Food That Can Sustain Life
The word food brings to mind a circle of revolving cones that are filled with foodstuff like grains, roots, nuts, fruits, and vegetables. These food items are then consumed by humans in their meals for the sustenance of their body system. Humans can obtain all the necessary vitamins, minerals and other nutrients from the food they eat and digest to gain energy for their activities. There are different types of food groups that constitute a meal for the human body.
Basically, food is any substance absorbed to give live nutritional support to an organism by the process of digestion. Food is categorized into three major categories: carbohydrates, proteins and lipids. Carbohydrates are divided into simple and complex forms to help in the extraction of energy from plants and animals and used in the metabolic processes of humans and other living things.
Proteins are essential in ensuring normal functions of the human body and are also used in the digestive processes of animals, while fats are essential in ensuring the sustenance of the human body and are also consumed in the diet of people for ensuring their lives to sustain life. Vitamins are substances needed in the process of absorption for the assimilation of food and minerals into the body system. However, some nutrients cannot be assimilated through the human digestive system as they need to be derived from the food source for their complete consumption. One of these substances is water, which is needed in all food preparations and is obtained either as solid or semi-solid form in all food preparations.
Fats are found in different forms in foods such as oil, butter, margarine, shortening, peanut butter, etc. Other than these, oils, salt and other refined sugars are non-absorbable and are a part of the first food group. The second food group is comprised of non-nutritious substances that deteriorate slowly in the stomach and are mainly obtained by animal digestion. Milk, meat, eggs, etc are included in this group of non-nutritious substances consumed.
Vegetables are one of the richest sources of various kinds of minerals, vitamins and nutrients required for the human body. The second food group consists of animal products and these are consumed for their meat, milk, eggs and fur. Other than these, fruits and vegetables consist of the entire variety of the nutritious vegetables and are one of the richest source of nutrition. Nuts and seeds are also counted among the rich sources of protein and the vitamin E, which is an important nutrient required for health and immunity.
Food eaten on a daily basis provides energy to the body for working effectively and provides the necessary nourishment to the body for the development of the young. As the food is consumed in a healthy way, the body gets benefited by the right proportion of nutrients and does not become overweight or undernourished. The food that has the highest proportion of minerals and nutrients, i.e., high protein and minerals and vitamins is considered as the best food that can sustain life. The diet that is balanced and composed of these foods can provide energy to the body for working effectively.