Modern Concepts of Nutrition

Modern scientific discoveries and accumulating knowledge about nutrition and health have brought greater understanding about the right and the wrong ways of eating; modern studies have examined several present diets of peoples and compared these with that which existed before modern developments had occurred in the food and agricultural area. In spite of such new information being available, in general, the people tend to adhere out of habit to some preconceived notions which rely on superstitions that have little to do with nutrition or health.

In the modern thinking, nutrition is defined as a science of food as it relates to optimal health and performance (Bogest, Briggs and Calloway, 1973). Essential nutrients in adequate quantities must be present in the foods we consume for physical health and growth and physiological performance, to spur mental alertness and even help in emotional stability. Inside our body, the forty or fifty essential nutrients ingested through food give rise to thousands of other substances more complicated chemically than the original nutrients, all of which are necessary for life and fitness. Some of the new tenets examine the composition of foods to determine its utility, its suitability, when and how much to eat, the pitfalls of eating too little or too much of one or more foods or the wrong foods, the concept of diets and the balance (in respect of various nutrients) that should be achieved in planning daily meals, and healthy diets.