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Nutrition starts from the womb, and in most cases, ends in the tomb. We all need it from start to finish. This is an indication of how important food and nutrition have been for mankind’s sustenance.But what is it that provides nutrition to the body? How do we decide what nutrients are necessary for us? Are there nutrients that are not necessary? In order to understand nutrition, let us first get down to understanding what it actually is. What is it? Nutrition is, in lay terms, the process of providing the body with food that is needed for its growth and nourishment. This means that any ingredient that gives us nourishment and sustenance can be considered food. In scientific terms, it can be described as the process by which food is ingested, digested, absorbed, metabolized, stored, transported and excreted. This process is eventually what decides how healthy we are, because our strength and resistance to disease are directly related to how well our bodies make use of nutrients. Well assimilated nutrients keep major diseases away by tuning our immune system and keeping it in good condition. What are essential nutrients? By this, we mean food that we consume daily for our sustenance.The human body needs food once every four to six hours on average. What we give it every time the system asks for it is what we may call foods that constitute essential nutrients. This of course, is vastly different from one geographical area to another. While locally grown crop in say Brazil is suited for its population; the same crop may not be so well suited in other places like West Asia. Vast populations of the world, especially in Asia, in which nearly two thirds of the world’s population resides, consume rice as its staple food. In many parts of the rest of the world, rice is not so prevalent. Does this mean that such populations do not get adequate nutrition? They do. They get the nutrition that is best suited for their bodies by consuming whatever is available in their part of the world. This is nutrition at its most elementary. When food that is locally available is consumed with the least processing and the least additives; it is a great guarantee of good health. Is globalization good or bad for nutrition? We saw that locally grown; less stored food is ideal for the human body. But this goes against the basic grain of globalization, at the heart of which is making the world one singular place to live in with the near obliteration of geographical barriers. This may work for several human endeavors and activities like technology, education, music and other forms of culture, but nutrition doesn’t seem to find favor with globalization! Food from multinational food chains, when made available in other parts of the world, has to necessarily undergo a lot of processing and preservation. This makes it less nutritious, adding to the already weakening factor of lesser suitability to the body than locally grown food. This is giving rise to many imbalances in the global food supply and health, and needs to be addressed. GlobalCompliancePanel
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