down the rise of blood sugar levels following a meal and helps control diabetes.
• Obesity. Dietary fiber makes a person feel full faster.
• Cancer. Insoluble fiber in the diet speeds up the movement of the stools through the gastro-intestinal tract. The faster food travels through the digestive tract, the less time there is for potential cancer-causing substances to work. Therefore, diets high in insoluble fiber help prevent the accumulation of toxic substances that cause cancer of the colon. Because fiber reduces fat absorption in the digestive tract, it may also prevent breast cancer.

A diet low in fat also promotes good health and prevents many diseases. Low-fat diet can help treat or control the following conditions:

• Obesity. High fat consumption often leads to excess caloric and fat intake, which increases body fat.
• Coronary artery disease. High consumption of saturated fats is associated with coronary artery disease.
• Diabetes. People who are overweight tend to develop or worsen existing diabetic condition due to decreased insulin sensitivity.
• Breast cancer. A high dietary consumption of fat is associated with an increased risk of breast cancer.

Description

The four basic food groups, as outlined by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) are:

• dairy products (such as milk and cheese)
• meat and eggs (such as fish, poultry, pork, beef, and eggs)
• grains (such as bread cereals, rice, and pasta)
• fruits and vegetables

The USDA recommendation for adults is that consumption of meat, eggs, and dairy products should not exceed 20% of total daily caloric intake. The rest (80%) should be devoted to vegetables, fruits, and grains. For children age two or older, 55% of their caloric intake should be in the form of carbohydrates, 30% from fat, and 15% from proteins. In addition, saturated fat intake should not exceed 10% of total caloric intake. This lowfat, high-fiber diet is believed to promote health and help prevent many diseases, including heart disease, obesity, and cancer.

Allergenic and highly processed foods should be avoided. Highly processed foods do not contain significant amounts of essential trace minerals. Furthermore, they contain lots of fat and sugar as well as preservatives, artificial sweeteners and other additives. High consumption of these foods causes build up of these unwanted chemicals in the body and should be avoided. Food allergy causes a variety of symptoms including food cravings, weight gain, bloating, water retention. It may also worsen chronic inflammatory conditions such as arthritis.