A correct alimentation
A correct diet is a valid instrument of prevention of many diseases.
The proportion and the quality of the foods we eat are at the basis of a complete physical and mental human
development.
Foods of bad quality, either polluted or not correctly preserved can be dangerous factors and are the
cause of illness and death.
Even an unbalanced or incorrect diet can cause conditions of disorder or actual pathologies which in many
cases are lethal.
In industrialized countries there is a growing exigency to guarantee the safety and the quality of aliments that
are produced, placed on the market and distributed through chains of distribution and catering.
Food safety implies that we are sure that what we eat is really wholesome.
It is therefore necessary to verify the quality of aliments, checking organoleptic and macro-biologic qualities.
Alimentary products are cultivated and treated in places often situated far away from their final users; the delay
between production and consumption is extended, the correct preservation of aliments becomes therefore of the
utmost importance.
Worldwide, FAO and OMS are the organizations most involved in caring for the safety of aliments.
Such safety can only be guaranteed by adequate methods of production and treatment of aliments, and it
is very important to carry into effect a number of prevention, and control of alimentary risks, measures.
Infact, aliments can be polluted by various agents of a physical, chemical or macrobiologic nature, which
are sometimes even the cause of lethal pathologies.
In order to guarantee the safety of aliments, from the raw to the packed product on the consumer’s table,
strategies and methods of prevention of contamination and control - covering every stage of the line of
production: from seed-time to packaging, from processing to counters - have been introduced.
These checks are carried out by specialized operators who look on:
- Production process
- Control protocols and procedures
- Chemical risk (phyto-chemicals used in agriculture)
- Microbiologic risk (zoonosis and other diseases that can be transmitted through foods). Micro-organisms
that can contaminate food include bacteria, viruses, Protozoa, besides toxins of bacterial or fungal origin.
It is advisable to verify that the products which end up on our table have gone through all the above mentioned
checks.
Nutrition and health are strictly linked.
Style of life and alimentation choices can avoid the development of diseases or on the contrary cause their
outbreak.
To regularly practise sports, to walk and to eat in a healthy way, with few saturated fats and abounding in
vitamins can make the difference.
In fact, excessive quantities or want of certain aliments inevitably end up in troubles, whilst a healthy and
balanced diet helps preventing them and ensures a feeling of psyco-phyisical well-being.
A balanced diet is an unrenunceable element of prevention.
A balanced diet includes macro-nourishing and micro-nourishing foods.
• Macro-nourishing elements are carbohydrates, proteins and fats.
Carbohydrates should supply 60% of daily energy, mostly as starches and for 10% as simple sugars. Fibres
should account for 30g per day.
Lipids should account for 30% of calories.
Vegetal and animal proteins should supply the remaining 10%.
• Micro-nourishing elements are vitamins and mineral salts, anti-oxidants, and essential aminoacids.
How many meals per day. It is advisable to consume four-five meals during the day.
• Breakfast is of the utmost importance to face the day and should supply 20% of one’s daily wants in
calories
• Lunch and dinner will supply 30% each
• In order not to sit down to lunch or dinner feeling too hungry, it is advisable to eat two snacks between
the main meals, namely at mid-morning and mid-afternoon. These small meals should supply 10% of
the need of daily energy.
Diet must be related to age.
It is absolutely necessary to modify the diet and the amount of calories in the course of life, because every age
has its own needs to satisfy.
• For the new-born baby, who doubles its weight in six months, the most suitable aliment up to the
fourth-fifth month is maternal milk. With it the baby receives anti-bacterial substances and immunologic
factors. Maternal milk contains about 50% of lipids, 43% of carbohydrates and only 7% of proteins.
• After the fifth month the baby’s diet must be enriched with cereals, vegetables, fruit, meat and eggs,
which will cover its new biologic needs. After the second year the diet becomes more solid and richer.
• Adolescence needs a greater nutritional contribution; the increase in height requires a greater
consumption of substances containing high biologic value proteins, essential fatty acids, calcium and
vitamins. The increased energetic need requires a greater introduction of sugars.
• In adult age the energetic need is stabilized and is quantitatively related to height, physical structure,
motorial activity, and sex. The proportion of glucids, lipids and proteins is specific of a balanced diet.
• In old age the caloric need diminishes; the centres of satiety and hunger modify their functions, whilst
the regulatory centre of thirst becomes less efficient, and is unable to transmit the desire to drink even
when that would be necessary. In the long run there is also a diminution of taste sensitivity, an alteration
in the perception of the bitter and acid tastes, not of the sweet taste. The digestion of sugars is more
laborious and the assimilation of proteins and certain nutritional substances such as calcium, iron, folic
acid and B 12 vitamin becomes more difficult. All this appens because gastric and enzymatic secretions
diminish, as well as intestinal motility. |
