Whereas nutrition primarily studies macronutrients (proteins, carbohydrates, and lipids) micronutrition focuses on the components of these macronutrients, as on the micronutrients essential for maintaining good health.
These micronutrients may be grouped into:
Vitamins, minerals, and trace elements are indispensable for the correct operation our body, and a great variety of specific functions which take place within the body. are known of. It is therefore essential to ensure an adequate supply of micronutrients, all tho more so when many situations can lead to their deficiency: slimming diets, insufficiently varied diets, physical or intellectual exhaustion, periods of growth, pregnancy or lactation, sports, aging, and certain diseases.
Excess fat, characteristic of a modern Western diet, is one of the foremost causes of obesity and numerous serious diseases. Paradoxically, we do eat insufficient quantities of certain fats which are indispensable for our health. Our food intake is too rich in saturated fat, derived mainly from animals, but deficient in unsaturated fat (polyunsaturated fatty acids), present in certain vegetable and fish oils. Some polyunsaturated fatty acids, omega-3 and omega-6, are known as "essential", because they cannot be synthesized by the body. As various modern scientific papers have established, essential fatty acids contribute to nervous cognitive, and cardiovascular equilibrium.
The gut is essential to our immune system. This area's function is linked to the intestinal microbial flora, the microbiota, consisting of billions of bacteria, which must be safely preserved and replenished. In order to maintain our health, it is essential to protect the relation between food intake, the intestinal the wall and flora, by the liver's expulsion of toxins, known as "detoxification". This harmony can be disrupted by a number of factors, including: dietary imbalances (micronutrient or fiber deficiency) taking medication (particularly antibiotics), diseases, and stress.
