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Optimal health and well-being require that the body be supplied with food in adequate and balanced amounts to
provide the nutrients vital for normal organ development and functioning; for cell reproduction, growth, and maintenance;
for high energy and working efficiency; for resistance to infection and disease; and for the ability to repair tissue damage
or injury. No one nutrient works alone; each nutrient is dependent on the presence of others to bring desired results.
Although everyone needs the same nutrients, each individual requires different amount of each nutrient depending on
the age, gender, physiological make-up and physical activity. Knowledge about good nutrition is important because the
quality of people's lives and health depend on it.
1. Nutrition
- is the process by which food is converted by the body into simple substances needed to build and repair
tissues, supply energy for physical activity and to support various body functions such as respiration,
digestion and elimination. Adequate nutrition is essential for good health.
2. Health
- is "a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease and
infirmity" according to the World Health organization (1947). A more recent definition states that health is the
dynamic, ever-changing process of achieving potential in the physical, social, emotional, mental, spiritual, and
environmental dimensions.
3 Wellness
- involves the satisfaction of a wide array of factors that lead to positive health. It is defined as "the achievement of
the highest level of health possible in each of several dimensions. To achieve high-level wellness, a person
needs to move progressively on a continuum of positive health indicators.
4. Food
- refers to any edible material which when taken into the body can provide nutrients needed to support the
various body functions.
5. Nutrients
- are chemical substances derived from food which the body uses to build and repair tissues, generate energy
and regulate body processes.
How does one know what and how much food to eat? A helpful tool in choosing the foods and the amounts needed for
healthy diet is the FGP.
Tobetter understand these messages, the aims and rationale for each message are described as follows:
Guideline No. 1 - intends to emphasize the message that no single food provides all the nutrients the body needs.
Choosing different kinds of foods from all food groups is the first step to obtain a well-balanced diet. This will help
correct the common practice of confining food choice to a few kinds of foods, resulting in an unbalanced diet.
Guideline No. 2 - intends to promote exclusive breastfeeding from birth up to 6 months and to encourage the
continuation of breastfeeding for as long as two years or longer. This is to ensure a complete and safe food for the
newborn and the growing infant besides imparting the other benefits of breastfeeding. The Guideline also strongly
advocates the giving of appropriate complementary food in addition to breast milk once the infant is ready for solid
foods about 6 months to 2 years. Feeding the child properly during this critical period should be given close attention.
Guideline No. 3 - gives advice on proper feeding of children. The Guideline also promotes regular monthly weighing
to monitor the growth of children, as it is a simple way to assess nutritional status.
Guidelines Nos. 4.5,6. & 7 - intends to correct the deficiencies in the current dietary pattern of Filipinos. Including fish, lean
meat, poultry or dried beans will provide good quality protein and energy, as well as iron and zinc, key nutrients lacking in
the diet of Filipinos as a whole. Eating more vegetables, fruits and root crops will supply the much-needed vitamins,
minerals and dietary fiber that are deficient in the diet. In addition, it provides defense against chronic degenerative
diseases. Including foods cooked in edible oils will provide dietary energy as a partial remedy to energy deficiency of the
average Filipino especially children, and better utilization of fat- soluble vitamins A, D, E, and K. Including milk and other
calcium-rich foods in the diet will serve not only to supply calcium for healthy bones but also provide high quality protein
and other nutrients for growth.
Guideline No. 8 - promotes the use of iodized salt to prevent iodine deficiency, which is a major cause of mental and
physical underdevelopment in the country. At the same time, the Guideline warns excessive intake of salty foods as a
hedge against hypertension, particularly among high-risk individuals.
Guideline No. 9 - intends to prevent food borne-diseases. It explains the various sources of contamination of food and
simple ways to prevent from occurring.
Guideline No. 10 - aims to promote a healthy lifestyle through regular exercise, abstinence from smoking, and avoiding
alcohol consumption. If alcohol is consumed, it must be done in moderation. All these lifestyle practices are directly or
indirectly related to nutrition.
The food eaten undergo digestion, absorption and utilization. Metabolism refers to the chemical processes that
occur inside the cells as they transform nutrients into energy and body tissues. The transformation of foods into various
nutrients like carbohydrates, fats, and protein and other physiological processes are parts of the metabolic processes.
The digestive system has the ability to turn complex food into basic nutrients. This requires a group of digestive
organs, each designed specifically to perform one role in the process. The digestive system is a long tube that starts at
the mouth, continuous down through the throat, to the stomach, and then to the small and large intestine and past the
rectum to end at the anus. In between, with the help of the liver, pancreas, and gallbladder, the digestible parts of
everything eaten are converted to simple substances that the body can easily absorb to burn for energy or build new
tissue form. The indigestible residue is bundled off and eliminated as waste.
Digestion is a two-part process - half mechanical, half chemical.
1. Mechanical digestion takes place in the mouth and the stomach. The teeth break food into small pieces that can
be swallowed without choking. In the stomach, a churning action continues to breakdown food into smaller
particles.
2. Chemical digestion occurs at every point in the digestive tract where enzymes and other substances such as
hydrochloric acid (from stomach glands) and bile (from the gallbladder) dissolve food, releasing the nutrients
contained.
The Mouth
Food is lifted and put into the mouth and the teeth and salivary glands swing into action. The teeth chew, grinding the
food, breaking it into small, manageable pieces. As a result:
The food can be swallowed without choking.
The indigestible sheath of fiber surrounding the edible parts of some foods is broken down so that the digestive
enzymes can get to the nutrients inside. At the same time the salivary glands under the tongue and in the back
of the tongue secrete the watery liquid called saliva, which performs two important functions:
Moistens and compacts food so that the tongue can push it to the back of the mouth sending the food down into
the esophagus and into the stomach.
Provides amylases, enzymes that start the digestion of complex carbohydrates, breaking the starch molecules
into simple sugars. No protein or fat digestion occurs in the mouth.
The Stomach
The stomach is pouchy part just below the esophagus that holds the chewed food. Like most of the digestive tube, the
stomach is circled with strong muscles whose rhythmic contractions - called peristalsis - move food along and turn the
stomach into a sort of food processor that mechanically breaks pieces of food into even smaller particles. While this is
going on, glands in the stomach wall are secreting stomach juices - a potent blend of enzymes, hydrochloric acid and
mucus. Other enzymes, plus stomach juices, begin the digestion of protein and fats, separating these into its basic
components -amino acids and fatty acids.
Alkaline pancreatic juices that make the chyme less acidic so that amylases (the enzymes that break down
carbohydrates) can go back to work separating complex carbohydrates into simple sugars
ple sugars. No protein or fat digestion occurs in the mouth.
Intestinal alcohol dehydrogenase that digests alcohol not previously absorbed into the blood stream Inside
the cells, nutrients are metabolized: burned for heat and energy or used to build new tissues