The importance of our food

For those with less time, at the bottom is a short summary.

The consumption of food, along with the intake of fluids and the inhalation of oxygen, is one of the essential physical needs that contribute to the maintenance of our complex biological system and at the same time ensure our existence. Accordingly, food intake is an essential part of our lives.

Sooner or later, everyone takes a look at their own eating habits and examines them to see whether it makes sense or seems possible to optimise them. The nutrition report of the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture from 2019 confirms this. The report shows that over 90% of Germans are interested in eating healthy.

Once interest has been awaken with regard to health & nutrition, attention should be focused on basic things for the time being. Nutritional information about individual recommendations for action is easier to implement than it is to understand the message behind it. First of all, we would like to clarify some quite banal but quite essential questions: What exactly is in our food and why are individual components so crucial to our existence? What happens in our body after we have eaten food? Consequently, in the context of discussing an optimal diet, the basic structure of our food must be understood in terms of its role as well as its individual significance for our organism. Only in this way can specific nutritional guidelines, recommendations for action and health-promoting measures be combined to form a concrete picture.

Our food consists of proteins, fats, carbohydrates, vitamins and much more.

Every food we eat is made up of nutrients. These include the well-known main nutrients carbohydrates, lipids (= fats) and proteins (= proteins). For the absorption of these substances in the body, enzymes break them down into their individual parts. Besides the main nutrients, vitamins play a popular role. They form an important part of our meals. Thirteen different vitamin families can be distinguished, whereby the majority of them are defined as indispensable for our body. Strictly speaking, only a few exceptions can be produced by the body itself.

Furthermore, our nutrients also include so-called trace elements and dietary fibres. Among the trace elements are well-known elements such as iron, zinc, copper, iodine, selenium and fluorine. Dietary fibres are those parts of our food that are not digested by our own body, but can have a direct influence on digestion.
With all the building blocks of our food, it must always be kept in mind that some of the supplied substances are indispensable for our biological system, as these cannot be built up by the body on its own, or only in extremely small quantities.

Main nutrients provide the body with much more than just energy
Nutrients have a wide variety of tasks and functions in our organism. Main nutrients in particular serve the body as energy suppliers, with carbohydrates occupying a central position. Carbohydrates in particular can be stored as specific molecules in so-called energy depots. In addition to being a driving force, carbohydrates also participate in the formation of genetic information and essential components of the cell membrane via biochemical cycles. Fats also represent an important driving force for our own body. In addition, lipids are needed for the synthesis of important cell membrane components. Added lipids are partly converted into substances that perform regulatory functions in the body. Proteins also serve as a source of energy, but primarily to build up the body’s own amino acids.
Dietary proteins contain building blocks that our system cannot produce on its own. Accordingly, our main nutrients form the basis for maintaining our internal milieu with all its facets. They therefore provide the necessary elements to successfully drive our biochemical cycle.

Vitamins are multifaceted

Vitamins are popularly regarded as the dietary ingredients that should be consumed for a healthy and strong body. Why is this so?
Vitamins get their outstanding reputation, due to their diverse tasks in the human organism. Some serve as coenzymes, substances involved in the proper functioning of enzymes. Others use their core function in the defence against cell-damaging free radicals or the generation of gene products. In addition, vitamins act as precursors of signalling molecules or hormones, which enables them to regulate and direct important body processes.

Trace elements and dietary fibres to promote health

Trace elements have their reason for existence as co-factors in the development of a specific enzyme in the body. They are indispensable for the functioning of certain enzymes and are needed for the synthesis of some substances. All trace elements must be supplied to the organism because they are not able to synthesise on their own. After all, even small amounts can have a great effect in metabolic processes.

Food components that are wholly or partially indigestible, i.e. withdrawn from decomposition and cannot be absorbed, embody a relevant function. Although the significance is controversially discussed, enough evidence points to a health-promoting effect. Depending on the section of the gastrointestinal tract, dietary fibres can have different positive effects. A high consumption of such substances can prophylactically even prevent diseases that typically occur in industrial nations.

To the point

1. Understanding the general composition of food and the importance of these components for the body is extremely valuable for dietary optimisation.
2. Our diet consists of proteins, carbohydrates, lipids, vitamins, fibre and trace elements — the intake of these substances is indispensable for a healthy mind, body and soul.
3. Carbohydrates provide us with energy and are important building blocks of genetic information and cell membranes.
4. Fats are fundamental for the energy supply and the formation of membrane components and regulatory substances.
5. Proteins provide power and drive the formation of components for the body’s own protein biosynthesis.
6. Vitamins are so important precisely because they perform many different functions in maintaining the internal environment.
7. Trace elements are essential for the functioning of many of the body’s own enzymes.
8. Dietary fibres serve to prevent some diseases typical of industrialised nations, such as diabetes.

Text sources:

(1)https://www.bmel.de/DE/Ernaehrung/_Texte/Ernaehrungsreport2019.html (16 April 2020)

(2) Biesalski / Grimm /Nowitzki-Grimm, Nutrition, 2017

(3) Horn, Biochemistry of Humans, 2018; Biesalski / Grimm /Nowitzki-Grimm, Nutrition, 2017.

(4) Königshoff, Biochemistry, 2018

(5) Königshoff, Biochemistry, 2018

(6) Biesalski / Grimm /Nowitzki-Grimm, Nutrition, 2017.

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