Nutrition is the study of foods and their use by the body. It is a key element of health: some diseases are directly related to what you eat. Update on science to the growing importance. The importance of good nutrition is not a new idea ... Already 400 BC Hippocrates said that "Food is our first medicine", and according to Chinese medicine millennium foods are also remedies that need to comply with an instruction manual specific to prevent and even treat diseases .
Deficiencies and Men
In the last century, it has demonstrated the link between nutritional deficiencies and serious illnesses. These different forms of malnutrition are still today public health problems in developing countries, such as blindness due to vitamin A or cretinism due to iodine deficiency. However, it is well after the disappearance of the major nutritional deficiencies in Europe, the idea that any malnutrition certain diseases could be linked to nutritional factors, and since the 60s, research on the links between diet and health has made enormous progress.
A Public Health Problem
It is now proven that the two biggest causes of death in France - cardiovascular disease and cancer - are linked to the way we eat. We also know that dietary factors are associated with the occurrence of many other widespread diseases such as diabetes, osteoporosis and obesity and that a "good" nutrition is a key factor for a "good" health. Eg atherosclerosis, the phenomenon of hardening of the arterial wall, sometimes begins early in life and can be halted or even reversed if we limit saturated fatty acids in the diet. Similarly, there may be genetically predisposed to diabetes but do not be affected by the disease if it maintains an acceptable weight. Finally we know the importance of consuming dietary fiber to reduce the risk of colon cancer.
Food & Performance
But beyond the protective role or, conversely "at risk" of certain nutrients (vitamins blessed, cholesterol banned!), The notion of guaranteeing a better diet for better health in the broadest sense has made its way. The role of food themselves and eating behaviors on the physical and intellectual, on resistance to infection or in the fight against aging are commonly accepted. It is also clear that nutrition alone is not the only pledge for better health or longer life, but it is in addition to the regular practice of physical exercise, reducing consumption tobacco and alcohol, stress control, a limitation of exposure to environmental risks and other factors to improve the quality of life.
Striking A Balance
The basis for good nutrition is balance, variety and moderation in our diet. To stay healthy the body needs a certain proportion of carbohydrates, lipids and proteins and vitamins and minerals. Yet the modern urban diet is often unbalanced, even upside down and goes hand in hand with a life increasingly sedentary. The restoration of good practice is more difficult than it seems, and nutrition education must begin early, especially when childhood obesity is increasing in alarming proportions in recent years.
Future Prospects
Today nutritional science has become more important than ever, alongside the development of new scientific theories multiply more or less valid on the virtues of foods and diets miracles or to evil. Apart from the substantive argument sometimes commercial or for the sake of simplicity reassuring to consumers, the allocation of so many blessings and so many evils to the food tends to shorten and distort scientific truths long and difficult to establish the links between diet and health. Thus, even if certain foods are better than any other of them is a bad thing because it is always balance, variety and moderation.
Good Eating Habits
In the present state of knowledge, it has highlighted the role of certain foods as risk factors or protective as contrary to disease. Diet recommends "good eating" for everyone and specific measures for the sick or those who want to lose a few pounds. Yet nutrition remains a huge area to explore science and research is in full swing throughout the world on topics such as the nutritional needs of the organization, the role of genetic factors on nutritional status or mode of action nutrients and their specific effect on the onset of disease.
That is why, in the years to come and recommendations on nutrition are expected to become even more important and become more accurate in terms of prevention and treatment of disease.
