Stress vs Nutrition

Do you know how the stress can affect your body? When you are under stress, you need extra nutrients like vitamins and minerals. To make it easier to understand, just imagine when you are driving a car, and suddenly you brake sharply. What would happen to your car? It consume more fuel, and you need to supply more fuel to your car. Not only the fuel, you need to change brake , tyres, cooling liquid etc if you constantly speeding or driving your car with sudden brake. This is similar when you under stress, your body needs more nutrients, your heart, muscle are exhausting and more free radicals will produce. To find out what free radicals do to ouy body, please refer to my previous article Health No 1 Enemy - Oxidation. Anti-oxidant is the solution to nuetralize the free radicals.

The sad fact is normally when people under stress and busy, they tend to make poor food choice like fast food, or even skipping meals. This is damaging to the body. Just imagine a car with excessive acceleration and brake without supplying extra fuel, sooner or later, the car will be sent to garage. If the car is our body, we will experience the breakdown of body systems, it could be just a flu, cold to cancer or heart problem dependant on the level of seriousness.

Stress is unavoidable in the modern world, but the diet and nourishment has to be incorporated so that we can cope with the stress in a more effective way.

Why is Protein Important?

Protein is a form of energy in our body. It helps to build strong muscle, forms an important building blocks for our body (cells, blood, skin, hair etc.), and it is essential for body immune system and creating enzymes. Protein is composed of Amino Acids, most of which body can produce by iteself, but 10 essential amino acids cannot be made by our body, and must be consumed in the form of food.

Another benefit of protein is it helps to lose weight. For every extra KG of muscle, it helps to burn an extra 100 calories a day approximately. This is essential for those people who want to lose weight in a healthy way. By gaining extra muscle will help to reduce the excess body fat and shape up.

Good sources of protein include poultry, fish, whey protein, beans etc. Better choice of protein is plant protein like whey protein and soy protein. To compute specific daily protein intake, you will need the ideal body weight.

Woman's ideal body weight:
US measure: 100 pounds for 60 inches in height+ 5 pounds for each additional inch over 60 inches.
Metric: 45 kilograms for 150 centimeters in height+ 0.85 kilograms for each additional centimeter in height

Men's ideal body weight:
US measure: 106 pounds for 60 inches in height+ 6 pounds for each additional inch over 60 inches.
Metric: 48 kilograms for 150 centimeters in height+ 1 kilogram for each additional centimeter in height.

Men and women protein intake range based on ideal body weight:
Minimum Daily Protein Requirement: W.H.O. recommends 0.45 grams of protein per kilogram of ideal body weight per day.
Maximum Daily Protein Requirement: US RDA recommends 0.8 grams of protein per kilogram of ideal body weight per day. The UK Department of Health and Social Security is approximately the same.

Reference source: http://www.indoorclimbing.com/Protein_Requirement.html

Health No.1 Enemy - Oxidation

What is oxidation? We cut an apple, left it on a table, after a while, it turns brown. This is an oxidation process.

Do you know that oxidation process also happen in our body? We are exposed to pollution, stress, poor nutrition, UV etc. everyday. Little did we know that these can lead to oxidation process in our cell. When we subjected to outside factors like radiation, stress etc., our body is contantly producing toxin and burning by using oxygen which is similar to an apple turns brown. As such it produces free radicals which could damage our cell membrance. When our cells are damaged and are not being repaired properly, it could lead to cancer, diseases, illness and ageing.

How do we protect our cells from free radicals? We need anti-oxidants, example of anti-oxidants are Vitamins E, C, A which can be found in vegetables and fruits. It helps to fight against the free radicals to protect our cells, healthy cells can help to maintain body functions and keep us healthy. There are numerous research studies show that anti-oxidants may slow or potentially prevent process of cancer. Visit http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/antioxidantsprevention for more information and trials on anti-oxidants vs cancer.

Health and Nutrition - Benefits of Minerals

Calcium: helps to build bones and teeth. You will find it in milk, yogurt, cheese, soy milk.

Iron: Helps the red blood cells transport oxygen to every parts of our body. Can be found in red meats, poultry, shellfish, beans etc.

Magnesium: Maintain strong bones, muscle and nerve function. Source of foods: whole grains, nuts. green vegetables.

Potassium: Maintain nerve system. Can be found in banana, green leafy vegetables, legumes.

Zinc: vital for growth, immune system, sexual development. Foods: red meats, seafoods, whole grains.

Health and Nutrition - Benefits of Vitamins

Vitamin A: Promote good vision, strenghtens immune system. Mostly can be found in dark colored orange or green vegetables, orange fruits e.g cantaloupe, peaches, mangos etc., other good sources are milk, liver, eggs.

Vitamin C: Helps to form collagen, absorb iron and calcium. Essential for healthy teeth, bone and skin. Great source from red berries, kiwi, orange, red and green bell peppers etc.

Vitamin D: Strengthens bone system. You can get it while your skin expose to the sunlight. Food source: egg yolk, fish oils, milk.

Vitamin E: Helps to protect cells from damage, build red blood cells. Can be found in various foods such as green leafy vegetables, nuts, vegetables oils, whole grains etc.

Vitamins B: Consist of B1(Thiamin), B2 (Riboflavin), B3 (Niacin), B6, B9 (Folate), B12. In general, vitamins B help to convert food to energy, build red blood cells, and essential for brain and nerve function. B9 (Folate) is also needed to make DNA. Good source of foods: Fish, meats, poultry, eggs, legume, cereals, whole grain food, potatoes, banana etc.

Interdependance of Micronutrients

Most people are aware of the importance of vitamins and minerals. Many people are taking nutrition supplements such as vitamin C, B, A, calcium etc. to improve their health. However, not many people are aware that the certain nutrients need to be taken in right combination with each other in order to function at best result, otherwise they may have limited or no effect.

According to the diagram below, all nutrients need to work together as a team, e.g like vitamin C needs to depend on calcium or vice versa for optimum result.

This is very important especially for those who are taking supplements. If not taken in the right combination, the supplements can be a waste of money!

Why are vitamins and minerals so important for health?

Vitamins and minerals are very important for health. It helps to nourish our cells, protect us from free radicals which are caused by daily stress, UV, pollution and poor nutrition. Free radicals can damage our cells resulting in premature aging, sickness and illness.

What are vitamins?
Vitamins are organic compunds that help to regulate fat, carbohydrate and protein metabolism in the body.

The functions of vitamins are to release the energy of the foods that we consume every day. In addition, our enzyme, nervous, hormonal and immune systems are dependent on vitamins for regulation and control. There are 2 types of Vitamins: water-soluble and fat-soluble.

Water-soluble: These vitamins cannot be stored in the body and need to be replenished through our diet.

Fat-soluble: These vitamins are stored in the body and include vitamins A, D, E and K. Even though these vitamins can be stored in our body, we still need them through our daily food intake.

What are minerals?
Minerals are inorganic elements that help to form strong bones and teeth, control our hormanal functions, enayme secretion, muscle contractions, fluid in tissues, nervous system. In addition, they cannot be made in the body and needs to be taken through our daily diets.