I am presently studying Anatomy, Physiology and Pathology. This is an area I studied years ago but I am really interested in this subject, so I have gone back to university to take a further course.  The tutor was introducing herself and made us all laugh when she said there had been a enormous growth of  interest in this subject since the increased popularity of TV programmes like CSI.

We covered ‘fuel for our bodies’ in this weeks lecture and I was amazed how little many of my fellow classmates knew about basic nutrition, so I thought I would go over some of the basics.

The 5 groups of Nutrition are – protein, fat, carbohydrate, vitamins and minerals.  Proteins are gained from dairy, fish, meat & pulses. We do need a certain amount of fat for a healthy diet.  I will cover this in another blog as I am constantly asked about fats when I am doing talks and in schools etc. Monosaturated fats found in olive & rapeseed oil, are the good fats which can help lower cholesterol. Saturated fats from animal products are the ones we should avoid.

Carbohydrates can be sugary (like cakes, biscuits, soft drinks etc) or starchy (like bread, pasta, cereal, potatoes & rice etc). Carbohydrates are essential for energy, but the starchy carbohydrates are healthier for you.

There are two kinds of vitamins, these are water soluable which cannot be stored in our bodies and fat soluable which are stored in the liver and not needed daily.   Such water soluable vitamins are B vitamin’s ( found in dairy, meat, fish, eggs) and vitamin C ( found in citrus, soft fruits, pots, salad). Fat-soluble vitamins are vitamin A (found in vegetables, milk and meat),  vitamin D (found in eggs, meat, oily fish), vitamin E (found in veg oils, nuts, eggs, greens) and vitamin K (found in greens and wholemeal cereals).

The main Minerals are Calcium (milk), Phosphorous, Iron, Magnesium (cereals, pots and veg), Sodium, (salt and salty foods), Potassium, (veg, pots, meat, milk) Chloride, Zinc (meat, veg, pots), Copper (nuts), Selenium, Fluoride, Iodine (milk, cereal, fish) etc

One think we often forget about is Water and this is important, for a healthy life we should look to be drinking 2 litres of water a day.

Salt although essential to life can be very harmful in high quantities and can actually be a cause of heart related illnesses. You should always beware of high salt levels in processed and takeaway foods. We consume around an average of 9g of salt per day and our daily recommended amount is half that.

Omega 3 is a healthy fat, which is suppose to be fantastic for brainpower, you can simply eat oily fish once or twice a week to obtain your omega 3.

Antioxidants are the best minerals and vitamins A, C and E, these fight off free radicals in our body and are anti cancerous.  Free Radicals are nasty chemicals and toxins absorbed in to our diet from the environment, chemicals and unhealthy processed foods.

What about Cholesterol, well this is a waxy like substance essential to life but again like others there are 2 kinds, LDL = low-density lipoprotein (this is said to be the bad/harmful one, it can be deposited in artery walls causing coronary problems. This type of cholesterol comes from saturated fats like fatty meats, dairy, eggs, lard, suet etc0. HDL= high density lipoproteins and this is a protective type of cholesterol.

Another important factor is the amount of Fibre we eat. This can be found in wholemeal flours, pulses, beans and grains.

So as a reminder which we should all revisit from time to time, especially with the colder months now upon us to make sure we are taking in a varied balanced diet to keep our immune systems and our bodies healthy.

Just in the past few weeks we have seen thousands of us flock to the GP’s surgeries for Flu jabs etc, have you had yours this year? Do you take vitamin supplements and if so what do you take?