Nutrition

Exercise is king. Nutrition is queen. Put them together and you've got a kingdom.

-Jack Lalane

This quote sums up the current situation of health trends of the past few years and upcoming years. For the past 5 years, we have been chasing exercise in one form or another. Be it HIITs or Weight Training or Yoga. Fit consumers, who live a healthy, active lifestyle by doing physical exercise three to five days per week now represent about 40% of the general population (Sloan and Adams Hutt 2019).

But the pandemic leading to closing of gyms and yoga centres made us realize that exercise is part A of the game and nutrition is the second complementary part B. So here we are bringing you total information on nutrition, it’s role in human life, the effect on mind and body, what we have been doing and what we are going to do in the area of nutrition both from a personal and industrial perspective.

What do we mean by nutrition?

According to MedicineNet [1] , nutrition is the process of taking in food and using it for growth, metabolism, and repair. Nutritional stages are ingestion, digestion, absorption, transport, assimilation, and excretion.

So, taking in food is the first step in the process named nutrition. In other words, our diet. Which kind of diet? A diet which provides all types of nutrients. A balanced diet contains appropriate amounts of vitamins, carbs, protein, fat and minerals. Other very important nutrients are water and salt.

These all can be divided into two parts namely: Macronutrients and Micronutrients.

Macronutrients:

These are the nutrients required by the human body in large amounts. These are carbohydrates, proteins, fat and water.

Carbohydrates,

Carbs are the major energy source for all of us. Although there are many types of carbohydrates. We can have a look at them under the binary division of simple and complex carbohydrates.

Sugars and processed starch are simple carbohydrates and since they are simple, they are easily used by the human body. Now, this is great for rapid, instantaneous energy (like glucose solutions) but not ideal for daily diet because they lack a feeling of fullness. These cause blood sugar spikes and lead to diabetes.

On the other hand fibre (yes, they are carbohydrates) and unprocessed starch are complex carbs. Often called as healthy or clean carbs as well. It is because they take time to be broken down by our body and hence cause metabolism boost.

People are consuming carbs in high amounts daily but there is also an upsurge in google searches like “no carbs diet”. Yes, a lot of carbohydrates are not good but no carbs is [2] even worse because they are the major source of energy for our mind and body.

Proteins,

The diet partner of every gym going person, protein. They do a variety of work in our body and help in structure formation, functioning and maintenance of tissues and muscles.

Proteins contain 20 amino acids, some essential and other non-essential. Essential proteins are not produced in our body so we have to obtain them from our nutritious food.

Proteins play a huge role for vegan critiques as any single plant based diet does not provide all essential amino acids but it's a fact that the required amino acids can be obtained from plants by varying the types of diet from time to time.

Fats,

Fats act like grease for our body parts. They lubricant joints and reduce inflammation. They protect the brain and help organs to produce hormones.

But extra fats get stored in our body and leads to obesity, cholesterol issues and liver diseases. However, unsaturated fats (mostly plant based) are healthier than saturated fats (animal based).

Water,

This magical fluid makes up 60 percent of our bodies and is required for almost every other process occurring in there

Most US adults do not consume adequate water. The required amount of water is almost 8 glasses a day but that doesn’t mean you have to drink 8 glasses per day. Water intake also takes place when you eat fruits and vegetables.

Next are,

Micronutrients,

These are nutrients that are required in small amounts by our body.

These are

Minerals: potassium, sodium, calcium phosphorus, iron etc.
Vitamins: A, B complex, C, D, E, K etc.

These above mentioned nutrients then power the body for the further parts of the process like physical and mental growth, improvement of metabolism and recovery from internal and external injuries. These also facilitate the nutritional stages like vitamin D helps in the absorption of calcium and fibre rich food helps in bowel functioning and excretion.

So, how does good nutrition benefit us?

Good nutrition is an important part of leading a healthy lifestyle. It provides you with [3] the energy for your daily activities and helps you reduce the risk of chronic diseases (like heart disease and cancer), and promote your overall health.

Weight management also comes off as a result of balanced nutrition.

For eg, keeping your fat and salt intake in control prevents heart diseases and promotes a healthy heart.

Calcium rich diet with adequate vitamin D leads to strong bones and teeth.

Balanced nutrition also increases your immunity. It provides you with [4] more resistance to illness and increased power for fighting off diseases. Well nutritioned bodies are able to repair and heal faster.

Proper nutrition also leads to better mental health and directly controls how you feel. For eg. 95% of serotonin, a pain inhibitor and sleep regulator hormone is produced in the gastrointestinal tract of your body. Fibre rich diet increases its production leading to fewer mood swings.

Traditional diets instead of “western diets” have been shown to be related to better mood and energy levels as traditional diets are less processed.

Protein diets encourage the release of dopamine and neo-morphine, the “feel good” hormones.

So nutritional balance affects the human mind and body day in and out.

But we don’t have the time to look for nutrients in everything we eat and maintain a balance sheet of calories. So the concept of balanced diet is a bit off from practicality.

So, what is a practical approach to nutrition?

Healthy diet.

A healthy diet is a practical approach for overall complete nutrition. It divides common food sources according to the nutrients they are rich in. And we consume something or other from each of those categories throughout the day (or in a weekly cycle).

According to WHO, an adult needs

- At least 400g of fruit and vegetables per day (excluding ones that are starch rich) to ensure adequate consumption of dietary fibre.

Fruit and vegetable intake can be improved by:

Always including vegetables in meals and eating fresh fruit and raw vegetables as snacks. Including a variety of fruits and vegetables helps and it is advisable to use local and in-season fruits and veggies.

- Less than 30% of total energy intake from fats. Unsaturated fats are preferable to saturated fats and trans-fats of all kinds, including both industrially-produced trans-fats and ruminant trans-fats. <Infographics [5] >

- Regular intake of legumes, nuts and whole grains.

Legumes are a source of proteins. Include lentils and beans in your diet or have sprouts instead of salty snacks. Nuts are also a good source of various amino acids.

Whole grains like millet, oats, wheat and brown rice are complex carbs along with other nutrients and hence a healthier choice of food.

- Less than 10% of total energy intake from free sugars and less than 5g of salt per day.

Limiting sugar and salt is the most difficult task today as every so-called tasty food is either a packet of sugar or salt.

Try to limit sugar to 2-3 level teaspoons for every meal. And, salt should be iodized.

We have seen what nutrition is and how to get good nutrition, in detail. But what if someone does not get this good nutrition or balanced nutrition?

They are called to be suffering from

MALNUTRITION.

And, it is not just undernutrition but unbalanced nutrition as well. It can be classified into

a) Undernutrition: Wasting i.e. lower weight for height.

Stunting i.e. lower height for age

Underweight i.e. lower weight for age

b) Unbalanced nutrition: Overweight and obesity

Chronic diseases

c) Micronutrient-related malnutrition: Micronutrient deficiency

Micronutrient Excess

Malnutrition is a serious concern for human society. According to Action Against Hunger [6] , an estimated 14 million children under the age of five worldwide suffer from severe acute malnutrition.

In July 2020, State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2020 [7] (SOFI 2020) estimates there were 680 million chronically undernourished people in the world in 2019. Out of these, Asia has 380 million.

The effects of malnutrition stay longer than the malnutrition itself. A teenager who had suffered undernutrition in childhood has a higher risk of obesity than another teenager who hadn’t (in the same age group and similar nutrition now).

Similarly, research found that 21% of adolescents with stunted growth in Brazil had high blood pressure compared to less than 10% of adolescents without stunting.

In financially stable countries, overnutrition is a bigger problem. For eg, overweight or obese children have higher chances of type 2 diabetes and heart diseases. Most people in the UK eat and drink too many calories, too much fat, sugar and salt, and not enough fruit, vegetables, oily fish or fibre.

But the chase towards thin bodies is leading to forced malnutrition in America and Europe. Another addition to the list is mental health as stress makes people do one of these two. Either they avoid food or eat fast food in huge amounts.

Talking about senior citizens, research shows that up to 22% of older adults are malnourished and over 45% are at risk of malnutrition.

Since nutrition is such a wide topic, there are a lot of symptoms of malnutrition. Some are specific to 1 or 2 nutrients whereas some are signs of general under or over nourishment.

- Main signs of overnutrition are obesity and high BMI. Overnutrition is usually linked with lack of vitamins and an increase in fat, calories and sodium in diet.

- Unintentional weight loss of more than 5% of body weight over 3 months is a direct signal of undernutrition.

- Any symptom showing weak immunity may be due to lack of adequate nutrients. These include longer recovery periods for fever or getting ill frequently.

Other than these, feeling of dehydration even after adequate water consumption means a deficiency of micronutrients.

Majority of malnutrition cases are from financially disabled sections of society but the rest are financially able but uninformed or ill-informed people. The solution for curbing malnutrition is a layered step by step process but mass awareness is required at every step. So what you can do is, a) provide proper nutrition to yourself and your family and b) spread this information to others whether they are malnutritioned or not because right information is a superpower.

By looking at the overall shift of the consumers towards a holistic approach to health and nutrition be it in the way of organic foods or practices of Ayurveda and yoga or going vegetarian or vegan, it’s quite pleasing to say that we are heading in the right direction. Let’s have a look at some trends we are expecting to arise in the nutrition sector in the next few months.

Nutritional Trends for 2021

Due to the pandemic and the ongoing crisis, the shift towards holistic health and nutrition has been accelerated. There are some trends which were predicted before covid and stays in the list as well as there are some who are new additions to the list just because of the pandemic.

Organic Snacks instead of Pizzas:

People have become more and more health-oriented. The rise of information and technology in the organic farming sector will lead to new snacks. These will be plant-based, containing less sugar and higher protein amounts. But these won’t be tasteless.

Home Cooked Food:

Locked in the houses, people have picked up cooking skills and are loving the new varied taste of food cooked by themselves. And this is not going away soon as they realize it is cost-effective. The dip in financial abilities and still the rising prices of nutritional products support this prediction.

Low-Alcohol beverages:

Even before the pandemic, beverage manufacturers were gearing in this direction to retain the people who wanted to avoid the serious repercussions of alcohol but were missing the taste and the joy of it. Manufacturers are constantly trying out new fermenting techniques as well as old “almost-forgotten” practices of making subtle drinks.

Increase in Vegan culture:

This is also a trend that was in the bucket before the crisis but has discovered new dimensions due to COVID-19. As it is believed that the virus originated from a wet market (meat market) more and more people are giving up animal products in their diet.

Eating well:

As mentioned in the article people do not have time to calculate the nutrients and the continuously increasing pace of the world will result in eating well or what we mentioned as “healthy diet”. It also includes the ayurvedic habit of conscious eating. It’s like having a rough idea of what you're putting in and eating according to the sense of fulfilment.

Takeaways:

[8]

Exercise is just half part of the game called health, the other half is balanced nutrition.
Balanced diets include various nutrients and have a direct impact on our mental and physical health.
But they are not practical, hence healthy diet is the go-to option.
Non-availability of a healthy diet leads to malnutrition which in turn leads to severe individual and large scale problems.
Mass awareness is a part of possible solutions to malnutrition.
This awareness and pandemic have led to the development of trends in the direction of holistic health.

This blogpost is the result of our motivation to start this blog i.e. healthy living and right information. If you haven’t read the story or our origin, here’s the link to do it now : LINK.

Share the effort and help someone get proper nutrition. Also give us your feedback in the comments or via our social media handles @gethealthybits

PS. follow us there for short and crispy tips for better health.

All in all, I want to quote Jim Rohn:

“Take care of your body. It’s the only place you have to live.”

Written by:

Keshav Jindal

Blackswan Creatives.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Opening quote 150

[9] What is Nutrition 600

- Medical definition

- Practical definition

Its Importance to mind and body 250

- Medical importance

- Ayurvedic POV

Impacts on mind & body health (positive / benefits)

Healthy Diet 250

MALNUTRITION

Related symptoms - deficiency ( talk in numbers ) 400

globally , especially Europe , US , Asia

Talk about age groups affected (0 to 60 ) globally

Mass awareness on this 125

~~Industry involved - size of market 150~~

Trend setting in year '20 21 300

Ending quote 200

____________________________________________________________________________

Links used (other than attributions)

https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/160774#dietitian

https://reverehealth.com/live-better/13-surprising-ways-nutrition-affects-your-health/

https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/nutritional-psychiatry-your-brain-on-food-201511168626

https://www.adventhealth.com/blog/foods-love-you-back-what-eat-boost-your-health

https://www.nhsinform.scot/healthy-living/food-and-nutrition/eating-well/health-benefits-of-eating-well

https://www.ift.org/news-and-publications/food-technology-magazine/issues/2020/april/features/the-top-10-functional-food-trends

https://brandequity.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/marketing/future-shock-25-health-wellness-trends-post-covid-19/75859294

https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/malnutrition

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/malnutrition/

https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/malnutrition

https://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=4602

grammarly says 'are', I feel 'is' . @kavita

Again Grammarly suggests provide + with whereas i want to avoid the usage of with

It is suggested that the intake of saturated fats be reduced to less than 10% of total energy intake and trans-fats to less than 1% of total energy intake. In particular, industrially-produced trans-fats are not part of a healthy diet and should be avoided.

https://www.actionagainsthunger.org/world-hunger-facts-statistics#:~:text=An%20estimated%2014%20million%20children,have%20access%20to%20lifesaving%20treatment.

http://www.fao.org/3/ca9692en/CA9692EN.pdf

There can be more ways to write this section. best way will come out via title of the blog.