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STEPS
YOU CAN TAKE - Nutrition
 Introduction
Nutrition! What is it?
A cult or religion? Fact
or fiction?
Nutrition
is the process by which the human body uses food for maintaining health,
for growth, and for the normal functioning of every organ and tissue.
Nutritional
factors have been linked to risk for developing several types of cancer,
as well as risk for recurrence and likelihood of survival when someone
has developed cancer.
Nutritional factors include:
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Relative
body weight |
the
amount of body fat; the result of what you eat compared to your
level of physical activity |
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Essential
nutrients |
such
as protein, vitamins, and minerals |
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Other
“constituents” of foods |
compounds
that are not nutrients but have biological effects in the body |
Fiber,
for example, is not a nutrient – it is a dietary constituent, meaning
that it affects human physiology and the biochemistry of how food ingredients
are processed and managed within the body.
Fiber does this by affecting how things move through the intestine
and colon.
Phytochemicals are
constituents of plant foods that have biological activities.
They are among the nutritional factors that may explain some
of the connections between diet and health.
Some
nutritional factors appear to be protective against disease – so this
topic is NOT simply focused on what in the diet may be unhealthy.
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