Health and nutrition

Nutrition or nourishment literally means the provision of necessary materials in the form of food to cells and organisms to support life.  A healthy diet is one that helps to maintain or improve health and involves consuming appropriate amounts of all nutrients and water.

Many common health problems can be prevented or alleviated through adopting a healthy lifestyle and diet. On the contrary, a poor or unhealthy diet can have an injurious impact on health, causing deficiency diseases (i.e. scurvy), health-threatening conditions (i.e. obesity, metabolic syndrome) and common chronic systemic diseases (i.e. cardiovascular, diabetes, osteoporosis).

The question needs to be asked, ‘is it really possible to consume the appropriate amounts of nutrient and water to sustain and improve health?’  This is not an easy question to answer, because as individuals we require different amounts of nutrients depending on the following factors:

• External influences
  • lifestyle – activity levels, quality of food, convenience stores, working hours, stress, pollution, soil depletion, cooking methods, etc.
• Internal factors
  • human factors - age, genetics, illness, medical conditions, culture, etc.

Ensuring that the body is provided with the correct amount of nutrients and water is therefore a complex task.  In the ideal world, each person should take all the above mentioned factors in consideration when planning their diet and nutritional requirements.  Needless to say, to think that the body will get all the necessary nutrients and water by consumption of food is not realistic.  It can only be obtained through careful consideration of diet, eating habits and dietary or nutritional supplements.

Dietary supplements (food or nutritional supplements) are preparations intended to supply nutrients, such as vitamins, minerals, fatty acids or amino acids, that are missing or are not consumed in sufficient quantities in a person’s diet. Nutrients needed in relatively large quantities are called macronutrients and those needed in relatively small quantities are called micronutrients and these can be organic or inorganic. Organic nutrients include carbohydrates, fats, proteins, amino acids and vitamins whereas inorganic nutrients are compounds such as minerals, water and oxygen.

Vitamins are organic compounds required as nutrients in tiny amounts which cannot be synthesized in sufficient quantities and must be obtained externally from the daily food consumed. Vitamins are either water or fat soluble and with water soluble vitamins the body uses what it needs and excretes the rest. With fat soluble vitamins, the body tends to use as much as is needed and the rest can be stored in the body. Dietary supplements, often containing vitamins, are used to ensure that adequate amounts of nutrients are obtained on a daily basis. If optimal these cannot be obtained through a varied diet.

Fresh fruit, vegetables, fish, meat and nuts are generally considered as good sources of vitamins.

Dietary minerals are the chemical elements required by living organisms, other than the four elements carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen and oxygen which are present in common organic molecules and they are differentiated between essential minerals and trace minerals.

Essential minerals are required to support biochemical processes, many playing a role as electrolytes or in cell structure and function:

-      Calcium is necessary for muscle functioning, heart and digestive system health, helps build bone, neutralizes acidity and supports the synthesis and function of blood cells.

-      Chloride is needed for production of hydrochloric acid in the stomach and in cellular pump functioning.

-      Magnesium is required for processing ATP (Adenosine + Triphosphate) and related reactions which includes building bone and increasing alkalinity in the body.

-      Phosphorus is a component of bone and energy processing and is necessary for many other functions, such as bone mineralization.

-      Potassium sodium is a systemic electrolyte and is essential in co-regulating ATP with sodium

Trace minerals are required in trace amounts and are usually co-factors for enzymes

–     Cobalt is required for biosynthesis of Vit B12 family of coenzymes

–     Copper is a required component of many redox enzymes, including cytochrome c oxidase

–     Fluorine participates in formation of tooth enamel which contains fluoroapatite

–     Iodine is required for the biosynthesis of thyroxine

–     Iron is required for many proteins and enzymes, notably hemoglobin

–     Manganese is a cofactor in function of antioxidant enzymes such as superoxide dismutase

–     Molybdenum is required for xanthine oxidase and related oxidases

–     Nickel is present in urease

–     Selenium is required for peroxidase (antioxidant proteins)

–     Sulfur is an essential component of cysteine and methionine amino acids and participates as an enzyme cofactor

–     Zinc is pervasive and required for several enzymes such as carboxypeptidase, liver alcohol dehydrogenase and carbonic anhydrase.

Natural fatty acids may be saturated or unsaturated and the body can product all but two of the fatty acids it needs. These are linoleic acid (LA acid) and alpha-linoleic acid (ALA), both of which are widely distributed in plant oils.

Essential fatty acids cannot be made in the body from other substrates and must be supplied in food. These are polyunsaturated fatty acids and are essential in the human diet because there is no synthetic mechanism for them. These play an important role in the life and death of cardiac cells because they are essential fuels for mechanical and electrical activities of the heart.

Amino Acids

Alpha-amino acids are the building blocks of proteins, and they are defined by their unique sequence of amino acid residues; this sequence is the primary structure of the protein. Just as the letters of the alphabet can be combined to form an almost endless variety of words, amino acids can be linked in varying sequences to form a vast variety of proteins.

The 20 standard amino acids are either used to synthesize proteins and other bio-molecules or oxidized to urea and carbon dioxide as a source of energy. Of these twenty, eight are called essential amino acids because the human body cannot synthesise them from other compounds at the level needed for normal growth, and must be obtained from food. Because the amount of amino acids required is dependent on the age and health of the individual, it is very difficult to make general statements about the dietary requirements for some amino acids.

*Essential only in certain cases

A complete multivitamin and mineral supplement, such as ActivoVite® will meet the body’s recommended daily dietary allowances (RDA), maintain a healthy nutritional balance and strengthen the body’s immune system.

Supplied by Activo Health in the interest of pharmacy education