Food is fuel and the quality of the food you eat affects your life. Just as impure fuel adversely affects the efficiency of a motor engine, so an inadequate diet adversely affects the growth and capability of the human body.

The type of food that you eat and how you eat it affects your ability to breathe, think, work and play, and the ease with which you are able to withstand stress and resist disease.

It is the variety of basic materials contained in the specific foods that we eat that provide your body with the nutrients needed to sustain its muscles, bones, organs and glands, and its mental and physical activities.

Adolescence is a time of rapid development and the increase in your appetite reflects the nutritional needs of your growing body. During this time your nutritional requirements are higher than at any other time in your life, and the eating habits that you establish now will affect your physical and mental well-being far into adulthood.

In ancient Greek and Roman medicine the condition of the gastric organs was said to be represented by our general dispositions and states of mind. Even today people are still referred to as 'liverish' or having 'gall', and to 'stop bellyaching' is a common complaint.

Japanese people still refer to the abdomen as the Onaka, meaning the honoured middle, and many cultures throughout the world show a similar regard for the food they eat, offering a prayer, or grace, before eating.

'You are what you eat' is a phrase that reflects the need to think of the benefits of what you eat rather than the satisfaction of immature cravings.

It is difficult to think and act clearly if your mind is being constantly interrupted by abdominal sensations and your body is not receiving the nutrients it needs. A healthy diet is one which contains all the nutrients that the body needs, in the right proportions, and which encourages an easy digestive rhythm.

Nutrients

Proteins

Proteins form the larger part of the structure of the body’s cells and the hormones and the antibodies that protect us from infection. They are essential for tissue growth and repair and provide a reserve source of energy.

Carbohydrates

These provide our major source of energy and also convert into body fat.

Fats

Fats maintain the healthy structure of the body’s cells and also, in the form of body fat, provide a reserve form of energy.

Vitamins

Vitamins A,B,C,D,E and K, taken in the correct amounts, are vital for tissue growth and repair and for the health of your organs and glands, muscles and bones, skin, sight, nerves and blood.

Minerals

These are literally minerals found in rock and earth and that are present in specific foods. They are the vital constituents of our bones and teeth, they are necessary for the utilisation and release of energy, and they help to control the composition of body fluids and cells.

Fibre

This is a mixture of indigestible materials that is not absorbed within the body. Consequently it passes through the digestive system, preventing congestion of the intestines.

Water

Water contributes to some two thirds of your body's total weight. It is the medium in which almost everybody process takes place, and the need of the body for water is second only to its need for air.

Proteins

Proteins form the larger part of the structure of the body's cells and hormones and the antibodies that protect us from infection. They are essential for tissue growth and repair and provide a reserve source of energy.

Recommended foods and proportions

For optimum health and longevity you should eat foods in the following proportions:

• Whole grains 35 per cent
• Animal foods 25 per cent
• Fresh fruit and vegetables 25 per cent
• Fatty spreads and oils 0 per cent
• Highly processed foods 5 per cent

Whole grains

These are complete seeds that contain all the elements they need to reproduce themselves. Whole grains have been the basic food of mankind for thousands of years, and in many Eastern and Third World countries they still provide the greater part of the daily diet.

Whole grains contain vitamins, minerals, fats, proteins and fibre, and should provide about a third of your daily diet.
They include unrefined breakfast cereals like porridge oats and muesli, wholemeal bread, wholewheat and rye crispbreads, brown rice, wholewheat and buckwheat pasta, corn on the cob and oatmeal.

Animal foods

By animal foods we mean products of the animal kingdom, such as meat and fish, eggs and milk, which tend to form the greater part of the Western diet. They are a valuable source of protein and contain some vitamins and minerals, but are also likely to be high in fat.

Because of this, too much animal produce can make you fat and increase the risk of high blood pressure and associated diseases. Animal produce particularly rich in vitamins and minerals includes lean muscle meat (avoid the fat), liver, kidney, fish and shellfish, eggs, milk, yoghurt and cheese.

The type of animal produce that you eat can also make a difference to your health. For example, animals raised in the wild or free-range animals on farms are free of the remains of drugs and chemicals fed routinely to most farm animals.

Also if you are vegetarian or wish to eat less animal produce, make sure that you replace it with the proper kind of foods–ones that are high in protein and contain vitamins and minerals.

Fruit and vegetables

These are prime sources of vitamins and minerals and are most beneficial when fresh and not overcooked. For example, a generous salad with nuts and seeds, eaten with a piece of wholemeal bread, is a balanced nutritious meal in its own right.
Fruit and vegetables contain about 90 per cent water and so can be added generously to form at least a quarter of your daily diet.

These kinds of food include cooked root vegetables like onions, parsnips, potatoes and carrots, cooked leaves and seeds like peas, beans, cabbage, spinach, brussels sprouts and kale, other vegetables like mushrooms, cauliflower and courgettes, and raw vegetables like tomatoes, cucumber, lettuce, celery, cress and water cress.

Of the fruit, you should eat raw fruit like apples, pears, cherries and plums, and dried fruits like raisins, figs, dates and apricots.

These foods should form a quarter of your daily diet, and include soya beans, green peas, broad beans, haricot beans, lentils, nuts, sesame and sunflower seeds, peanut butter and tahini.

Salad and cooking oils and fatty spreads

During the last three generations the Western world has doubled its daily diet of fat. During the same period the kinds of fats consumed have also changed, with more and more coming from animals.

Only during recent years has evidence been produced to show that too much animal fat is positively unhealthy. Consequently, more vegetable and plant oils are now being used as they are much lighter than, say, butter, and more conducive to good health.

Fats and oils are a concentrated source of energy and a form in which energy can be stored. Together they should contribute about one-tenth of your daily diet, including cooking oils like rapeseed, sunflower, safflower, corn and olive oil, salad oils like olive oil, sesame, corn oil and rapeseed (probably the lightest),and spreads like peanut butter, sesame butter, butter or, preferably, margarine rich in sunflower oil.

Highly processed foods

These should be kept to a minimum, say 5 per cent, as most processed cakes, pies, sugary tarts, frozen puddings and the like contain additives, flavourings and high amounts of sugar and salt.

Salt, although essential to our bodies in small quantities, will make you feel tense if you eat too much of it. It can also raise your blood pressure and lead to fluid retention.

Sugar has been described as `pure, white and deadly'. It has been stripped of all the healthy vitamins and minerals contained in the original cane or beet, and it can seem highly addictive, drawing your appetite away from other far more nourishing foods.

Eaten in quantity it is a major health hazard implicated in the development of a number of serious degenerative diseases.
It comes in many disguises, like tea, coffee, soft drinks, jams, cookies, ice cream, cakes and candies, and most processed and canned foods–so beware!

Fresh foods are undoubtedly more wholesome than highly processed and refined foods.
For example wholewheat bread is more nutritious than white bread, fresh meat more nutritious than hot dogs and hamburgers, and freshly cooked potatoes more nutritious than instant mash.

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