Essential nutrients: is your body getting all the essential nutrients it needs?

Good nutrition is necessary for everybody, regardless of age. It helps prevent diseases and keeps our bodies functioning the way they should.

What are essential nutrients?

There are six categories of nutrients that our bodies need in order to stay healthy:

• Carbohydrates
• Protein
• Fats
• Fibers
• Vitamins
• Minerals

Why is nutrition important?

Good nutrition is important in helping the body grow, develop, and even prevent different sicknesses. The body uses the different nutrients to build strong bones, grow taller, and enhance cognitive capacity. It is also what gives us the energy to go on with our daily activities.

Why is it important to eat healthy?

All of the nutrients are bodies need are found in different fruits, vegetables, and meat sources. For instance, carrots are rich in vitamin A, red meat contains a lot of protein, and brown rice is an excellent source of complex carbohydrates. 

Poor nutrition (also known as malnutrition) can either be undernutrition (lack of nutrition) or overnutrition (overconsumption of nutrients), both of which have bad effects on the body.

Some examples of nutritional diseases are:

• Vitamin A deficiency which causes dry eyes and an increased risk of infection
• Zinc deficiency which leads to loss of appetite, hair loss, diarrhea, and delayed wound healing
• Iron deficiency which causes stomach problems and slower brain function
• Iodine deficiency which can lead to enlarged thyroid glands as well as growth and development issues
• Type 2 diabetes
• Obesity
• Hypertension
• Gout

What are nutrition drugs?

For some people, it may be difficult to get access to all the necessary nutrients our bodies need daily. This is either because the food they consume does not contain all the required nutrients or because of certain dietary restrictions such as veganism.

Luckily, there are different nutrition capsules, nutrition tablets, and even nutrition syrups for children that help people reach the necessary amount of daily nutrients needed.

These include:

• Multivitamin capsules and syrups
• Iron tablets
• Calcium tablets
• Vitamin B-complex capsules
• Vitamin C tablets and syrups