Basic Nutrition Guide- Part 1

We find many articles that focus on human nutrition and the various nutrients that comprise it.  But when we do that we tend to miss the basics, which are arguably far more important. In this article I will go over the basic of nutrition with minimum complications

Essential vs. Non-Essential Nutrients

The body has a requirement for somewhere around 60 nutrients on a daily basis for normal functioning or basic health. Please note that as nutritional science has progressed, it’s clear that many more nutrients contribute to optimal health even if they aren’t required for survival.  Put differently, you can live without consuming them but you might be healthier or perform better as an athlete if you did eat them.

I should also mention that this list of 60 nutrients includes things such as air and water that, while they aren’t considered as nutrients per se, are usually not an issue.  If you’re having issues obtaining adequate amounts of air or water, you have bigger problems to deal with.

 Nutritional science often groups nutrients into the categories of essential and nonessential (recently the terms indispensable and dispensable have come into vogue) which is what I’d like to discuss next. For quick summary, there are roughly 8 8 essential amino acids the 2 essential amino accids, a host of vitamins and minerals and a few others substances that are required on a daily basis.  You might note that carbohydrates were not listed as an essential nutrient, a topic I’ll come back to below.

What is an Essential Nutrient?

 What is an essential nutrient as opposed to a non-essential nutrient?  I’m actually going to answer that by explaining what a non-essential nutrient is first. Contrary to what it sounds like, the term non-essential doesn’t mean that the nutrient isn’t essential for life. Rather, it’s not essential that the nutrient be obtained from the diet itself.  That is, it is physiologically essential in that it is required for life.  But it is not nutritional essential in that it must come from the diet. there are some nutrients (such as glucose, certain fatty acids and just over half of the amino acids) that can be made in the body from other sources.  For example, many amino acids can be made in the body via metabolism from other amino acids.  As well, glucose can be made in the body from a number of different substances.    So while these nutrients are physiologically essential they are not nutritionally essential.  That is they don’t have to come from the diet.

Also, there are nutrients that cannot be made by the body (the vitamins and minerals are examples, so are the essential fatty acids and roughly the other half of the amino acids) and are hence considered essential nutrients. That is, it is essential that they be obtained from the diet (generally on a daily basis).

To be considered essential, a nutrient must several basic criteria:

1. That nutrient cannot be made in sufficient quantities (or at all) by the body 2.That nutrient is required for survival/the lack of that nutrient causes disease/poor growth

If a nutrient isn’t required to keep you alive, it’s not essential (even if consuming it improves health or what have you).  If it’s required for life but the body can make sufficient amounts of it, it’s still not essential to get it from the diet; hence it is not an essential nutrient.  Only when a given nutrient is both required for survival and can’t be made in the body in sufficient amounts is it an essential nutrient in terms of what I’m talking about here.

Although I want to keep this piece focused on the basics, I should probably mention one odd exception which is Vitamin D (currently getting a lot of press, and for good reason, in various places).  Vitamins and minerals, generally, can’t be made in the body and must come from the diet.  But while Vitamin D can be obtained from the diet (many foods are fortified with it), and is an essential nutrient, it is actually made by the body in response to sunlight hitting the skin.

The topic of essential nutrients can get even more complicated.  For example, some nutrients are classified as conditionally essential.  That is, under normal conditions, those nutrients are not essential.  But under specific conditions, frequently pathologies or disease, they become conditional.

• Stay tune fore Part 2 we will tackle on Dietary Protein and their role in Body

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