Medical guide to a correct alimentation

Edited by Cascina Belcreda Health Service health@belcreda .it
Under the supervision of Dr. Prof. Francesco Cefis

- 1. Alimentation and nutrition
- 2. Nutritional disequilibrium
- 3. The celiac disease
- 4. A correct alimentation
- 5. Organic products
- 6. Cascina Belcreda

Alimentation and nutrition

As we all know, any machine needs alimentation to be able to work.
Also living organisms need to receive energy to be able to function: this is achieved by alimentation.
Food is used by human beings to develop and to produce energy: this is achieved by nutrition.

Nutrition is achieved trough the digestion of food.

Digestion transforms food so that they can be utilized by the organism. The molecules which compose every single aliment are subdivided in simpler elements from which the cells of the organism can draw the nourishment necessary to their life.
This enormous job is achieved by the digestive apparatus, which draws glucose from glucids, fatty acids from lipids, aminoacids from proteins. These substances and other nutritional principles (water, minerals and vitamins) are absorbed by the intestine and transported through the blood to the various tissues of our body. This is how the Metabolic process - through which each living body can maintain, grow, renew, and reproduce itself - takes place.

The human organism needs roughly 40 substances, which are introduced through aliments:
13 vitamins, 3 fatty acids, 9 aminoacids and 15 organic salts.

The most important of the remaining aliments are: glucids or carbohydrates, which are the main sources of energy; proteins which give support to the body structure; lipids or fats which constitute an important supply of energy.