Optimization of nutrition: rational nutrition

Increasing the production of food is the most important task facing humanity. But this is only one side of the matter. Another, equally important, is the understanding of the physiological needs of man in nutrition (from birth to old age) in different climatic, labor, domestic and other conditions.

Thanks to the development of fundamental ideas about the mechanisms of food assimilation, this area of knowledge has become not only an important branch of biological and medical sciences, but also a key aspect of practical health care. On the basis of fundamental research, it is advisable to consider some important problems, including rational nutrition, further optimization of human nutrition and a number of others, from the standpoint of two nutritional theories - classical and new.

In general, rational nutrition today is in most cases an imperfect diet. Therefore, the task of scientists and economists is reduced to the formation of real rational nutrition, which must be constantly improved. Thus, we again return to the idea of rational nutrition as a compromise between optimal norms and limited real possibilities. However, there is a fundamental question: on what basis will optimal nutrition standards be built-based on the theory of balanced or adequate nutrition?

Non-ideal food is also because many healthy foods contain toxic substances. In some cases, such toxicants can be destroyed by thermal treatment of food. However, a certain level of toxic substances is a constant and physiological partner of life. Most of these substances are neutralized by the protective systems of the gastrointestinal tract. In addition, recently, due to the intensification of agriculture and the urbanization of the population, the quantity of food impurities, the vast majority of which are not completely indifferent to the organism, is progressively increasing throughout the world. The use of environmental regulators (defoliants, insecticides, pesticides, herbicides, etc.) leads to the fact that these substances enter a significant part of food products. Such substances are used initially and primarily against certain plant species, harmful insects, poisonous fungi. Despite the efforts to make these drugs selective only for certain groups of animals, due to the universality of the functional blocks, there is a danger of their impact on the human body and higher animals. (In many cases, such a negative effect is proved.) Similarly, additives, most of which provide preservation of food products, are not indifferent. In addition, the latter are polluted with industrial wastes, among which may be very toxic.

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Optimizing power

Optimizing nutrition is a problem that needs a common solution. It seems especially important, since for the present time, food defects on a global scale are characteristic. With nutritional deficiencies, people also face in various emergency and extreme situations and will encounter artificial microbiospheres and microthrophosphes in connection with the exploration of space, ocean and other tasks. Therefore, it is necessary to understand how the effects of various nutritional deficiencies can be prevented or weakened.

First of all, consider the extreme case - the lack of food. For a long time it was believed that in such conditions, complete starvation is preferable to eating non-nutritious structures (in particular, plant leaves). Within the framework of the theory of balanced nutrition this was explained by the fact that when feeding leaves, a significant work of the digestive apparatus takes place and there is an additional expenditure of energy, as well as reproduction of the intestinal bacterial flora, which negatively affects the body. However, from the standpoint of the theory of adequate nutrition, the normal activity of the gastrointestinal tract is necessary to maintain the normalcy of many aspects of metabolism, for the functioning of the endocrine apparatus and, crucially, to maintain endoecology of the intestine. Preservation of endoecology due to dietary fibers, apparently, is more favorable for the body than absolute starvation. This point of view is confirmed by well-known examples of the behavior of people during the famine, adding grass, leaves, sawdust, etc., to food. A different meaning than a few years ago may be gaining an assessment of the behavior of some carnivorous animals during the famine-consuming foliage, grass, berries and other plants. Also clear are the differences between total starvation and starvation in combination with consumption of products with insignificant energy value, but significantly affecting the neighboring endoecologies of the organism. The use of dietary fiber is just one of many examples of nutrition optimization under adverse conditions.

The use of unrefined foodstuffs (for example, whole grain bread, unpolished rice, etc.), which is valuable in itself, when optimizing nutrition in conditions of shortage of food resources becomes especially important. Apparently, unrefined products and in most other cases have advantages over refined products.

The validity of a number of provisions of the theory of adequate nutrition is well demonstrated by the example of wild animals whose instinct helps them maintain the structure of their bodies with extraordinary accuracy. As for man, he, probably, in the process of forming the species Homo sapiens, and also as a result of upbringing (often wrong), traditions, prejudices, etc., loses these skills and instincts that provide an adequate choice of food. It should be emphasized that the optimization of nutrition was an important and useful part of national, tribal and religious traditions. However, scientific literature often draws attention only to the shortcomings of these traditions, many of which are now lost. At the same time, such a loss creates a vacuum, which is often filled with incorrect and unorganized actions. The latter rely on numerous fashionable concepts of nutrition, sometimes not having a theoretical basis and not backed by centuries of practice.

Apparently, with the optimization of nutrition, one should keep in mind its national characteristics, the range of relevant products (which is dependent on the environment, the way of obtaining and processing food), the level of technology, etc. It is known that the relative energy consumption in the form of fats from Eskimos reaches 47%, while in Kikuyu it is only 10%. Unlike the Eskimos, Europeans and Americans, like the Kikuyu, consume significantly less fat. However, it should be borne in mind that people, as a rule, adapt to the change in the diet quite easily.

When optimizing nutrition, it appears that information should be taken into account that in some cases some trace trace elements may have an important nutritional value.

Optimization of nutrition is associated with the solution of several more problems. Since the creation of toxicants designed to combat pests of agriculture and harmless to humans is almost impossible because of the universality of the functional blocks, first of all, compounds should be obtained that would perform basic regulatory functions in the external environment, but would not enter the food food or food. Next, we should look for compounds with a degree of selectivity in which these substances and their metabolites would be as indifferent as possible to humans. It is also important to develop food technologies, including culinary technologies, in which toxic substances would be destroyed or turned into harmless during cooking. Finally, there should be sufficiently complete and open information about the presence of toxic compounds in products and the possibility of alternating these products in order to avoid cumulative effects of adverse effects, etc.

The concept of adequacy allows you to optimize nutrition in accordance with the age and nature of work. But in this case the food will not be ideal. Certain prospects for optimizing nutrition opens up an improvement in the amino acid composition of food by introducing appropriate peptides instead of amino acids into it. As is known, in the 1970s and 1980s nutritional mixtures based on short peptides and free amino acids were developed. Foreign firms produced a number of peptide diets. It was demonstrated that a diet containing short peptides is utilized more efficiently than a mixture of free amino acids. A number of researchers have shown the high value of protein hydrolysates containing short peptides. It should also be noted that unlike the unpleasant taste of amino acid mixtures, hydrolysates of food proteins (including mixtures consisting of short peptides) in many cases have a fairly pleasant taste. Peptide hydrolysates can be recommended for nutrition of weakened organisms, with short-term diets, with high physical loads, etc.

When optimizing nutrition, it is also necessary to take into account nutritional supplements, which are increasingly used in human nutrition and especially farm animals. The number of food supplements includes antibiotics, growth factors (stimulants), coccidiostatics, histomonostatics, etc. Their useful and adverse side effects have been widely discussed in recent years. At the same time, new additives are constantly being offered, including growth stimulants, antibiotics, anabolic agents, yeast cultures, microorganisms, etc.

The main issue is the safety of such additives for the consumer. At the same time, it must be remembered that virtually all food products (both natural and processed) may contain unwanted substances. And the system of strict control of the whole trophic chain, protecting a person, can not always guarantee his health. For example, an excess of even full-fledged, absolutely "healthy" food can lead to obesity, cardiovascular diseases, the development of malignant tumors and other serious illnesses. In recent years, a number of lower calorie diets (400-600 calories per day) than usual, as well as semi-starvation, are recommended for losing excess weight. Therefore, when trying to optimize food, one should remember the words of Hippocrates, said more than 2300 years ago: "Dietetics allows those who have good health, to keep it, and those who lost health, to restore it."

Various categories of food additives recommended by the EEC (by: Vanbelle, 1989)

• Antibiotics (growth stimulants)
• Growth factors (growth stimulators)
• Koktsidiostatiki and histomonostatics
• Aromatic and flavoring substances
• Emulsions, stabilizing agents, gels and seals
• Color agents and pigments
• Circuit breakers
• Vitamins and vitamin-like substances
• Trace Elements
• Enzymes, choline

Finally, the optimization of nutrition is necessary in connection with the problem of the food of the future.