balance diet
 

[B]What is a balance diet ?[/B]

The human food to provide energy for all life processes and for growth, repair and maintance of cell and tissue. The dietteticneeds vary according to age,sex and occupation. Every ingredient that we partake of has a specific role to play in our health. Eating a well-balanced diet on regular basis and staying at an ideal weight are critical factors in maintaning emotional and physical well-being. The word ‘diet’ is often used to describe an eating plan intended to aid weight loss. However, diet really refers to the foods a person eat in the cource of a day, or a week. The more balanced and nutrous diet, the helathier the person can expect to be. A balance means eating the right amount of food from all the groups. Choose the types of foods that improve your health and avoid the types that raise your risk for illness such as heart diseases and diabeties. Expand your range of health choices to include a variety of delicious foods.

The benefits of a diet are numerous. No single food contains everything the body needs so it is important to eat a variety of them. The right amount of the essential nutrients can increase life expectaancy by keeping the heart and body and preventing many long-term illness.

[B]The concept of healthy eating:-[/B]

Healthy eating is based on three simple aspects – Balance, Moderation and variety. When these three parameters are mastered, one feels great, has more energy and remains healthy! These are no strictnutrition philsosphies, or rule that one has to stay unrealistically thin. Healthy eating also does not means that one is deprived of favourite foods. Learning some nutrition basic and incorporaing them in a way that works for you can achieve all this. Believe it or not, healthy eating can be tasty, exciting and exotic tool.

[B]Basics are essential:-
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Every ingrident from the basic five food groups has a specific role in your health. That’s why we should aim for a balance diet. Eating to much of one or not enough of another is not good for anyone and may result in deficiences.

A balance diet contains different types of foods in those quantities and proportional such that the need of calorie,protein,minerals,vitamins and other nutrients is adequately met a small provision is made for extra nutrients for when one’s health comes under stress

The different groups that should be included in the diet so as to get necessary nutrients are cereals and millets, pulses,fruits and vegetables,milk and milk products,meat and meat products,sugar and fats.In addition,a balance diet should provide non-nutrients like fibres, which provide positive health benefits. Fluid intake in the form of water and water-based drinks is also essential for good health. Water is essential for the correct functioning of the kidneys and bowels. At least 6-8 glasses of plain water should be consumed everyday for a healthy life.

[B]Balance diet vs. healthy diet.[/B]

That balance diet is better for health is an accepted fact but some beleive a healthy diet also means a balance diet. In fact they are both different. The difference is a healthy diet plan provides us withsome nutrients but a balance diet plan provide us with all the essential nutrients. a balance diet enables us to obtain all the essential nutrients present in a wide range of foods. If the balance diet plan is consistent it will also provide a regular supply of vitamins,minerals and other essential nutrients ensuring optium health and vitality. Optimum health means fewer illness and health complications but more importantaly increased energy levels for physical activity. It also helps in weight-loss.

It’s important to be aware that a balance diet can also provide too many fats, refined sugar and salt. If any diet provides excessive saturated fats, cholesterol and refined sugar it may be classed as unhealthy. This is where Healthy Diet comes in. A Healthy Diet Plan is mainly the consumption of natural, fresh and wholesome foods for each meal of the day; foods chosen are usually low in fats, sodium and refined sugars.

The idea of combining both the healthy and balanced diet plans is to provide a variety in the diet, to consume more whole grains, pulses, sprouts, fresh fruitsand vegetables which help in boosting the energy level. This combination focuses on a low fat intake especially saturated fats and minimizes refined sugar and salt intake.The underlying principle is to provide optium health and vitality, to have more energy to be more active and to build up stamina.

[B]Choosing the right foods.[/B]

Nutrients in food peform various essential functions. They helped in body-building, growth, giving energy and provide protection. The various foods categorized as nutrients peform specific functions in our body, so to maintain a balance is of utmost importance. The classification of foods as per their function helps one decide on the right kind of foods.

[B]Energy-giving foods:-[/B]

Simple carbohydrates: sugar, honey, jaggery & Fats and Oils

[B]Body-building foods:-[/B]

Proteins & Complex carbohydrates

[B]Protective foods:-[/B]

Vitamins & Minerals.

Carcinogenicity and Anticarcinogenicity
 

[B]Carcinogenicity and Anticarcinogenicity
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[B]1-[/B] Current epidemiologic evidence suggests the importance of protective factors in the diet, such as those present in fruits and vegetables.
Current evidence suggests that the contribution of excess macronutrients and excess calories to cancer causation in the United States outweighs that of individual food microchemicals, both natural and synthetic. This is not necessarily the case in other parts of the world.

[B]2-[/B] Epidemiologic data indicate that alcoholic beverages consumed in excess are associated with increased risk for specific types of cancer.

[B]3-[/B] Given the greater abundance of naturally occurring substances in the diet, the total exposure to naturally occurring carcinogens (in addition to excess calories and fat) exceeds the exposure to synthetic carcinogens. Regarding dietary exposure, the c ommittee reviewed data, including those generated by the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Health and Human Services through the Nationwide Food Consumption Surveys, the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys, and other related da ta bases. However, data are insufficient to determine whether the dietary cancer risks from naturally occurring substances exceeds that for synthetic substances (e.g., these databases do not include concentration data on many of the potential carcinogeni c constituents found in foods). Indeed, at the present, quantitative statements cannot be made about cancer risks for humans from specific dietary chemicals, either naturally occurring or synthetic.

[B]4-[/B] Current regulatory practices have applied far greater stringency to the regulation of synthetic chemicals in the diet than to naturally occurring chemicals. The committee reviewed data and findings of IARC, the National Toxicology Program (NTP), a nd in the general literature to ascertain the status of carcinogenicity testing of naturally occurring versus synthetic chemicals. Only a very small fraction of naturally occurring chemicals has been tested for carcinogenicity. Naturally occurring dieta ry chemicals known to be potent carcinogens in rodents include agents derived through food preparation, such as certain heterocyclic amines generated during cooking, and the nitrosamines and other agents acquired during food preservation and storage, such as aflatoxins and some other fungal toxins.

[B]5-[/B] The human diet also contains anticarcinogens that can reduce cancer risk. For example, the committee evaluated relevant literature on antioxidant micronutrients, including vitamins A, C, E, folic acid, and selenium, and their suggested contributio ns to cancer prevention. Human diets that have a high content of fruits and vegetables are associated with a reduced risk of cancer, but the specific constituents responsible for this protective effect and their mechanisms of action are not known with ce rtainty. The vitamin and mineral content of fruits and vegetables might be important factors in this relationship. In addition, fruits and vegetables are dietary sources of many non-nutritive constituents, such as isoflavonoids, isothiocyanates and othe r sulfur-containing compounds, some of which have inhibited the carcinogenic process in experimental animal studies. Foods high in fiber content are associated with a decreased risk of colon cancer in humans, but it is not yet clear that fiber per se is the component responsible for this protective effect.

[B]6-[/B] Carcinogens and anticarcinogens present in the diet can interact in a variety of ways that are not fully understood. This makes it difficult to predict overall dietary risks based on an assessment of the risks from individual components due to unc ertainties associated with rodent-to-human extrapolation and high-dose to low-dose extrapolation. It is likely that there is also considerable interindividual variation in susceptibility to specific chemicals or mixtures due to either inherited or acquir ed factors.