Proper nutrition is one of the cornerstones of preventive medicine. Eating a balanced diet helps you to not only stay healthy, but also to live in a state of total well-being, since it optimizes bodily functions. Eating healthy foods, getting the right nutrients: what do these actually mean? Do they mean the same thing? No, not exactly: nutrients are the main components of food. They can be either caloric nutrients (proteins, lipids and carbohydrates) or acaloric nutrients (vitamins, minerals and water). All foods, apart from table sugar and table salt, contain more than one nutrient, and are therefore called “complex matrices”. The predominant type of nutrient in a food will determine its placement in one of the seven food groups on which the food pyramid was built, a graphic representation of the correct diet.
Everyone needs to introduce a certain amount of nutrients into their diet on a daily basis. Getting the right nutrients, therefore, means introducing the amount of nutrients necessary to satisfy these needs, no more, no less. But to introduce the right amount of nutrients, you must of course consume food, choosing the “right” ones and incorporating them appropriately into your daily diet. Diet means “life habit”, and following a diet does not mean trying to lose weight (that would be called a calorie-restricted diet), but simply refers to your lifestyle at the table. A balanced diet is one that allows us, thanks to a suitable combination of different foods, to consume the right amount of nutrients (and also energy) and therefore, together with an appropriate lifestyle, to increase our chances of staying healthy and reduce the risk of getting sick.
It may seem difficult, and indeed it is not easy to follow a correct diet. But it is definitely worth it. And in order to make the best food choices, it is certainly important to know more about both nutrients and foods, on a journey that can lead to more conscious and correct food choices, to the benefit of our health.
Alessandra Bordoni
Department of Agricultural and Food Sciences
University of Bologna