Food is any material consumed to supply nutrition to an organisms. The basic function of the body is to provide food for its living processes. In animals, food is normally of animal, plant or fungal source, and generally contains necessary nutrients, including proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins, or iron, in adequate quantities. Humans, on the other hand, eat food to satisfy their need for food and energy.
In order to produce a human being, the food usually eaten by the animals is first made into food materials for their consumption. This includes making milk, cooking the meat and then eating it; boiling the vegetables to make soup; grinding the grains to make bread; and even preparing starches, pulses and vegetables to be used as food for the human body. Even today, with the advancement of technology and science, humans have become more interested in the consumption of food, and the methods by which food is prepared and cooked. They have even developed different kinds of machines that can grind and cook food for them.
Although it has been very long since man has been interested in his diet, the food habits of people in recent times have changed quite significantly. For instance, there was no such thing as packaged food until quite recently. Nowadays, packaged food consists of cereals, frozen food and legumes, and these are all processed. Moreover, the food manufactured nowadays usually contains high amounts of sugar, refined sugar, high fructose corn syrup and other additives, and low amounts of natural vitamins and minerals. These processed foods, when consumed daily, can only provide a small part of the necessary nutrients for human beings, thus leading to an imbalanced vitamin and mineral intake.
There are many reasons why this imbalance occurs. One of the most important reasons is the excessive consumption of hydrogenated oils, called trans fats, and the decreased consumption of essential fatty acids, called saturated fats. Also, there is an increased consumption of food that is rich in sugar, especially simple sugars, along with low amounts of essential fatty acids. All these factors combine to decrease the rate of absorption of nutrients in the body. If you want to increase the rate of absorption of nutrients in the body, you should consume food rich in vitamins and minerals, especially vitamin E and the fat-soluble vitamins.
When the digestive system works properly, the nutrients are transported from the bloodstream into the stomach, which dissolves the fats and some of the vitamins and minerals. The nutrients are then carried through the bloodstream to the various organs, which synthesize energy. However, if there are large amounts of wastes in the bloodstream, they tend to block the transport of the nutrients. This leads to a reduced rate of metabolism, accompanied by the accumulation of toxins in the body. The accumulation of toxins is a major cause of atherosclerosis, a condition that affects the arteries and leads to heart disease.
When there is a high level of fat in the bloodstream, the liver produces ketone bodies. These ketone bodies combine with the fatty acids in the blood to form acetone. Acetone is transported to the lungs for breathing purposes, but it also travels to the brain to be released into the bloodstream as a chemical used to produce long-term memory. However, the brain cannot use acetone without a source of energy, so acetone is used as a last resort. In the case of diabetic neuropathy, ketone bodies produced from fatty acids act as a powerful risk factor for the nerve damage and death that can result from acetone buildup in the bloodstream.