The purpose of eating food is to ensure health and well-being, and therefore healthy eating is an essential aspect of daily nutrition. Nutritional needs over the years change over time depending on the stage of life you are in. So while a child needs food to grow and develop, adults need it more to get the energy needed to function on a daily basis. In addition, food is also needed to repair the various parts of the body that have worn out or had to be discarded due to wear and tear.
We tend to use different parts of our body in everything we do, whether it’s breathing, thinking, moving, gaming, or working on the computer. This means we need to be able to continually replenish our bodies with a variety of elements found in food and drink.
The various food components that exist, their properties, the ways in which they can be used, and the proper way that certain foods should be combined to get the maximum benefit are listed below:
The Food Elements
Healthy eating is only possible when you ensure that your body is getting the right nutritional elements in the right amounts that it needs. Therefore, it is important to be knowledgeable about food nutrition to ensure you are consuming everything. Food elements to be aware of include starches, sugars, protein, fats, minerals and non-digestible ingredients.
These are often combined to form the basic classes, including carbonaceous, nitrogenous, and inorganic. While all starches, fats, and sugars fall into the carbonaceous category, albumin is considered nitrogenous. All inorganic substances contain all the minerals that we need for the body. It should be noted that any healthy recipe or menu should ensure that all of the different food categories in a meal are delicately balanced.
Carbonated – All starches, sugars and fats fall under this category. Starch is found in grains, most vegetables, and some fruits. Sugar comes in the form of cane sugar, grape sugar, other fructose and lactose (a component of milk). There are also some sugars that are made in the lab.
Glucose, for example, is an artificial sugar that is similar to grape juice. It is made from potato or corn starch in a chemical process. However, it is not as sweet as the natural sweeteners that nature provides. Vegetables and animal foods also contain fats. Butter and suet are examples of animal fat, but you can also find fat in plant sources like nuts, beans, and some fruits like olives.
While fat is commonly used as a free element (like in butter) and we use it in abundance in many not-so-healthy recipes, free fat is not only difficult to consume, but it also interferes with the digestion of other foods.
Nitrogenous – Protein in its purest form can be found in the albumen of an egg. All the albumen in an egg is nothing but pure albumen. Albumin is also found in other animal and plant foods such as in the case of oatmeal. Gluten closely resembles protein and is also a nitrogenous element. It is found in rye, barley and wheat. Casein also belongs to this class of food element and is found in peas and beans.
Inorganic – Almost all of the food we eat has some amount of inorganic and mineral substances. Cereals and milk have a large proportion of the minerals that we need on a daily basis.
Indigestible Substances – These are foods that cannot be digested by the body and are therefore intended only to add bulk to the food we eat. Bran and fibrous tissues in the body are examples of indigestible foods.
Use of food items
Most of the foods we eat are naturally carbonaceous. This has been proven by studying the daily eating habits of different cultures. The carbonaceous food element allows our body to produce heat and in conjunction with other food elements allows us to use power and strength. Dietary components containing carbon also help the body to replace the adipose tissue that is used up in the process of burning fat.
Although fats generate the highest amount of heat among the carbonaceous food elements, it should be remembered that they are the most difficult to digest and therefore can lead to various health problems. Healthy eating means that only the recommended amount of fat should be included in meals every day.
The nitrogenous nutrients help to keep the brain, nerves and muscles healthy and fit. These are the food elements that ensure you stay healthy in every way, including mental health. All healthy recipes should contain an appropriate proportion of nitrogenous food elements to ensure that the body is stimulated to change tissues at all times, keeping all tissues fit.
The most commonly required inorganic elements are phosphates. These provide the building blocks for bones and nerves and are therefore crucial for good bone health.
Combination of food elements
“Too much of everything is bad,” says a proverb, and this also applies to food. Although all of the nutritional elements are required by the body, it is necessary that each of the nutritional elements be consumed in a certain ratio to ensure a healthy diet and a healthy life. If you want to learn how to cook healthy recipes, you need to know which food components your body needs and in what quantity.
First, the daily intake of the body should ensure 6 carbonaceous food elements to 1 nitrogenous food element. It has also been found that this sixth of the nitrogenous food components can be consumed up to 3 ounces in a 24 hour period.
So if you want to make sure you’re preparing healthy recipes for your family, you need to use this scientific knowledge about nutritional elements to ensure your family stays healthy and fit.
Thanks to Jon Lee Clark
