Diet Food Groups and Your Health
Food is any material consumed in order to provide nutrition to an organism for future use. In its simplest form food is simply food that we eat. Food is generally of animal, plant or fungi origin, and often contains necessary nutrients, like proteins, vitamins, carbohydrates, or minerals, for future consumption. When food is digested and broken down into compounds capable of entering the body’s cells, energy is released through the process of chemical reaction (Digestion) to form adenosine triphosphate or ATP (Adenosine Triphosphate is the basis for the chemical energy storage in muscles and other tissues; the term ‘energy’ is used here to refer to the ability of a molecule to create energy).
The human body can only absorb a fixed amount of dietary carbohydrates, so most of the carbohydrate intake must come from the diet – some as glucose (monosaccharide), some as fibre (fibre) and some as protein (protein is the building block of muscle tissue). Food that consists of a large number of fibres (such as breakfast cereals) cannot be digested very quickly by the body, so they are used as energy and later stored as fat. Fibre can also be absorbed from the skin and other parts of the body; therefore it is a good idea to eat breakfast with lots of fruits and vegetables before you leave the house in the morning. Also, because fibre absorbs quickly, before the carbohydrates can be used as energy by the body, a substantial portion of the diet should consist of these foods.
Most people need less food per day than they think they do. For most people a recommended daily allowance of carbohydrate is about 35 % of the daily intake, and this level should be divided by six to ten servings per day. Because fruits and vegetables are rich in fibre, it is good to include a variety of them in your daily balanced diet. However, the proportion of fibrous food in the daily balanced diet is a much more important factor than the quantity, so for most people it is a good idea to keep their daily carbohydrate intake below the recommended level.
