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NutritionScience Essay - by Miranda Sol Ribeiro VecinoNutrition is a science that focuses on facts about eating healthy foods and how they affect and help your body. In this essay I will talk about maintaining a healthy diet and why it is an important ingredient to having a healthy lifestyle. I also will tell you what are the nutrients, the food guide pyramid, and nutrition labels. I’ll let you in on the secret why there is no perfect diet and tell you how I have changed my thinking after studying nutrition. As I mentioned before, nutrition is a type of science that has to do with nutrients and nutritional value, particularly to do with humans. Good nutrition is important for being and eating healthy. It helps you to avoid health issues like being overweight and high cholesterol that may provoke heart attacks and strokes. The names of all the nutrients are: Water, Proteins, Carbohydrates, Minerals, Vitamins, and Fats. Although fiber helps you to digest your foods it is not considered a nutrient. Water keeps you hydrated because you are 70% water. Like fiber water helps you digest your foods. Some more specific foods you can get water from are: the faucet, milk, juice, soup, and every other food you eat. Proteins help to grow and repair tissue (everything on humans except our clothes). We can get proteins from animals, eggs (highest level of protein), nuts, seeds, grains, beans, potatoes, yogurt, and even peanut butter. Carbohydrates are our prime source of energy. Some foods that supply carbohydrates are: grains, starches, milk, honey, vegetables, and sugars found in fruits. Minerals help bones and teeth and protect against tooth decay. Some foods you can eat to get minerals are: liver (which I would certainly not eat), milk, walnuts, sardines, and green leafy vegetables (which I love). Vitamins help process other nutrients and help form blood cells. Though while many foods provide vitamins, eating fruits and vegetables supply a lot.  The food guide pyramid I learned that the Food Guide Pyramid is an outline of how much of what to eat each day. It helps us be healthy because it tells us what foods to avoid and what foods to eat more of. But now you're probably wondering what it looks like. Well it's name say's it all, it is in the shape of a pyramid and divided into six different parts each in six different colors each section representing a different food group. You're probably dying to know what each color represents so I'll tell you:
Exercise is also part of the food guide pyramid even though it isn't a food it is still necessary for your health. Nutrition labels are important because they help you to follow the guidelines on the food guide pyramid better. You can learn how much of each nutrient the product contains. And all this helps to maintain a healthy balanced diet. Did you know, that a well balanced diet provides all needed minerals? There is no perfect diet because we need every nutrient. We must balance our diets to obtain all the essential nutrients. There is no one nutrient that covers every need we have. For example if I get sick I would need Vitamin C. If I need energy I would need Carbohydrates. And obviously I'm growing child so I need a lot of Proteins. I didn't change my diet because I think it's okay. But that doesn't mean I didn't change my thinking. Now I understand why my parents took my Halloween candy away (knowing me I would eat it). But since I changed my thinking I would be able to hold back the temptation for a while at least. Also I appreciate it more when my parents make healthy food. And that is how I changed my thinking. Nutrition is important because it helps people understand why eating healthy foods is necessary. In this essay I have talked about nutrients, the food guide pyramid, and nutrition labels. Nutrients classify food into different groups. It is important to eat all nutrients. The food guide pyramid and nutrition labels help us to do that. |