Fruits and vegetables harvested soon after harvest start losing nutrients — particularly vitamins. To get the most from your purchase, shop locally and eat it quickly after purchase for maximum nutrition value.
Nutrients such as nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) provide food for aquatic life forms like algae. Fish and invertebrates rely on them as vital survival sources as well.
Essential nutrients
Essential nutrients refers to nutrients that cannot be produced within the human body and must be obtained through food sources. They are called essential because their lack can result in disease such as scurvy or death, and this concept has developed over time; initially it meant only low intake caused a deficiency disease in experimental animals before later becoming essential because it fulfilled specific biological functions within higher organisms (e.g. amino acids in protein molecules).
Recently, several functional food components like fibre, plant sterols and polyphenols have been suggested as meeting criteria for essentiality. Unfortunately, however, current definitions of essential nutrients remain based on deficiency symptoms in humans or defined biochemical functions in other species. A healthy diet contains the essential nutrients that your body requires for optimal health – this includes macronutrients like proteins, carbohydrates and fats as well as micronutrients like folate, vitamin C, potassium calcium magnesium.
Fortified foods
Fortification refers to the practice of adding micronutrients to food in a manner that ensures consumers receive them, either voluntary or mandatory. Fortification has become common practice across developed nations and has played an essential role in public health nutrition – helping eradicate micronutrient deficiency diseases like goiter, rickets and beriberi altogether.
Fortification can also provide assistance for other dietary needs beyond nutritional deficiencies, including adding essential vitamins and minerals to foods high in sugars, fats and sodium – so-called unhealthy foods.
However, for a fortification program to be effective it must first gain widespread consumer acceptance. To do this, consumers need to be educated and motivated on the benefits of adding nutrients that benefit health – this can be accomplished via targeted campaigns that reach specific segments such as socio-economic level, urban/rural status, age group or gender.
Food enrichment
Food enrichment refers to the addition of micronutrients into foods that do not usually contain them, often for specific reasons like decreasing nutrient deficiencies in a population or improving nutritional values of processed food products. It may be done for any number of purposes; for instance reducing nutrient deficiency among vulnerable groups within society or increasing nutritional values within processed products can all benefit.
Enrichment differs from fortification by adding essential vitamins and minerals – usually vitamins and minerals – to food products; fortification occurs when these nutrients don’t naturally exist within food, while enrichment increases micronutrient contents intentionally by increasing them naturally in existing sources such as foodstuffs.
Bread was fortified during World War II because it is an essential staple food, with low levels of iron, thiamine and riboflavin intake among many populations (Quick and Murphy 1982). Whole food sources that provide ample amounts of essential nutrient-rich components make good candidates for enrichment.
Supplements
Supplements are an easy and efficient way to get essential vitamins and minerals you might otherwise miss from food alone, and can also help athletes to maximize performance or lose weight more efficiently. Before taking any supplement, though, speak to your physician or dietician about its possible effects – some vitamins can be harmful in high doses, or interfere with other medications; also since supplements aren’t regulated by the FDA it’s essential that those purchased bear the USP (United States Pharmacopeia) seal of approval.
Diets that provide optimal amounts of essential vitamins and minerals should meet most of our vitamin and mineral needs; however, certain lifestyle conditions or pregnancy require higher consumptions than usual for specific vitamins and minerals; pregnant women require increased folic acid and iron consumption while modern farming, refining, and processing may deplete nutrient levels from foods; therefore supplements become critical to help fill any gaps left by a less than ideal diet.
