Nutrition plays an important role in the human body. Not only does it keep us looking good and healthy, it also helps prevent many forms of cancer and disease. Vitamin A and provitamin A carotenoid, for instance, are nutrients that help prevent disease and cancer. These vitamins also help prevent bacteria and viruses by maintaining the integrity of the skin and mucous membranes. Vitamin D, folate, folic acid, and vitamin B6 also help prevent disease or cancer. The best way to prevent different forms of cancer is to eat a well balanced diet. Rachel Zinaman, a clinical research dietician at the Evelyn H. Lauder Breast Cancer Center in New York says, “Consume a well balanced diet which is low in fat and high in fiber. You want to use all the fruits and vegetables.” So balancing what you eat is the best way to diet.
Vitamin A and provitamin A carotenoid play an important role in vision, bone growth, reproduction, cell division, and differentiation. Bacteria can enter the body and cause infection if any of the linings of the eye, respiratory, urinary, and intestinal tracts break down. Therefore, vitamin A helps maintain these surface linings. Surveys suggested that diets rich in provitamin A carotenoids and vitamin A have the potential to lower risk of many types of cancer, and there is evidence that eating more green and yellow vegetables or food sources of carotenoid and other vitamin A will also decreased risk of lung cancer. For children, vitamin A protects them from infectious diseases such as measles. According to the National Institutes of Health, millions of children die each year, in countries where there is no immunization program, from infectious diseases like measles in result of vitamin A deficiency.
People who lack vitami...
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...was surprised and interested in learning that there are many nutrients that can actually help prevent diseases and cancers. All this time, I knew that nutrition was good for your body but I never knew the fact that they actually help us fight against cancer cells and infectious diseases such as breast cancer, anemia, osteomalacia, lung cancer, and etc. After reading these articles, I was motivated and feel like eating everything. I realized that eating a variety of food is the best way to get adequate amount of vitamins. For many years I have been trying to feed myself bitter vegetables because I thought that they will make me healthier. But then I found out that many other foods can also make me healthy. Now I know that I shouldn’t just eat bitter vegetables. I should eat a variety of different foods because it contains certain vitamins that are helpful for my body.
Vitamin A helps a lot in the maintenance of a healthy skin, mucus membrane, teeth and other soft tissues of the body.
According to Michael Pollan, the best way to eat healthily is to grow fresh vegetables. Pollan’s documentary effectively contributes evidence that eating mostly plants is naturally beneficial and prevents disease. In an experiment conducted by Steven O’Keefe, data reveals that colon cancer is more common in the United States than in Africa. The documentary simply states that the people of Africa eat mostly plants. Michael Pollan suggests that the lack of plant foods in the American diet causes a lack of fiber intake. After collecting this data, Steven O’Keefe swaps the diet of an African and American. This study eventually exposed that more vegetables in a diet can support colon health and prevent colon cancer. When stated so logically, Michael Pollan convinces the viewer that eating “mostly plants” is a necessary change for our health. He argues that historically, eating plants have been naturally healthy to various cultures and has potential to raise the well being of America.
Food contains variety of nutrients, which is essential to our bodies. Nutrition is necessary to support the activities of day-to-day living. Nutrients in the food help maintaining normal growth and development, tissue maintenance and repair, cellular metabolism, and organ function (Potter, 2012, p.996). There are two groups of nutrients: macronutrients such as proteins, carbohydrates, fats, and micronutrients such as vitamins and minerals. However, nutrition should include water too because water helps protecting and repairing cells from environmental damage. Each nutrient has its own functions to restore our body. Proteins rebuild damaged tissue and promote growth. Carbohydrates and fats provide energy to the body, while vitamins and minerals function throughout the body in support of body’s processes. Water is essential for cellular homeostasis and life: it removes waste products including toxins out of vital organs. It moves nutrients to the cells, regulates body temperature, and providing a moist for brain, eyes, ears, nose, mouth, spinal cord, and
For years, I have been eating what I want. Food choices are a significant factor that affects our health. What we like or crave, often, is the determining variable in what we eat. Finding the right balance of food choices is the key factor in improving our health benefits. Choosing nutrient-dense foods will provide more nutritional value than foods that are found to be low in nutrient density. Making the right choices in foods, however, is extremely difficult. Often, I find myself enthralled in the latest fad, not considering the subtext of the foods I am eating, such as nutrients, vitamins, healthy fats and unhealthy fats, cholesterol and minerals. The diet project underlined a three-day food entry intake that provided a dietary analysis report
Some studies suggest that taking a daily multivitamin containing folic acid or folate can lower colorectal cancer risk. Other studies suggest that increasing calcium intake via supplements or low-fat dairy products may lower risk. Studies of vitamin A, C, D, and E supplements have yielded conflicting results, and additional research is needed.
The food that a person ingests often determines whether or not that person is at risk to have or develop cancer. Certain foods promote different cancers in different parts of the body. Diets high in animal protein especially promote cancers of the liver, large intestine, kidney and breast. Diets high in total fat (animal as well as plant - based) are particularly linked to cancers of the large intestine, prostate, breast and pancreas. Inadequate intakes of plant antioxidant vitamins (beta carotene, vitamin C, vitamin E and many other similar substances) are implicated in many cancers. Food components can prevent cancer by mopping up highly reactive chemicals (free radicals) that act throughout the cancer process inhibiting cell division and enhancing the immune system, especially the so-called "natural killer cells". Food components also reduc...
Proper nutrition is important in maintaining a long and healthy life. Most Americans are rushed due to their busy work schedules, and do not take the time to plan their diets properly. Like me, most Americans are unaware of the importance of eating a healthy diet and consume too many foods without the proper nutrients. Throughout my life I have been fortunate. I have not had any major health problems, and have been able to consume most foods without having to worry about gaining weight. These last two years, however, I started to gain weight and have become concerned with my diet. Changing my poor eating habits has been difficult for me, however, having this assignment has taught me that it is not as difficult as I previously imagined.
When one hears the three words: vitamins, nutrients, and minerals, they think of one thing-being healthy and noticing what your intake is daily. Nutrition is all about vitamins and nutrients. Firstly, vitamins are an organic compound required by the body in small amounts of metabolism, to protect health, and for proper growth of children. Vitamins also assist in the formation of hormones, blood cells, nervous systems chemicals, and genetic material. There are 13 well-identified vitamins. Some examples of the 13 well-identified vitamins are: A, D, E, and K-fat contained foods, B, C-consumed immediately. A well known and commonly used in commercials for orange juice vitamin is vitamin C. Vitamin C or ascorbic acid is important in the synthesis and maintenance of connective tissues. The lack of vitamin C will result in a sickness called scurvy. Scurvy harms the gums, mucous membranes, and the skin. Another well-known vitamin and is also used to commercial to give more information about this beverage is the vitamin in milk. The vitamin in milk is vitamin D. If you do not drink milk and obtain this vitamin, your bones and teeth will become soft and weak. Lacking one or more of the 13 well-identified vitamins will cause sickness and weakness to your body. Secondly, nutrients are how the body assimilates certain compounds. Nutrients are classified in 5 major groups: proteins, carbohydrates, fats, vitamins, and minerals. One of the five nutrients is carbohydrate. The carbohydrate group principally consists of sugar, starch, dextrin, cellulose, and glycogen. In more basic terms, carbohydrates are sugars needed by human and other living organisms. Some types of foods that contain carbohydrates would be candies, ice cream, fruit juice, soda, chocolate bars etc. Lastly, vitamins are connected to minerals. Minerals are also a very important part of a healthy person. There are 11 major groups of minerals. They are: calcium, chromium, copper, iodine, iron, magnesium, manganese, phosphorous, potassium, selenium, and zinc. All these terms look very familiar if one has taken chemistry. These are the elements of our world. One of the more common minerals that most people have heard of is calcium. Calcium also helps with the structure and strength of teeth and bones. Vitamins and minerals work together to help humans maintain a healthy body. For example, vitamin D works with calcium to help for and maintain the strength of teeth and bones.
Vitamin D is a necessary component for calcium absorption to prevent boss loss. Nutritionally our body can create vitamin D by sun exposure however many factors can prevent our bodies to create vitamin D such as using sunblock or not getting enough sun exposer from daily routine. Vitamin D can be found in many foods that we such as milk including almond milk, eggs yolks, saltwater fish, and liver. Other vitamins that can help prevent bone loss are vitamin A and C. Vitamin C is an antioxidant which helps reduce oxidative stress which can have a negative effect on the cells in the body. This helps protect against inflammation which takes away calcium from the bones. Vitamin C can be found in many foods such as papaya, bell peppers, broccoli, Brussel sprouts, strawberries, pineapples, oranges and kiwifruit and fruit juices have supplement vitamins. Vitamin A is important for bone growth, vision, cell division and cell differentiation. There are two different forms of vitamin A are retinol and beta-carotene. Retinol can be found in meat, poultry, fish and dairy products while beta-carotene can be found in fruits, vegetables and
The first thing I am going to talk about is Cancer. There are certain foods that you should try and avoid in order to decrease your risk of getting cancer. According to the Mayo Clinic they suggest that you eat plenty of fruits and vegetables. Along with other foods that will come from plant sources. Whole grains and beans are another good source of food that you should eat. They recommend that we should limit our fat intake. Eat lighter and leaner by picking out fewer high – fat foods, especially the ones that are from animal ...
Nowadays, healthy is the number one individual and also governmental concern. As the saying goes, ‘an apple a day keeps the doctor away’ is clearly show that eat nutritious food such as fruits and vegetables can provide a good health and can prevent us from harmful diseases. As we know, vegetables provided various types of vitamins needed by the body for instance pumpkin contains a lot of vitamin A, tomatoes contain vitamin C and spinach contains folate. Pumpkin is one of nature’s riches sources of alpha-carotene, a carotenoid that converts to retinol which is a form of vitamin A. The amount of vitamin A that contain in the pumpkin per serving (116g) is 171%, vitamin C 17%, calcium 2% and iron 5% (Pumpkin raw, 2014). There are a lot of benefits when consuming vitamin A, for example this vitamin promotes healthy vision, bone growth, reproduction and help boosts our immune system. Apart from that, a diet high in vitamin A may lower the risk of many types of cancer. Besides, some vegetables also contain a lot of vitamin C such as tomatoes, bell peppers and broccoli. The function of vitamin C is it helps heal the wounds and keep away the body from bacterial infection. According to researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University, they discovered that vitamin C can kill drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) bacteria (Libov, 2013, para. 3). Besides that, vitamin C
Vitamins, a group of organic substances required in our diets in small amounts for growth and nutrition, are usually found in foodstuffs or taken as supplements. Yet vitamins probably present a wider gap between myth and reality in the layman's understanding than almost any other area of our diet. Surveys have found that while a majority of Americans do take vitamin supplements on a regular or occasional basis for reason of health concerns, there exists enormous confusion about the actual purpose and benefits of this practice ("Use of Vitamin and Mineral Supplements in the United States," 1990:161). Most people have a recognition that Vitamin C prevents scurvy, that Vitamin A is found in fish-liver oils, or that Vitamin D is found in dairy products; many people believe that Vitamin E preserves youth and prevents sterility, or that Vitamin C can present colds and cancer. Beyond this, however, there is still considerable ignorance and widespread myth.
Weight control is a concern of most individuals, and as a person ages weight becomes more difficult to manage. When this problem occurs, the majority of people look to exercise or diet change for answer. In order to manage one’s weight a person must eat fewer calories than they expend, which can be completed by consuming foods with lower energy density, high fiber, and high water content. When it comes to research and diet it is common knowledge that fruits and vegetables are superior in nutrition when compared to the other food groups. According to the Center for Disease Control, “consuming a diet high in fruits and vegetables is associated with lower risks for numerous chronic diseases including cancer and cardiovascular disease” (Can, n.d.,
The nutrients we get from eating fruits and vegetables are also very important in our daily diet. When we eat anything we get nutrients from it, but the question is are we eating too much? Too much of a good thing can be bad! The different vitamins have many different purposes, vitamin A keeps the eyes and skin healthy and helps protect against infections. Vitamin C helps heal cuts and wounds and keeps your teeth and gums healthy.
Nutritional status is a good predictor of health; this is why it is important to have a balanced diet incorporating all macro and micronutrients. There is a strong correlation between diet and the development of certain diseases. For example, diets high in sugar, sodium, and saturated fats are causing people to become overweight, which is predisposing them to development of diabetes, malignancies, and cardio-vascular diseases (Wiley & Allen, 2013, p.84). An entire spectrum of factors influence people’s choices of diet such as family, friends, culture of the community, history, media, and