Nutritional Status

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Nutrition is the study of foods and their relation to health. It includes all body processes that relate to food and the body’s use of food. These processes include:

1. Digestion: breaking down food so it can be absorbed by the bloodstream and used to nourish cells and tissues.

Click here for more information: http://www.nutristrategy.com/digestion.htm

2. Metabolism: Using the nutrients to build tissue, provide energy, etc.

3. Circulation: Transport system to provide cells with nutrients and remove wastes

Click here for more information: http://sln.fi.edu/biosci/blood/blood.html

4. Elimination: Removal of waste products via respiration, sweat, urinary and digestive tracts.

Good Nutrition is essential to:

· Promote healthy mind and body

· Increase energy levels

· Promote resistance to illness

· Speed healing

· Improve quality of sleep

Nutritional status is the condition of one’s nutrition. Wellness is a state of good health with optimal body function. Illness is a state of poor health. Some diseases that are the result of poor nutrition include:

1. Hypertension: high blood pressure

§ Excess salt in diet may be one cause

§ Leads to heart, kidney and blood vessel disease

§ Click here for more information:

http://www.kumc.edu/SAH/dietetics/research/lifestyle/trmt.html

2. Atherosclerosis: a condition in which arteries are narrowed by fatty substances on their inner surfaces

§ Caused by diet high in saturated fats and cholesterol

§ Hereditary component

§ Causes heart attack and stroke

§ Click here for more information:

http://sln.fi.edu/biosci/healthy/art-dis.html

3. Osteoporosis: a condition in which bones become porous and break easily