America's Choice Kids Nutrition and Recipes page!

Nutrition is the study of food and how the body utilizes
nutrients to support life.

Good nutrition is necessary for proper growth and development as well as the prevention of disease. Essential nutrients are those nutrients that must be acquired from food because the human body cannot make them on its own. Essential nutrients include: protein, carbohydrate, fat, vitamins, minerals and water. Although not a nutrient, dietary fiber is an important part of the diet that should not be neglected. Dietary fiber is a non-digestible carbohydrate that provides many health benefits including digestive health and weight management.

Nutrition – What is it?

Nutrition is the study of food and how our body utilizes the food.  Nutrition includes all the parts of food, for example vitamins, minerals, protein, fat, and more. It's important to eat a variety of foods every day including fruits, vegetables, dairy and grains, so you have what you need to grow and be healthy.

PROTEIN

Proteins are a series of amino acids, which build repair, and maintain all of your body tissues. When you eat a protein food, it gets broken down in your stomach into these “amino acids.” There are 22 different amino acids your body uses to maintain muscle, bones, organs, skin and blood. Our body can make 13 of the 22 amino acids on its own! But that means we have to get the other nine from food.

Function: To build and maintain muscle, body tissue, organs and the immune system.
Food Sources: Beef, poultry, fish, dairy, nuts, seeds, beans & legumes.

CARBOHYDRATE

Carbohydrate is our body’s main energy source and is broken down into two forms – sugars and starches. Fruits and dairy products contain natural sugars; grains, vegetables and fruits contain natural starches or sometimes known as “complex carbohydrates” which break down into sugar when digested.

Function: Major source of energy to our body
Food Sources: Fruits, vegetables, grains and milk.

FATS & OILS

Fats are an important part of the diet even though it sounds like something you shouldn’t eat. Fat is a component of food, some foods like fruits and vegetables contain almost no fat, whereas other foods like nuts, oils, butter, and meats contain more fat.
Function: Fat is needed for the body to grow and develop appropriately. Fats fuel the body and help absorb certain vitamins. They also are the building blocks of hormones and they insulate nervous system tissue in the body.

Are all fats created equal? – No...Continue reading to learn why.

Unsaturated fats:  Polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats are the two unsaturated fats. They're found mainly in many fish, nuts, seeds and oils from plants. Some examples of foods that contain these fats include salmon, trout, avocados, olives, walnuts and oils such as soybean, corn, safflower, canola, olive and sunflower. This type of fat is considered to be the “good” fat because when you replace the “bad” fat in your diet with good fat, it can help keep your blood healthy by keeping your cholesterol at a normal level.

Saturated fats: Saturated fat is the main dietary cause of high blood cholesterol. Saturated fat is found mostly in foods from animals and some plants. Foods from animals include beef, veal, lamb, pork, lard, poultry fat, butter, cream, milk, cheeses and other dairy products made from whole and two percent milk. All of these foods also contain dietary cholesterol. Foods from plants that contain saturated fat include coconut, coconut oil, palm oil and palm kernel, and cocoa butter.

Trans fats: Trans fats (or trans fatty acids) are created in an industrial process that adds hydrogen to liquid vegetable oils to make them more solid.  Another name for trans fats is “partially hydrogenated oils."  Look for them on the ingredient list on food packages. Trans fats raise your bad (LDL) cholesterol levels and lower your good (HDL) cholesterol levels.  Eating trans fats increases your risk of developing heart disease.  It’s also associated with a higher risk of developing type two diabetes. Trans fats are commonly found in processed foods like cakes, cookies, crackers, pie crust, shortening, stick margarine and biscuits.

VITAMINS

Substances your body needs to grow and develop normally. There are 13 vitamins that our body needs: Vitamins A, C, D, E, K and B vitamins (thiamine, riboflavin, niacin, pantothenic acid, biotin, vitamin B-6, vitamin B-12 and folate). The best way to get adequate amounts of these vitamins is to eat a nutritionally balanced diet. However, some people may benefit from taking a daily multivitamin. If you follow a vegetarian diet, a vitamin B-12 supplement may be necessary since B-12 is primarily found in animal products.

MINERALS

needed for certain functions such as building bone, making hormones and maintaining a normal heartbeat.
Macrominerals are needed in larger amounts: Calcium, phosphorous, magnesium, sodium, potassium, chloride and sulfur.

DIETARY FIBER

Fiber is a substance found in plants that our body can not digest – it adds bulk to the diet and helps digestion and prevention of constipation. In the diet, we get fiber from fruits, vegetables, nuts, beans and grains.

Sources:
1. The American Heart Association. http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=532
2. American Dietetic Association Complete Food and Nutrition Guide, 3rd edition. Roberta Larson Duyff, MS, RD, FADA, CFCS. © 2006.