The Importance of Nutrition and Common Myths

Good nutrition is the foundation for an overall healthy lifestyle. Providing your body with nutritious foods has many benefits including strengthening your immune system to fight disease and infection. Good nutrition includes allowing for balance, variety, and moderation in the diet.

Your body needs a balance of carbohydrates, proteins, and fats in your diet to stay healthy. Every individual has different needs based on height, weight, energy expenditure, etc. The balance of nutrients helps to fuel your body to keep it energized throughout the day and is associated with other health benefits.

Eating a variety of foods is essential to meeting your nutritional needs. No single food or food group contains all of what you need. Some of the food groups contain photochemicals, which are natural substances that work with nutrients and dietary fiber to protect against disease.

Moderation means eating neither too much nor too little of any food or nutrient. Too much can result in weight gain and/or excess in certain nutrients. Eating too little can lead to numerous nutrient deficiencies and low body mass, which can lead to short and long term health complications.

Common Nutrition Myths
Vitamins provide energy. False. Only calories from carbohydrates, protein and fat provide energy. Some vitamins are essential to use the energy present in the foods we absorb, but consuming an excess of them will not make more energy than what is in the food.

Sugar is bad for you. False. All sugars are nutritionally equal, including honey, molasses, corn syrup, and white sugar. Too much sugar of any kind can be bad for your health. Sugar is a carbohydrate and provides quick energy for your brain, although no vitamins, minerals, or other nutrients.

Fat is bad for you. False. Fat is essential for absorption of the fat soluble vitamins, provides essential fatty acids that the body cannot produce on its own, is a major component of cell membranes, and contributes to feelings of fullness. Healthy diets contain about 20-30 percent calories coming from fat. Diets lower than that are not healthy.

Nutrition Resources on Campus
Cowell Student Health Center has a Registered Dietitian that can help with individual meal planning as well as nutrition education. 530-752-2349

Nutrition Resources on the web:
American Dietetics Association www.eathright.org
My Pyramid www.mypyramid.gov
Eating disorders www.nationaleatingdisorders.org