Good basic nutrition

The question of good basic nutrition is one that comes up many times in our daily lives.     Well, maybe it does not come up every day, but it is something we should be concerned about whenever we sit down to eat.    Food is the body's major source of fuel, but we get more from it than just calories.   The foods we eat also supply us with other vitamins and minerals that are essential to our health and the operation of our body.

Getting good basic nutrition is not difficult, it just involves applying a little knowledge of the nutrients that your body needs and what proportions it needs them in.   The USDA Food pyramid is a good guide that will help you plan out your diet.   It is also important to know how many calories you should take in on a daily basis for your age and height.

The most important part of a diet for good basic nutrition is the starches.  By looking at the food pyramid we can see that these are at the bottom and should make up the largest portion of our diet.   It is important because the body uses the carbohydrates it gains from starches to make up most of our energy.

When we move up on the food pyramid we can guess that we should eat these foods in smaller quantities.  Resting comfortably above the cereal and grain group on the food pyramid are fruits and vegetables.  Although these are two separate groups, most of them still lump them together.

A diet that gives you good basic nutrition should include three to five servings of vegetables and two to four servings of fruit.    Many guidelines will say 3-5 servings of fruits and vegetables a day, but it is a good idea instead to think of fruits and vegetables as two separate groups and get the recommended amount of each for good basic nutrition.

Above the fruit and vegetables on the pyramid, we seek the dairy and protein groups.   For good basic nutrition the human body needs one or two servings from each a day.   The body uses protein to build muscles and the calcium provided by many foods in the dairy group promotes bone health and prevents conditions like osteoporosis.

At the top of the food pyramid we find fats, oils, and sweets.  Most of the junk food that we eat falls into this category, although some foods that are good for us in small quantities do as well.   We can probably give up sugary foods if we need to, but the body cannot go entirely without fat as it is used to cushion the joints and muscles.  Certain oils have been shown to have benefits to the heart.    It is okay to take in these foods once in a while, but large quantities of each type of food should not be consumed.   If you keep all of these guidelines in mind,  you should be getting good basic nutrition in your daily diet.