Thursday, August 25, 2011

Food and its components

Food consists many components. To list some, they include:
-Fats
-
Dietary fibre
-Minerals
-Water

We need a healthy balance of all these different components, thus we would want to plan nutritious meals for ourselves.

These are some background info on these components :)

FATS
Fats form a category of lipids, which is essential for our bodies because fats serve both metabolic and structural functions. Fats insulate our organs and keep our bodies warm, and fats provide the body with the most amount of energy when burnt off.

We consume fats from the food we eat. For example, some forms of edible animal fats include fish oil, butter, and in the meat and skin in the animals that we eat. Also, fats can be found in the form of oil. For example, sunflower oil, vegetable oil and olive oil.

DIETARY FIBRE
We obtain dietary fibre by consuming vegetables. Dietary fibre is the part of food from the vegetables that we eat that is not digested at the end of the digestive process. As such, it helps in our digestion and bowel movements :P So...it would help our digestive system to eat more vegetable (:

MINERALS
Our bodies require some dietary minerals for it to be able to function properly everyday. Some examples include magnesium, potassium and zinc.

WATER
Water is an important and essential part of our diet! :O We need to drink sufficient amount of water to ensure that we are properly hydrated and for our bodies to function properly! (:

There are still many many many more components of food that are very important, but these are just a few, to give a short introduction to the world of FOOD COMPOSITION! :)

Saturday, August 20, 2011

How much should I eat? O.o

About me (:
Female adolescent, aged 14, height of 160-ish, around 162cm I think, weight 42kg (:
So, according to the RDA (Recommended Daily Allowances), which is the recommended daily levels of nutrients needed for a female of my age group, this is what I need daily:
  • Protein - 66g
  • Iron - 18mg
  • Vitamin A (retinol) equivalent - 725mcg
  • Vitamin D - 2.5mcg
  • Thiamin - 0.86mg
  • Riboflavin - 1.29mg
  • Niacin equivalent - 14.2mg
  • Vitamin B12 - 2.0mcg
  • Folic acid - 200mcg
  • Ascorbic acid - 30mg
  • Calcium - 1000mg
It also said on the website (http://hpb.gov.sg/foodforhealth/article.aspx?id=2652) that females of my age group are around 161cm tall and 52kg. Guess I'm falling short of that criteria ><