Fats, carbohydrates and proteins provide calories. Since our bodies cannot produce these essential nutrients themselves, they should be considered essential.
Vitamins and minerals are also vitally important. Unfortunately, according to the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, many do not receive enough calcium, potassium, dietary fiber and vitamin D in their daily diets.
Vitamins
Vitamins are organic substances that perform numerous essential jobs for our bodies, from supporting bones to strengthening immunity systems and turning food into energy. We need these essential substances in small doses in order to heal and thrive – as well as for regular bodily functions like growth and healing. They cannot be produced internally by the body and must instead be ingested via diet. Many vitamins have specific functions in the body; such as Vitamin A (retinol) which aids vision as well as maintaining healthy skin and mucous membranes; the four carotenoids including beta carotene which gives fruits their distinctive orange hue as well as help prevent night blindness; etc.
Most people get all of the vitamins they require by eating a healthy, well-rounded diet; however, taking vitamin supplements may also provide essential nutritional support. When selecting vitamin supplements from any supplier, be sure to look for third-party testing by the United States Pharmacopeia which ensures they are safe and won’t interfere with any medications you might be taking.
Minerals
Minerals are vital building blocks of our bodies. They assist with bone strength, soft tissue support and many important bodily processes like nerve transmission, blood clotting and enzyme production. There are two kinds of minerals: macrominerals we need in larger amounts like calcium, phosphorus magnesium sodium; while trace minerals include iron zinc copper iodine.
Minerals are substances found naturally and solid in their natural state; liquids and gases do not qualify. Minerals form through geological processes like metamorphism or magma cooling; they may also form from living organisms producing them as part of their normal biological functions, like calcium carbonate shells of mollusks or coral.
Properties that define minerals include their crystalline structure, color and luster, hardness, conductivity and piezoelectricity (the ability to generate an electrical charge when pressure is applied). Minerals also feature complex chemical composition and ordered atomic arrangements.
Essential Fatty Acids
Fatty acids play an essential role in maintaining cell membrane fluidity, hormone production and inflammation in our bodies. Unfortunately, we can’t produce essential fatty acids ourselves, so they must come from food sources like vegetable oils, nuts and cold-water fish oily varieties. Essential fatty acid deficiency causes symptoms including dry skin rashes in infants and decreased growth rates among children; parent omega-6 series parent acids include linoleic acid (18:2n-6) and alpha-linolenic acid (19:3n-9); parent series parent fatty acids include linoleic acid (18:2n-6) and alpha-linolenic acid (19:3n-9); these two series compete for desaturase enzymes so when ratio of LA toALA is high it indicates essential fatty acid deficiency (34)
Doctors may suggest eating foods high in essential fatty acids or taking an intravenous liquid emulsion that contains essential fatty acids in order to prevent deficiency.
Carbohydrates
Carbs are the primary fuel source for our bodies, breaking down into glucose (blood sugar) during digestion. Once digested, glucose provides energy while any leftover glucose stores itself in our livers and muscles as glycogen for later use. Carbs can be found in foods like grains, fruits, vegetables and dairy products.
Dietary carbohydrates should come mainly from complex carbs (starches) and naturally-occurring sugars rather than processed and added sugars. Added sugars include syrups and other caloric sweeteners used to add flavor to foods; examples include brown sugar, corn syrup, dextrose fructose lactose molasses sucrose and turbinado sugar.
Evidence indicates that the types of carbohydrates consumed have significant ramifications on health outcomes, with evidence pointing towards low-fiber, refined grain diets being linked with adverse health outcomes. As such, several empirical indexes reflecting carbohydrate quality have been proposed; one such index suggests using a ratio of total carbohydrates to dietary fiber of 10:1 as an effective method to identify products containing healthy sources of carbohydrates.
