Nutrition and Physical Activity..

Making small changes to your eating habits can make a big difference for your health. Find out how to get started.
Regular physical activity is good for your health. Get tips to help you get more active.

NUTRITION...
Nutrition, nourishment, or aliment, is the supply of materials - food - required by organisms and cells to stay alive. In science and human medicine, nutrition is the science or practice of consuming and utilizing foods.

Nutritional science studies how the body breaks food down (catabolism) and repairs and creates cells and tissue (anabolism) - catabolism and anabolism = metabolism. Nutritional science also examines how the body responds to food. In other words,"nutritional science investigates the metabolic and physiological responses of the body to diet".

As molecular biology, biochemistry and genetics advance, nutrition has become more focused on the steps of biochemical sequences through which substances inside us and other living organisms are transformed from one form to another - metabolism and metabolic pathways.

Nutrition also focuses on how diseases, conditions and problems can be prevented or lessened with a healthy diet.

Nutrition also involves identifying how certain diseases, conditions or problems may be caused by dietary factors, such as poor diet  - researchers from the Karolinska Institute, Sweden found that people who ate their "five-a-day" portions of fruit-and-veggies tended to live longer than those who did not. Their findings were published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (July 2013 issue).

The researchers said that for those who went a step further and had more than five portions per day, there appeared to be no additional benefits in terms of longer lifespans.

The Basics

Regular physical activity is good for your health.

Physical activity is anything that gets your body moving. Start at a comfortable level. Once you get the hang of it, add a little more activity each time you exercise. Then try exercising more often.

What kinds of activity should I do?
To get the health benefits of physical activity, do a combination of aerobic and muscle-strengthening activities.

• Aerobic (“air-OH-bik”) activities make you breathe harder and cause your heart to beat faster. Walking fast is an example of aerobic activity.
• Muscle-strengthening activities make your muscles stronger. Muscle-strengthening activities include lifting weights and using exercise bands.

What are the benefits of physical activity?
Physical activity increases your chances of living longer. Exercise can also help:

• Control your blood pressure, blood sugar, and weight
• Lower your “bad” cholesterol and raise your “good” cholesterol
• Prevent heart disease, colorectal and breast cancer, and type 2 diabetes

And that’s not all. Being more active can:

• Be fun
• Help you look your best
• Improve your sleep
• Make your bones, muscles, and joints stronger
• Lower your chances of becoming depressed
• Reduce falls and pain from arthritis
• Help you feel better about yourself