Bahar Oct 08 Diwali Special - MMAbuDhabi Home

BASICS OF A HEALTHY BALANCED DIET
-Shraddha Pandit
Now a days all of us have become very health conscious. Any discussion in a
group has one essential topic and that is diet. We read a lot and we get a lot of
information about diet from various media. However, are we familiar with the
basics of healthy diet? A good balanced diet can help you to remain fit and
maintain good health whereas a faulty diet can result in poor health. In order to
have a balanced diet we have to first know the basics of a balanced diet and terms
related to it.
EXPLANATION OF TERMS
In this article, we will deal with the basic terms related to healthy balanced diet.
HEALTH
Health is defined by the World Health Organisation as the "State of
complete physical, mental and social well being and not merely the absence of
disease."
The essential requisites (or dimensions) of "health" would include the following:
1) Achievement of optimal growth and development, reflecting the full expression
of one's genetic potential.
2) Maintenance of the structural integrity and functional efficiency of body tissues
necessary for an active and productive life.
3) Mental well-being.
4) Ability to withstand the inevitable process of ageing with minimal disability and
functional impairment, and
5) Ability to combat disease, such as resisting infections, preventing the onset
(and retarding the progress) of degenerative diseases and cancer and resisting
the effect of environmental toxins and pollutants.
NUTRIENT REQUIREMENT
Nutrient requirement can be defined as the minimum amount of the nutrient that
is necessary for maintaining the normal functions of the body.
RECOMMENDED DIETARY ALLOWANCES (RDA) is defined as the nutrient
present in the diet, which satisfies the daily requirement of an individual.
Recommended Dietary Allowances of an individual depends on many factors like
age, sex, physical work and physiological stress.
Age: Age is an important factor, which determines the amount calories an
individual should take. An adult requires more total calories than a child due
to larger size of the body and increase in activity. A growing child requires
more calories and protein per kilogram of body weight than an adult does.
Sex: Females require fewer calories than males as BMR (Body Metabolism
rate) is lower and size of the body is generally smaller.
Physical work: Activity of a person also determines his diet requirements.
Sedentary workers require fewer calories as compared to a medium or hard
working person.