Types Of Food

Types of food
In order to understand how we can enjoy greater health and wellbeing, we need to understand something about food. There are four essential groups of food. For health and wellbeing werequire food from all the groups.
The purpose of this page is to stress that ALL four groups of food are essential to health and wellbeing. Even though we may be encouraged to eat less fat, thispage stresses that the body requires at least some food from each of the groups every day.
Many foods contain more than one group of food, and milk contains all groups of food.
Food is oftenclassified as:
Carbohydrate, including Fibre
Protein
Fat
Vitamins and Minerals
Carbohydrates are substances that contain carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. They are used in the body to produce energy.They include sugars and starches. Carbohydrates are usually obtained from plant sources. They are broken down in the body to form glucose, and any that is not immediately required in stored in the liverand muscles as glycogen. Plants use carbohydrates to build structures and store any excess as starch, whereas, animals use protein.to build structures and store any excess as fat.

Plants makecarbohydrates from sunlight, water, chlorophyll, and carbon dioxide. We obtain them from plants, for example:

cereals
starchy roots
legumes (pulses)
vegetables and Fruits
sugars, preserves andsyrups
Carbohydrates are mainly used by the body to produce energy. Where there is a lack of energy, we might think of carbohydrates. The energy in the body is used for:
External activities(behaviour), such as work, sport, leisure - that is any movement of the body.
Internal activities including breathing, pumping blood, digestion and the activities of the immune system.
None-digestiblecarbohydrate (Fibre)
Fibre, or roughage, refers to the non-digestible carbohydrates in vegetables and to a lesser extent in fruit. Fibre may actually be 'fibrous', as in celery, or may be a powder,...