I eat a well
balanced chop plate of food daily.
A balanced
meal, says dieticians and other food or nutrition experts will contained
certain percentage of complex carbohydrates, fats, proteins, fruits and
vegetables plus water.
All these
are need primarily for energy; for growth, development, repair and replacement
of tissues, bones, ligament, nerves and other intricate parts of the body.
It is best
if all the food items were natural rather than processes foods.
Okay, here
is an example of a balanced meal for a 60kg man
·
Complex
Carb………………………………………………..500g
·
Fats
and oils……………………………………………..…….60g
·
Protein……………………….....................................100g
·
Greens
and non-leafy vegetables………………..…300g
·
Fruits……………………………………………….………………60g
With this
said, why do you think you still need a food supplement?
The balanced
meal I consumed contained all the vitamin and phytonutrients or mineral matters
my body need for proper metabolism. But why the extra need for a food
supplement?
At times a
special need of food supplements can arise like during a period of ill-health;
and when one is recovering after a surgical operation. This is because at this
point, less food is being consumed. Such cases are usually understood. But why
does one need a food supplement when not strike with ill-health?
The Need For Food Suplement
Food supplements
are vital to any meal one ate.
Even if you
eat only natural foods that are not processed into refined state, you may miss
a food factor in the meal you eat. That is where food supplements become of
import.
You see we
are still human beings and not animals. Animals got all their needs from the
natural states as things are. We humans need to cook all or most of our foods.
With the
exception of fruits and certain non-leafy and green leafy vegetables, carbs,
fats and oils, and proteins are to be treated with heat or cooked before
eating. In the process of cooking the food items say green leafy vegetable
certain percentages of essential food nutrients are lost.
In cooking
carbs or any water soluble food items for example, vitamin C, B-Complex,
vitamin K, anti-grey hair factor, and filtrate factor are mostly or completely
destroy. Up to 60% vitamin C and B-complex can be lost in cooking greens. Digesting
the 40% will not be completely absorbed by the body due to incomplete
digestion. For example, the food not being fully masticated, right from the
mouth and as only a partial form of digestion takes place, it is thus partially
absorbed in the intestinal villi or intestinal walls. In treating carbs like
potatoes and yams with heat, the starch can be over cooked at times and the
food nutrients destroyed completely. It is when the carbs is cooked half done
or 2/3 that much is got from it in terms of food nutrients.
Some greens
will carry germs, virus and bacterial unknown to you. Cold freezing them
renders the virus useless and inactive or ineffective. But here all water
soluble nutrients get destroyed during the storage or freezing process. You
mostly get bulk or roughage in eating such items.
Besides
this, it is quite obvious that one still needs a supplement to replace the lost
during the cooking and eating stage. This is where supplements become crucial
again.
Chelated Form Of Nutrients
Some foods
nutrients are best absorbed when in chelated form up to 90% but not completely.
Food nutrients that can be absorbed 100% by the human body are rare indeed.
With the
exception of alcohol which is a beverage and a drug, and can be absorbed 100%
via, the stomach walls, all other food items carbs, fats and oils, proteins are
below this level.
The chelated
form of food materials are chemically engineered for easy or maximum
absorption. Vitamins, mineral matters, proteins in amino acid form are process
into chelate forms. So if you badly need a supplement, you can easily have it
over the counter.
Some most
important food supplement the body needs are amino acids, fatty acids, vitamins
C, B-Complex, iron for the formation of new red blood cells; others include magnesium
and potassium salts, not epsom salt which is laxative.
The most
important food supplement that the body needs is protein especially for
building muscles.
Protein Supplements
Proteins are
by far the most important food items that the body needs, not that carbs, fats
and oils are not important. This is because every part of the body is made up
of protein cells. The hair is made up of protein. So are the skin, nails,
tissues, and above all the muscles of the body. Think of every organs of your
body as consisting mostly of proteins.
Protein
supplements helps to enhance the protein intake of the body. It can help
rebuild dead cells.
Getting Enough Protein From Meals
If you are
like me, I think you can do or do without a protein supplement some times. Yes,
I do not go on a regular protein supplement intake because I varied all my
protein sources fish, meats, eggs, milk, legumes, seeds and roots. These items
can form a plate of chop in the right proportion.
With the
exception of meat, eggs, and fish, all the others are cooked half in raw state or
stewed for 5 minute, so I get better benefit in my chop plates.
One very
salient thing missing in most meals is the skin of foods. You usually discard
them right? In this you miss a most valuable food item.
There is
this vitamin C1 factor which is little known. You can get it in the
skin of the citrus fruits, but I am sure you always throw them away!
Take the
skins of root crops like yams and potatoes, but especially the skin and stems
of cocoyams. Their skin contained proteins. Even the leaves of the sweet
potatoes have protein.
Yesterday, I
had a chop plate of yam porridge. I only discard the brittle or wax part of the
peel. The whole of the flesh including the inner skin goes into the pot with fried
sardines, tilapia, mullets, greens, beans; green, red and yellow chili; and I
round this up with some peanuts and a cup of black tea with added sugar and
milk.
In this
case, I think I need less of a supplement, for I get all the protein my body
needs from more than two sources.
Try a
variety of proteins like meat, fish, bird, legumes, nuts, greens and roots in
combined forms. Chew them well and you are right in getting them well absorbed.
To your good
health!
Miebakagh57
(Miebakagh Fiberesima) Copyright 2015
