Our Health and Food Nutrients, Which Should Be Given More Attention!

Greetings Dear lovely people of @stemsocial. Once again I have come your way to share with you my my science teachings. Today we will be focusing on "Our health and food nutrients we should be more focused on." As the Bible says, we have the right to engage in all sort of things but not all things are good for us. Our body need some important nutrients to build up, nourish and develop the system in order to live healthy and long lasting lives. Talking from the experience, have gone through a lot of changes due to the kinds of food I take which are leaving me with problems. Our bodies is made up of numerous cells and as we grow, most of these cells worn out and many become weaker and weaker. There is the need to eat some important food in order to boost these cells. If the cells are healthier we always look younger and stronger 💪 all the time.

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What food nutrients and the quantity...

Without wasting much time, let's delve into the various list of food nutrients we have around us. As we learnt in our schools, our science teacher would teach us that we have six(6) classes of food nutrients. These are as follows:

1• protein

1. carbohydrates

3• fats and oil

4• mineral salts

1. vitamins

2. water

Even through water as listed here most people do not consider as nutrients in the list, but we take in water anytime and frequently to regulate our body temperature. It is the main source that keeps the vacuole more turgid and dissolves many food and other substances. The cell shrinks quickly if there is shortage of water in the body. We would see most animals; sheep, cattle and pigs panting with any little lack of water in addition to their feed.

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Protein sources

Proteins are very vital sources of all living matter. Protein are made of basic unit called amino acid which is the end product at which proteins are absorbable to the body system after digestion. The element formation of proteins are carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen in the compound - RCH(NH2)COOH. So, in the animal's feed such as centrosema, grasses and other legumes contain more nitrogen which are good sources of protein feeds for the farm animals.

Normally, proteins are divided into two, first class proteins and second class proteins. The first class proteins are the animals source and they contain all the 23 amino acids. Examples are meat relates food like beef, chicken and fishes. The second class proteins are basically from plants products such as beans and and other vegetables.

As a matter of urgency, the first class protein are even though good but when taken in excess would cause a lot of health problems like cholesterol and fat deposits in the bodies which the final results can be obesity and high blood pressure.

So, it's advisable to take more of the second class proteins to lower the cholesterol levels and excess fats in your bodies for healthy growth.

The importance of protein in our diets

The main function of protein is to repair worn out tissues in our body systems, for growth and maintenance, for hormone and enzymes development. Proteins also aid skeletal muscles, hair, tendon, cartilage, horns and hooves of farm animals growth.

It is always advisable for categories of people like pregnant women, infants, nursing mothers to take in more of proteins for healthy growth. The lactating mother need more proteins for more breast milk production. Infants need more proteins to aid fast growth. pregnant women need more protein for heathy fetus production.

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Carbohydrates sources

Carbohydrates and fats and oils sometimes perform similar function as noted to produce a lot of energy.fats and oils are stored under the skin of the animals in the adipose tissue. For instance during locomotive force of the animals, these fats are burnt and release energy. Carbohydrates are complex food chain comprises of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen in the compound formation - C6H12O6. The simplest unit after final digestion of carbohydrates is glucose which is absorbed through the villi of the ileum.

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Examples of carbohydrates sources of food we have around us are: rice, maize, cassava, millet, wheat, sorghum, yam, sugar cane and other many sources of carbohydrates we can think of. Note, we also have 3 types of carbohydrates as Monosaccharides, Disaccharides and Polysaccharides of which I wouldn't delve into them today, but it would be another topics in my subsequent posts. Now we are going to look as their importance to our bodies and how should regulate their use in our bodies so that they don't pose problems to us.

The importance of carbohydrates are to provide our bodies with energy as I said earlier on in the post. Their deficiencies can cause rickets, a condition where the bones are weakened. Their excess in the body can also lead to weight gains and poor metabolism, since when their production in the body system become more, they are converted as glycogen( excess storage of carbohydrates).

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Mineral salts

Mineral salts are needed by the body for healthy growths. Their deficiencies can lead to serious minerals deficiencies such as anaemia as in lack of irons in our diet, rickets as in deficiency of calcium. Goitre as in lack of iodine in our foods. Poor health growth due to insufficient of sulphur in our food. In facts, minerals are needed in smaller quantities not to be too much in the diet. For instance, Sodium chloride ( common salt) is needed in smaller quantities since their excess in food can lead to high blood pressure. What is very important is to have them in our daily meals.

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Vitamins sources and their importance in our diets.

Vitamins are organic sources of food that are needed by the body for healthy growth. In fact we do not have a specific enzyme that digest vitamins on like protein, carbohydrates, fats and oils that have specific enzymes which digest them as they pass through the alimentary canal. So, vitamins like orange are easily absorbed by the body as soon as we take. Basically, vitamins can be group into two(2) components; water soluble and fat soluble vitamins. Water soluble vitamins are found in green leaves like cabbages, lettuce , cereals like maize, millets etc. Fruits such as papaya, avocado and mangoes. Note the water soluble vitamins are stored by the body for short time and then release from the body through metabolism such as sweat by the kidney. The fat soluble vitamins are mostly found in animal products such as meat and vegetable oils. Most of the fats soluble vitamins are stored by the liver and therefore we are not advised to take in excess, but we should take in smaller quantities. The liver does so many storages so if we put more burden on the liver a time will come that it can't function normal and this would lead to liver problem. Some vitamins such as Ascorbic acid which is one of the vital water soluble vitamins are needed by the body on daily basis to boost the immune system. This ascorbic acid can organically be gotten from fruits like orange. But we can also buy the manufactured one from pharmacy.

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In summary....

To get healthy body to carry out all kinds of activities such as talking, locomotion, dancing, writing, hopping, running and other activities we do everyday, we need to value our food that we eat. We need to always measure the nutrient content as well as the quantity we intend eating so that we can always live healthy. Above all, we should take our exercise seriously in addition to the foods that we eat. It is very painful to spend lots of money on ill health due to lack of certain food nutrients, instead of using that money on food that can boost our immune system. Thanks for your attention!