ESSENTIAL NUTRIENTS to sustain a healthy life

foods high in amino acids

An essential nutrient is one that fulfils the daily nutritional needs that support health

Essential nutrients such as amino acids foods and choline foods have a variety of particularly important essential vitamins for maintaining immune health and wellbeing. It’s all about nutrition value and daily nutrition needs. We all need nutrition foods high in the daily essential nutrients to provide the nutrition required for human body function.

The body relies on six essential nutrients

By knowing what nutrition benefits there are in foods, you can gain a better understanding of all the different food nutrients there are, especially the essential nutrients and various types of nutrition for maintaining a healthy diet.

WHAT ARE NUTRIENTS?

The six essential nutrients are Protein, Carbohydrates, Fats, Vitamins, Minerals and Water.

WHY ARE NUTRIENTS IMPORTANT?

A healthy diet is all about good nutrition and taking in the essential nutrients in foods.

A person’s body is mostly unable to produce anything on its own. Therefore, to function normally, the body needs enough of the six main nutrients for sustainability. These six essential nutrients provide the dietary requirements the body needs for good health.

What nutrition foods do is supply the body with adequate nutrients to fuel energy, growth, and build immune health to support immune system function. They can provide an immune defence against disease.

Essential nutrients are the various substances… compounds or elements found within foods that, when eaten, can produce growth and development, sustain energy, while providing ongoing support to the immune system. These important food nutrients help develop a strong defence against disease.

You may wonder why you need to rely on an essential diet of healthy foods, rich in food nutrients, to function and maintain health. These essential nutrients strengthen the immune system, creating an immune defence system to sustain life itself, as well as ward off disease.

WHY DO WE NEED THESE ESSENTIAL NUTRIENTS?

What benefit is there in having an essential diet rich in nutrients?    

There are 2 DIFFERENT TYPES OF NUTRIENTS

As there are a variety of different essential nutrients, these nutrients are separated into two distinct categories… essential micronutrients and essential macronutrients. These provide the foundational major nutrients the body needs to support health.

Micronutrients and Macronutrients  

The micronutrients and macronutrients are the main nutrients that provide and sustain health.       

Essential micronutrients are those nutrients the body needs to be consumed only in small quantities at a time. These essential food nutrients are the important Vitamins and Minerals that help support immune system function and help to ward off disease by building up your immune system defence.

Essential macronutrients need to be eaten in much larger quantities as they are the major nutrients that provide the building blocks to a healthy diet.

Examples of Nutrients

It’s important to know what nutrition and which nutrients are in these important essential macronutrients. These food nutrients are protein, carbohydrates, and the essential fats. These important essential nutrients maintain the body’s energy levels.

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The six essential nutrients make for a variety of healthy essential food choices, providing the necessary important vitamins and minerals, protein, carbohydrates, and fats for maintaining healthy living.

6 ESSENTIAL NUTRIENTS

WHAT IS THE BENEFIT OF THESE FOOD NUTRIENTS?

Healthy foods are good sources of nutrients that the body needs for immune health.

The benefits of these six nutrients are:

  • Proteins help build strong bones for strength and endurance
  • Carbohydrates provide energy to sustain activity
  • Healthy Fats are essential for supporting cholesterol levels
  • Vitamins boost immunity due to their antioxidant benefits
  • Minerals are needed for immune system function
  • Water is essential for survival as up to 70% of body components consist of water

The key nutrients form part of essential diet foods that sustain a healthy body.


1       PROTEIN     

Protein in DAILY NUTRITION             

Proteins represent essential food nutrients for all cell tissues. Protein is one of the essential diet food elements that provides the important basic nutrients that will help sustain good health.

Protein food supports your daily nutrition needs. It is one of the daily essential nutrients that every healthy diet includes. Proteins are essential for building strong bones and strengthening muscles. It’s an important major nutrient the body requires for maintaining skin, hair, and cell growth.

PROTEIN FOR DAILY NUTRITION NEEDS          

There are a variety of amino acids foods such as fish, avocado etc. These provide particularly important nutrients and constitute a major source of nutrition. They are the essential nutrients for body function that support long term health.

Fish, meat, and eggs are all excellent amino acids foods as these contain one of the key nutrients to maintain growth, support health and provide for daily nutrition needs.


2       CARBOHYDRATES – DAILY NUTRITION FOODS

ESSENTIAL NUTRIENTS TO FUEL THE BODY

Carbohydrates are one of the primary nutrients They are beneficial food nutrients that help fuel the body and support both brain function and the central nervous system, all the while protecting and strengthening immune defence against disease. Carbohydrate foods are excellent sources of nutrients that the body needs for daily nutrition.

Some nutritionists even suggest that carbohydrates are essential food and that about 45% – 65% of your daily calorie intake should come from eating carbohydrates.

HEALTHY CARBOHYDRATE FOODS       

Healthy carbohydrate foods are good sources of nutrients and include low carb foods.

Choose healthy options when looking for healthy carbohydrate foods. Look for fiber-rich foods, fruits, and vegetables (except potatoes), whole grain foods, quinoa, whole wheat breads, oats, rye, barley, as these all provide the major nutrients for supporting health.

Quinoa

3       HEALTHY FATS   

Healthy fats are nutrition rich foods.        

Carbohydrates foods are good daily nutrition foods.

Monounsaturated Fat            

Monounsaturated fat helps reduce heart disease. Monounsaturated fats help protect organs. They can also lower heart disease and cholesterol levels.

If you are looking to reduce your risk of heart disease, it’s important to reduce your intake of saturated fats to the healthier monounsaturated fat foods.

Avocado

To help maintain good levels of cholesterol, choose healthy fat food nutrients. Good examples of fats include extra virgin olive oil, avocados, nuts, almonds as these benefit heart health and the immune system.

recipes for quinoa
cards in quinoa

Omega-3 Fats

Healthy omega-3 fats can be found in sardines, herring, and salmon.


4       VITAMINS

Vitamins help boost immunity       

A healthy diet relies on foods packed with essential vitamins and minerals, as they are the essential nutrients the body needs to support health. The best immune system booster foods include vitamins.

The body needs thirteen essential vitamins…

A well-balanced diet needs to include a variety of these thirteen essential vitamins.

These thirteen essential vitamins and all vitamins are essential for the body to function. Vitamins are vital nutrients that help ward off disease, keeping the immune system healthy and strong. Vitamin food nutrients have important antioxidant benefits.

There are two distinct types of vitamins…

WATER SOLUBLE VITAMINS         

When the body ingests water soluble vitamins, it expels anything it does not absorb. Vitamins B1, B2, B3, B4, B5, B6, B7, B9, B12 and vitamin C are all important vitamins for the body that support the immune system.

FAT SOLUBLE VITAMINS

Vitamins have important antioxidant benefits for supporting the immune system, overall health, and wellbeing.

The body only takes what it needs. Any leftovers are then stored within the liver and the tissue walls, keeping them in reserve.

Vitamins A, D, E, and K are all important essential vitamins for body health and wellbeing.

Healthy sources of vitamins:       

Healthy sources of vitamins include fruits and vegetables including leafy greens, spinach, broccoli, red peppers, legumes, cabbage, beetroot, milk, cheese, yoghurt, lean meat, poultry, oily fish, and healthy nuts such as almonds and cashews in moderation, along with whole grain foods such as quinoa, oats, and barley.

Healthy Sources of Vitamins

5       MINERALS

As with vitamins, a healthy diet should include a variety of essential minerals to support a healthy immune system. They are both major nutrients as they enable the body to stay hydrated.

Minerals and vitamins are essential for our metabolic function. We mustn’t underestimate the importance of minerals in our body. Mineral packed foods provide essential nutrition for survival.

Mineral foods having calcium, zinc and iron contain especially important food nutrients for growing strong bones and teeth, along with helping to regulate blood pressure.

Zinc has antioxidant benefits that help strengthen immunity against disease. It helps maintain a strong immune defence, helping wounds and infections to heal faster.


6       WATER

WATER IS AN ESSENTIAL NUTRIENT            

immune boosting foods
The body’s energy comes from staying hydrated and eating lots of nutrients in food.

Water is vital for life itself

Last but not least, water is a vital nutrient, essential for life itself. Without adequate water, dehydration can occur, and the body’s immune system could be at significant risk. Staying hydrated is important. You could go without food for a few days, but water is an essential nutrient, as it’s a critical contributor to overall immune health and staying immune from disease.

Water enables all the essential nutrients from fruits and vegetables to distribute throughout the body. The body is entirely dependent on regular supplies of vital nutrients through regularly eating different types of nutrition… foods rich in essential vitamins and foods with minerals. It is unable to store water for its future use.

It’s important to eat lots of fruits and vegetables because nutrients in foods distribute the essential vitamins and all the important essential minerals the body needs to function. Water helps lubricate the immune cells, avoiding dehydration and preventing constipation.


Fresh healthy fruits and vegetables are packed with water and different nutrients to meet our daily nutritional needs.

Essential Nutrients for Children

calorie

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