Why Do We Eat Food? And What Are the Food Ingredients That May Affect Our Health?

Food is any material ingested into the body to provide nutrition for an organisms. Most protein rich foods are the primary food source for an individual human being. Many plant foods, including those high in carbohydrate content, are also consumed regularly by individuals as part of a well-balanced diet. Other foods that are classified as food, even if not primary food sources, are included in the diet for their nutritional content.

Food is divided into three categories – primary food, secondary food and vitamins. Primary food or staple is foodstuff usually found in the local environment. These foods are available at a fixed time and place and are eaten on a daily basis by most humans. Examples of primary foodstuffs are breads, cereals, potatoes, rice and other vegetable products; fruits; vegetables; meats; dairy products; and other foodstuff not listed here.

Secondary food is foodstuff intended for consumption within a specific period of time, usually within a day or two. It can be renewed with the help of storage ingredients like salt, sugar, flour and other ingredients, according to the rules laid down by different nations. The best-before date on which to eat food meant for daily consumption has not yet been defined. Foods served according to the best-before date are termed as canned foods and are often used to preserve food items meant for daily consumption.

Vitamins are foodstuff either naturally or artificially produced in the lab by man, and therefore require no preservation or storing. Since many people find it difficult to eat enough food everyday, they rely on store-bought vitamins to meet their needs. However, there are many people who cannot buy food products preserved through the use of vitamins since these vitamins are expensive. For such people, the next best alternative is to take vitamin supplements orally. There are many other alternatives to vitamin supplements too, like taking fish oil and other specialized diet supplements or taking vitamin pills.

Nutrition is all about eating the right kinds of food, right amounts of food and maintaining proper balance in food chemical substances. All these factors can be brought under control by using food preservatives like BHT or Vitamin E. Since most preservatives like BHT have harmful side effects, nowadays most manufacturers of nutritional food prefer to use alternatives like Vitamin E or some other safe preservatives. However, not all food stuffs like vitamins or alternative nutrition products are consumed in sufficient quantities. In fact, many people do not eat enough food so they get the disease called obesity. Obesity is an inevitable condition resulting from starvation. The main reason for obesity is lack of nutrition because the body needs more energy than it gets from eating.

There are many food additives like food colorings, flavorings and sweeteners that are used by manufacturers to make their food products more attractive and appealing to the taste buds. However, there is a dark side to all this food additives and that is, when we consume food containing these food additives, we may develop ailments like cancer and heart diseases at a later stage in life. It is advisable to eat only natural and unprocessed foods to stay away from the diseases like cancer and heart problems. A healthy life style and healthy food habits is very essential to have a healthy lifestyle.