FOOD FOR HEALTH

ESSAY 

"Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." These simple words go to the heart of food journalist Pollan's thesis. Humans used to know how to eat well, he argues, but the balanced dietary lessons that were once passed down through generations have been confused and distorted by food industry marketers, nutritional scientists, and journalists. As a result, we face today a complex culinary landscape dense with bad advice and foods that are not "real." Indeed, plain old eating is being replaced by an obsession with nutrition that is, paradoxically, ruining our health, not to mention our meals. Pollan's advice is: "Don't eat anything that your greatgreat grandmother would not recognize as food." Looking at what science does and does not know about diet and health, he proposes a new way to think about what to eat, informed by ecology and tradition rather than by the nutrient-by-nutrient approach.

Macro/micro  

Macro nutrients

These are present in our diets in large amounts, and make up the bulk of our diets.

They can be found in;

·        Carbohydrates

·        Fat

·        Protein

·        Water

Micro Nutrients

These are in our diets, but in very small amounts. These can be found in vitamins, minerals and trace elements. Micronutrients, just like water do not provide energy, however they are still needed in adequate amounts to ensure that all our body cells function properly. Even though their presence is in minute amounts it should by no way diminish their importance to nutrition.

Most of micro nutrients are known to be essential nutrients, meaning they are those which are dispensable to life processes, and what the body can-not make itself. In other words meaning these essential nutrients can only be