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One cannot think well, do well or sleep well if one has not dined well! Our bodily constitution and mental atmosphere are determined according to how and what we eat.
You are what you eat!

Brillat-Savarin's quote "Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you what you are" is the origin of the adage "You are what you eat," quoted by British nutritionist Victor Lindlahr.

You have become what you are starting your journey of growth and development from a single microscopic cell in your mother’s womb to become a human being with about 100 trillion cells through a process of multiplying, copying and differentiating from one to many.. Each of these 100 trillion cells would have a specific purpose and hence there are different types of cells in various parts of the body like brain cells, skin cells, heart cells, stomach cells, blood cells and many more. It is nutrition that help the cells to grow and function, become healthy or sick and strong or weak. The nutrients in the food you eat determine the way your cells develop, grow and survive and hence your health depends on the nutrition you offer your body through the food you eat.

The food we consume over the course of a day carries the stuff of life, the bio molecules which power our cells and there by provide the energy, enzymes, hormones, minerals, vitamins and all those nutrients required to experience life itself- in physical, intellectual and emotional dimensions. To put it simply, we can be productive, play, sing, paint, ideate, discover, explore, be happy, make others happy and make a world of difference if we are healthy physically and mentally. If you eat healthy food, you feel good and if you eat junk food you feel like junk. So nutrition is very important as nutrition is health and health is everything . If we want to have good health, we must eat good, real, whole food.

The joy of eating well.... We can expand our range of healthy food choices and learn how to plan ahead to create and maintain a tasty, healthy diet.
Life is not merely being alive, but being well! --- Marcus Valerius Martialis

People often think of healthy eating is to eat what you don't want, drink what you don't like, and do what you'd rather not. Eating healthy is not about strict nutrition restrictions, staying impractically thin, or depriving yourself of the foods you love.

Moreover, it's about feeling great, having more energy, stabilizing your mood, and keeping yourself as healthy as possible – all of which can be achieved by learning some nutrition basics and using them in a way that works for you.

You can expand your range of healthy food choices and learn how to plan ahead to create and maintain a tasty, healthy diet. The real joy and benefit of good health comes from focusing on the positives of health, what we gain through living well.

The best brain possible with food! We can promote quicker thinking, better memory, concentration, improved balance and coordination, sharper senses, and the activation of our feel good hormones just by changing what we put on our plate.
Food for thought

We may spend a lot of time thinking about the health of our body organs - like heart, lungs, bones, skin, and even our intestines, with a good cause. They are critical to our general health and well being. But how often do we think about how to nourish our body's most vital organ – the human brain? The brain is the residence of our consciousness. It governs our capacity to think, learn, solve problems, reason, and remember. It also acts as center for control for virtually every other bodily process that we have. And, not surprisingly, it's an organ that requires excellent nutrition to function at its top capacity.

Most of us apparently spend more time thinking about whether our food contains enough fiber for our gastrointestinal tracts for proper digestion, than we do about whether we are getting enough B vitamins for our brain cells. Keeping the brain healthy and well-nourished is a task that should be high on our to-do list.

So, it's a great idea to become accustomed with the brain-friendly nutrition provided by omega-3 fatty acids, the B family of vitamins, vitamin D, and now famous phytochemicals, which are plant-derived compounds that often act as antioxidants. These compounds provide a multitude of health benefits to the body and brain. For example, a combination of cranberry and blue berry extracts could inhibit a protein called IKK-beta, which is involved in inflammatory gene expression in brain. [source: Journal of Medicinal Food].

Getting Forgetful? - Then berries may hold the key Berry fruits contain high levels of antioxidants, compounds that protect cells from damage by harmful free radicals.
Boosting your cognitive memory

In addition, a strawberry, blueberry and spinach extract combination was found to inhibit Prolyl endopeptidase (PEP), which has been previously characterized as a promising therapeutic target for supporting learning, memory, and mood.

Prolyl endopeptidase a serine protease, is widely distributed in various organs, particularly in the brains of Alzheimer's disease patients. The expression of PEP in Alzheimer's patients has been found to be significantly higher than that of the normal person. [source: Pure Encapsulations (USA), Laval University (Canada), NutraCanada (Canada), and Atrium Innovations (USA)].

There's a lot of evidence to prove that what we do for our brain can have a big impact on how it functions in the coming years- and decades to come. Eating well in the present, along with other healthy lifestyle choices we make today, can definitely keep the brain hopping along well now and fend off age-related problems in the future, like Alzheimer's disease, cognitive decline etc.

Good nutrition promotes your overall health Combined with physical activity, your diet can help you to reach and maintain a healthy weight, reduce your risk of chronic diseases (like heart disease and cancer), and promote your overall health.
Eating right is the cornerstone to a healthy lifestyle:

Good nutrition is an important part of leading a healthy lifestyle. Combined with physical activity, your diet can help you to reach and maintain a healthy weight, reduce your risk of chronic diseases (like heart disease and cancer), and promote your overall health.

There are many factors we can't control in regard to health, like hereditary conditions, environmental concerns - but we can control what we eat, which can help us fight diseases, encourage healthy metabolism and more.

Today, with advanced technology and the ability to see within the body - and even within cells themselves - we are able to follow how nutrients really function. More importantly, this new insight helps us to understand why having too little of these important dietary components can lead to low energy levels, early aging, and even disease. We can also see why the foods we decide to eat today affect our health not just today, but many years later in our lives.

Importance of macronutrients in health and disease Macronutrients "carbohydrate, protein, and fat" are essential for health, growth, healing, and immune function. Too little or too much of any of these macronutrients may result in poor health and a variety of diseases.
Types of nutrients

The food and drink that we ingest provide building-block molecules that can be broken down and used as raw materials for growth, maintenance and repair, and as a source of energy are referred as nutrients. On the basis of the amount required by the human body nutrients are classified in the following two categories: macronutrients and micronutrients. Macronutrients, micronutrients (and water) are all necessary to promote growth and development and regulate body processes.

Macronutrients:

Nutrients that are required in large amounts are called macronutrients. These include water, carbohydrates, proteins, and fats. Water is the most abundant constituent of the human body. It makes up about 60% of the body weight in men and about 55% in women. Every part of your body relies on it. Our blood, for example, is more than three-quarters water. Other body fluids, like saliva and digestive juices, are based on water. Almost every chemical reaction in the body takes place in a water medium and we couldn't get rid of body wastes without it.

High-fiber foods Fiber can lower blood sugar, cut cholesterol, and may even prevent colon cancer and help you avoid hemorrhoids.
Carbohydrates :

They are our body's preferred fuel. Both complex and simple carbohydrates are broken down in digestion to glucose molecules, which are absorbed into cells and burned as a power source. Dietary fiber - found mainly in fruits, vegetables, whole grains and legumes - is probably best known for its ability to prevent or relieve constipation. But foods containing fiber can provide other health benefits as well, such as helping to maintain a healthy weight and lowering your risk of diabetes and heart disease.

Fiber:

Unlike other food components, such as fats, proteins or carbohydrates — which our body breaks down and absorbs - fiber isn't digested by our body. Instead, it passes relatively intact through your stomach, small intestine, colon and out of our body. Soluble fiber found in beans, oats, flax seed and oat bran may help lower total blood cholesterol levels by lowering low-density lipoprotein, or "bad," cholesterol levels. Eating foods high in insoluble fiber, can eliminate the worry of constipation and hemorrhoids, and it may decrease the risk of developing colon and rectal cancers.

Add more omega-3 fattyacids to your diet Omega 3 and 6 fattyacids help prevent catastrophic illnesses such as heart disease and stroke and benefit people with inflammatory conditions, including psoriasis and arthritis.
Fats:

Fats are organic compounds that are made up of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. They are a source of energy in foods. Fats belong to a group of substances called lipids, and come in liquid or solid form. All fats are combinations of saturated and unsaturated fatty acids. Fat provides 9 calories per gram, more than twice the number provided by carbohydrates or protein. Our body can synthesize most of the fatty acids, which cannot be synthesized are called essential fatty acids. They should be obtained from the diet.

The essential fatty acids are alpha - linoleic acid (LNA – omega -3) and linolenic acid (LN – omega - 6) that are obtained from eating fish, which are important to protect from heart disease, controlling inflammation, blood clotting and brain development. When consuming fat, we should try to focus on mono-unsaturated fats like olive oil and canola oil, or on essential fatty acids.

So, we should limit our fat intake to about 30 percent of the total calories we consume. Do not try to cut fat intake altogether, because we do need the essential fatty acids. Fats also help the body to absorb and move the vitamins A, D, E, and K through the bloodstream. When the body has used up the calories from carbohydrates, which occurs after the first 20 minutes of exercise, it begins to depend on the calories from fat, thus fats are important to store excess calories in our body.

Vegetarianism and Planet Vegetarianism is one of the foremost things we can do to help the planet. There are a plethora more studies, all coming to the same conclusion: less meat = less destruction on the environment.
So think about it !!

There is a strong link between human diet and methane emissions from livestock…. As beef consumption rises or falls, the number of livestock will, in general, also rise or fall, as will the related methane emissions. Latin America has the highest regional emissions per capita, due primarily to large cattle populations in the beef exporting countries (notably Brazil and Argentina).

—United Nations Environment Programme, Unit on Climate Change.

Albert Einstein, who was better known for his physics and math than for his interest in the living world, once said: "Nothing will benefit human health and increase chances of survival of life on Earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet."

Vitamic C helps to support a healthy immune system Vitamin C, also known as ascorbic acid, is found in citrus fruits, kiwi, acerola and camu camu, and may boost the immune system by attacking the nucleic acid of the virus. This antioxidant vitamin fights with bacteria until they’re dead.
Micronutrients:

Nutrients that are essential in minute amounts, such as vitamins and minerals, are called micronutrients. Vitamins are chemical compounds, required in very small quantities, which are essential for normal metabolism and health. Most vitamins cannot be made in your body, so they must be acquired from food. One exception is vitamin D (calcitriol), which is made in the skin when it is exposed to sunlight.

Most vitamins function as coenzymes, or molecules that help enzymes, and thus speed up the body's chemical reactions. When a vitamin is not present in sufficient quantities, deficiencies can affect every cell in the body because many different enzymes, all requiring the same vitamin, are involved in numerous different bodily functions. Vitamins also help with the absorption of other nutrients; for example, vitamin C increase the absorption of iron (mineral) from the intestine. Vitamin D helps our body to absorb the amount of calcium (a mineral) that needs to form strong bones. A deficiency in vitamin D can result in a disease called rickets (softening of the bones caused by the bodies inability to absorb the mineral calcium.). The body cannot produce calcium; therefore, it must be absorbed through our food.

Minerals:

Minerals are substances that do not contain carbon but are essential for many cell functions. Because they lack carbon, minerals are said to be inorganic. They are important for proper fluid balance, muscle contraction, conduction of nerve impulses, and for building bones and teeth. Calcium, chloride, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, sodium, and sulfur are all minerals. For example; our body needs calcium to help blood clot, muscles contract, nerves stimulation, and maintain healthy bone structure.

Rich sources of antioxidants Antioxidants are power super enzymes that prevent diseases, create glowing, healthy skin, and increase longevity.
Antioxidants: makes you "Look and feel younger!"

These are nutrients (vitamins and minerals) as well as enzymes (proteins in your body that assist in chemical reactions). They are believed to play a role in preventing the development of such chronic diseases as cancer, heart disease, stroke, Alzheimer's disease, Rheumatoid arthritis, and cataracts. The body’s trillion or so cells face formidable threats, from lack of food to infection with a virus. Another constant threat comes from nasty chemicals called free radicals. They are capable of damaging cells and genetic material. The body generates free radicals as the inevitable byproducts of turning food into energy.

A free radical is a molecule containing at least one unpaired electron that can damage tissue. Oxygen consumed by the body can generate free radicals, even though it’s a very small fraction, and it’s happening in our bodies every day and every minute. The more free radicals in our body, the harder it is to support healthy aging. At the same time, our body produces antioxidant enzymes, the counter force to remove and restrict free radical generation.

These enzymes require trace elements such as selenium and other nutrients found in the mitochondria and other cell components, which are the first line of antioxidant defense to remove free radicals. Copper and zinc are also very important trace elements for antioxidant defense.

Free the free radicals with excercise This increase in free radicals not only activates increased antioxidants but also activates the mitochondria generation and muscle rejuvenation.
A lot of antioxidants keep free radicals away

Scientists believe the antioxidants, called flavonoids (sources include -apples, apricots, blueberries, pears, raspberries, strawberries, black beans, cabbage, onions, parsley, pinto beans, and tomatoes), reduce the risk of coronary heart disease in three ways:by reducing production of low density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol (also know as the "bad" cholesterol); by boosting high density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol (the good cholesterol) and by reducing blood clotting.

Aging is a phenomenon related to free radical generation. Over the course of a lifetime, your body produces a small amount of free radicals each day, which it does not completely clear. This leads to accumulating damage as a result of inflammation, causing your body to deteriorate. Inflammation and free radical generation are closely related to cancer and other deteriorative diseases like atherosclerosis, diabetes and Alzheimer’s disease among others. So for healthy aging it’s important to boost your antioxidant defense. Fruits, vegetables, herbs, tea, coffee, cocoa, oats, etc. all enhance your body’s ability to suppress inflammation and free radical generation.

Exercise generates free radicals but free radicals in moderation are the source of your body’s adaptation. People are healthier with exercise because they generate more free radicals, which are checked by increased antioxidant defense. This increase in free radicals also activates the body’s redox signaling for healthier molecules including antioxidant enzymes, mitochondria generation and muscle rejuvenation. All these healthy pathways are dependent on some free radical activation.

The healthy eating pyramid guide The Pyramid helps you choose what and how much to eat from each food group so that you: get the nutrients you need, consume the correct amount of energy to control your weight, restrict your intake of fats, sugar or alcohol.
Healthy Eating Pyramid by Harvard School of Public Health:

They recommend plant-based diet such as vegetables and beans, whole grains, and nuts. They also encourage more seafood in place of red meat or poultry, acknowledging its special benefits for the heart. The Healthy Eating Pyramid sits on a foundation of daily exercise and weight control as they strongly influence your chances of staying healthy. If you burn as many calories as you take in each day, there’s nothing left over for storage in fat cells, and weight remains the same. It is very important as nearly 30% of the global population are either obese or overweight, according to new trend data from 188 countries. Dr Marie Ng and his team at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME),University of Washington, found that the number of overweight and obese individuals globally increased from 857 million in 1980 to 2.1 billion in 2013.

A healthy diet includes more foods from the base of the pyramid than from the higher levels of the pyramid .The best grain sources of carbohydrates are whole grains such as oatmeal, whole wheat bread, and brown rice. The body can’t digest whole grains as quickly and this keeps blood sugar and insulin levels from rising, then falling, too quickly preventing development of type 2 diabetes and heart disease. Good sources of healthy unsaturated fats include olive, canola, soy, corn, sunflower, peanut, and other vegetable oils; trans fat–free margarines; nuts, seeds, and avocados; and fatty fish such as salmon. These healthy fats can also protect the heart from rhythm problems.

Food rich in Omega - 3 fatty acids Omega-3 fatty acids may decrease triglycerides, lower blood pressure, reduce blood clotting, decrease stroke and heart failure risk, reduce irregular heartbeats, and in children may improve learning ability.
Food that reduces the risk of heart diseases

A diet rich in vegetables and fruits can decrease the chances of having a heart attack or stroke; prevent some types of cancers; lower blood pressure; help you avoid the painful intestinal ailment called diverticulitis; guard against cataract and macular degeneration. Potatoes do not count as a vegetable, as they are full of rapidly digested starch have the same effect on blood sugar as refined grains and sweets and hence they are recommended to be used sparingly.

Nuts, Seeds, Beans, and Tofu are excellent sources of protein, fiber, vitamins, and minerals. Beans include black beans, navy beans, garbanzos, lentils and nuts include almonds, walnuts, pecans, peanuts, hazelnuts, and pistachios. Eating nuts and beans in place of red meat or processed meat can lower the risk of heart disease and diabetes.

Fish, Poultry, and Eggs are also important sources of protein and research suggests that eating fish can reduce the risk of heart disease, since fish is rich in heart-healthy omega-3 fats. Chicken and turkey are also good sources of protein and can be low in saturated fat. Building bone and keeping it strong takes calcium, vitamin D, exercise, and a whole lot more. So dairy foods along with vitamin D and calcium supplements is helpful based on individual requirements. Red Meat, Processed Meat, and Butter shall be used sparingly as they contain lots of saturated fat and they are linked to increased risk of heart disease, diabetes, and colon cancer. Switching to fish, chicken, nuts, or beans in place of red meat and processed meat can improve cholesterol levels and can lower the risk of heart disease and diabetes.

Risk factors with processed food High intakes of white rice, as well as other sources of refined carbohydrates, such as pastries, white bread, and sugar sweetened beverages may increase up the risk of type 2 diabetes. The glycemic index of white rice is higher than that of other whole grains, largely due to processing.
Risk with unhealthy food

White bread, white rice, white pasta, other refined grains, potatoes, sugary drinks, and sweets can cause fast and furious increases in blood sugar that can lead to weight gain, diabetes, heart disease, and other chronic disorders. High-sodium diets cause increased risk of heart attack and stroke.

Most of the sodium in our diets comes from processed foods, such as cheese, breads, deli meats, spaghetti with sauce and we should prefer food with low sodium. A daily multivitamin, multi mineral supplement offers a kind of nutritional backup, especially when it includes some extra vitamin D.

While a multivitamin can’t in any way replace healthy eating, or make up for unhealthy eating, it can fill in the nutrient holes that may sometimes affect even the most careful eaters. In addition to its bone-health benefits, there’s growing evidence that getting some extra vitamin D can help lower the risk of colon and breast cancer.

The groundwork of all happiness is health Happiness improves health and lengthens life, moreover nutrition is foundation for happiness
Health is happiness:

Healthy eating, i.e.; eating a balanced diet, requires a certain amount of knowledge and planning. An important dietary consideration is the amount of energy required. This should meet individual requirements. Daily energy requirements depend on several factors including basal metabolic rate, age, gender and activity levels.

In terms of health, we are what we eat. Is nutrition and health related? Is healthy eating important? Of course! Like a finely-tuned racing car, our body needs the right fuel (food) and regular maintenance (exercise, lifestyle and mental attitude) to achieve its true health potential. Nothing is more important than healthy eating! Put in the wrong fuel or let it go without regular use and there's no way it can deliver its full power and performance. Without healthy eating, our body's engine will cough, splutter and eventually stall. The foods you eat - provide the energy our body needs to function. Just like you need to put fuel in your car or recharge your cell phone battery, your body needs to be fed energy-providing foods every day.

Encouraging environmental vegetarianism A global shift towards a vegan diet is vital to save the world from hunger, fuel poverty and the worst impacts of climate change.
Shift diets and Save the Planet Earth:

It would be far easier to feed nine billion people by 2050 if more of the crops we grew ended up in human stomachs. Today only 55 percent of the world’s crop calories feed people directly; the rest are fed to live stock(about 36 percent) or turned into bio-fuels and industrial products(9perecent). Though many of us consume meat, dairy, eggs from animals raised on feedlots, only a fraction of the calories in feed given to livestock make their way into the meat and milk that we consume. For every 100 calories of grain we feed animals ,we get only about 40 new calories of milk, 22 calories of eggs,12 of chicken,10 of pork and 3 of beef. Finding more efficient ways to grow meat and shifting to less meat-intensive diets-even just switchig from grain fed beef to meats like chicken, pork could free up substantial amounts of food across the world-(source:NGM.COM, May 2014.).

Report from the International Water Management Institute, noting that 840 million of the world’s people remain undernourished, recommends finding ways to produce more food using less water. The report notes that it takes 550 liters of water to produce enough flour for one loaf of bread in developing countries…but up to 7,000 liters of water to produce 100 grams of beef.

—UN Commission on Sustainable Development, "Water—More Nutrition Per Drop," 2004

Burning fossil fuels releases carbon dioxide, the primary gas responsible for global warming. The process of slaughtering animals for food is a much longer, energy-wasting process.For example; producing one calorie from animal protein requires 11 times as much fossil fuel input—releasing 11 times as much carbon dioxide—as does producing a calorie from plant protein.
Diet can help save your life and the World

Let’s say you take a shower every day…and your showers average seven minutes…and the flow rate through your shower head is 2 gallons per minute…. You would use, at that rate, [5,110] gallons of water to shower every day for a year. When you compare that figure, [5,110] gallons of water, to the amount the Water Education Foundation calculates is used in the production of every pound of California beef (2,464 gallons),you realize something extraordinary. In California today, you may save more water by not eating a pound of beef than you would by not showering for six entire months.

—John Robbins in The Food Revolution: How Your Diet Can Help Save Your Life and the World

It takes, on average, 28 calories of fossil fuel energy to produce 1 calorie of meat protein for human consumption, [whereas] it takes only 3.3 calories of fossil- fuel energy to produce 1 calorie of protein from grain for human consumption.

—David Pimentel, Cornell University

References

  • Biology: Science for Life; with Physiology: Colleen Belk, Virginia Borden Maier
  • Anatomy and Physiology in Health and Illness: Ross and Wilson, Anne Waugh, Allison Grant.
  • http://students.case.edu/health/medical/nutrition.html
  • http://www.thedoctorwillseeyounow.com/content/nutrition/art3258.html
  • http://www.nvcc.edu/home/jsass/nutrition/definenutrition.htm
  • http://www.nutraingredients-usa.com/Research/Phytochemicals-show-anti-inflammatory-and-brain-health-benefits-Pure-Encapsulations-Atrium-Innovations?utm_source=copyright&utm_medium=OnSite&utm_campaign=copyright
  • http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17703733
  • http://health.howstuffworks.com/wellness/food-nutrition/facts/how-nutrition-works2.htm
  • http://www.livestrong.com/article/555475-protein-powder-the-brain/
  • http://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-living/nutrition-and-healthy-eating/in-depth/fiber/art-20043983