The Best Way to Eat

The Best Way to Eat

Food is any material used to provide nutrition to an organisms for their life cycles. Most food is either of animal, plant or fungus origin, and consists of nutrients, including proteins, vitamins, carbohydrates, and minerals. Every living thing needs food to survive, however, some require more food than others. Some examples of life organisms requiring more food than others are bacteria, yeasts, protozoa, unicellular algae and certain fungi. Organisms in the human body, however, require only a minimal amount of food to maintain a healthy body weight.

The best way to determine the amount of food an individual human being requires to maintain his or her health and weight is to obtain a diet from the food pyramid. The food pyramid shows how much of the different types of food an individual should ingest on a daily basis. For example, the food pyramid has food sources that are represented by the different colors of the pyramid. Green is the most nutrient rich food; orange is less so, yellow is middle-aged green and red represents vitamin E, a major antioxidant, as well as other relatively unimportant nutrients. By determining which nutrient sources are the best way to get a particular type of food, the best way to eat can be determined.

Many people get their calories from fat. Reducing the amount of fat one eats can help decrease the amount of calories one consumes. Meals that contain high proportions of fatty acids (such as those found in fish oil and coconut oil) can provide a healthy source of calories without requiring a large amount of fat. Foods low in fat are better sources of vitamins A, D, and E. In addition, some foods contain relatively large amounts of minerals such as calcium, iron, and magnesium. Meals with adequate amounts of these minerals are beneficial to our health, but we need only a small amount of each mineral to adequately provide the benefits. Calcium and iron can be obtained from dairy products and meats, respectively.