A satisfying healthy meal

A meal should not be just to satisfy your appetite to fill up your stomach. Our body need certain kinds of food, not just any food, to meet the requirement in providing the necessary nutrients to maintain a healthy operation. Our body system operation is not a simple mechanism. It is not possible to tell you the details involved in this topic in one article. If I need to give you the detail of what nutrients do in what function of our body system operation, I can write a whole book for that. For now in here, I am trying to give you a whole picture in summary of how much and what kind of food we need to maintain a healthy body and why.

Our body need nutrients of vitamin, mineral, carbohydrates, protein, fat, cholesterol and liquid. There are various kinds of vitamins and minerals. Each kind do a specific role in our body system operation. We almost need all of them. We are most likely can not take in all of them in one time. We can take in some in one meal and the others in another meal. Some foods contain some of the vitamin and minerals more, the other foods contain the other vitamins and minerals more. To make sure we have all kinds of vitamins and minerals, we should eat different kinds of food in different meals and try a wide variety of food. If somehow we can not take in enough certain kind of vitamin and mineral, we should take some vitamin and mineral supplement.

Carbohydrates mainly give us energy that we need to maintain the operation of our body system and to support our daily mental and physical activities. Although fat and protein can also give us energy, but our main source of energy should come from carbohydrates. Most carbohydrates occur in plant life. Grain carry the most carbohydrates. The most common grain that the farmer grow are wheat, oat and rice. The farmer also grow a lot of corn and potato which also give us carbohydrates. You can find a lot of carbohydrates in bread, rice, tortilla, cereal, oatmeal, noodle, potato, corn, and pasta. Honey, bean, sugar, syrup, apple, banana, pea, grape, pear, cabbage, broccoli, carrot, milk and cauliflower also contain some carbohydrates.

Since the cells of our body are composed mainly of protein. Thus protein is required for cell growth. In all stages of our life, cell is constantly being broken down and must be replaced by dieting protein. Protein are also needed for the formation of enzyme, antibody and hormone to maintain the proper function of our body. Protein are our body's only source of nitrogen. Without protein, we cannot survive for long. Most of the protein are from animal source. Some of the protein come from vegetable, especially the bean, but those are incomplete protein. I can not see why the vegetarian do it without animal protein if they want to be healthy. If plant protein is preferred, it must be consumed with some animal protein in the same meal because your body need complete protein to process into various kind of proteins that your body need. The animal source of protein we can get from the market are beef, pork, chicken, duck, fish, shrimp, milk, cheese and egg. Bean, nut, pea, rice, bread, lentil, and corn are main source of plant protein.

Fat is also an essential nutrient. Fat is an essential part of every cell wall and of the membrane within the cell. Fat beneath the skin to insulate the body from excessive heat or cold. It protect the joint, sole, palm and buttock from outside pressure and vital organ from physical trauma. Fat also serve as a carrier of fat-soluble vitamin. Almost all kinds of food contain fat. Some more, some less. Animal fat are mainly saturated fat. Too much saturated fat in our body are major cause for heart disease and stroke. Plant fat are mainly unsaturated fat. However, some plant fat are highly saturated, such as palm oil, coconut oil and chocolate. Unsaturated fat, if hydrogenated, become a different kind of fat called trans-fat. Trans-fat is a health risk because it raise cholesterol level of human being. Actually, we do not need oil to cook food because most food contain fat that we need. However, cooking food with oil can add favor to our food. If we want to cook food with oil, use vegetable oil.

Our body need cholesterol because it is a major part of brain and nerve tissue and a structured material in body cell. It is also necessary in the production of bile salt, vitamin D, some hormone including cortisone and sex hormone. Our daily dietary cholesterol intake should not exceed 300 mg. All natural food from animal source contain cholesterol. Plant food do not contain cholesterol. If we consume certain amount of animal food product every day we should get enough cholesterol. Egg, brain and organ meat contain a high level of cholesterol. People with high blood cholesterol are venerable to many diseases.

Water makes up one half to two thirds of the weight of an adult. It is an essential part of every cell and is the basic substance of blood, lymph, and body secretions. Water is an important regulator, for all chemical reactions in the body take place in its presence. Water also regulate body temperature. How can we do without water. Many food come in the form of liquid, such as tea, coffee, milk and juice which are mainly water.

Water permit nutrients to be digested, absorbed. Water are also needed to form feces. Fat can make vitamin A, D. E, and K dissolved and to be absorbed. Fruit are rich in vitamin C which can aid digestion. Vegetable are rich in vitamin and mineral. Protein is the only supplier of nitrogen to the body. Carbohydrate is necessary in the proper use of fat. Carbohydrate encourage the growth of some intestinal bacteria that are involved in the production of certain vitamin and in the absorption of calcium and phosphorus. As you can see, the above-mentioned nutrients are inter-dependent in the digesting and absorbing process. We must include them all in a meal. Fiber, which is not a nutrient, can absorbs and hold water, resulting in a softer, bulkier stool and faster movement of feces through the intestinal tract to discharge thus preventing constipation and diverticulosis. Fiber should also be included in every meal. Whole grain, fruit and vegetable are rich in fiber.


If you are healthy, your body must be in balance. That means you are neither acidic nor alkaline. To maintain your balance, you must eat a balance of acid-forming foods and alkaline-forming foods. Most of the food are classified into acid-forming and alkaline-forming. Some are stronger, some are weaker.
Grain products are acid-forming. Animal products are acid-forming. Bean is acid-forming. Fruit and vegetable are alkaline-forming. Milk and dairy products have a lot of alkali but also contain a little acid. Now you can see why we must eat fruit and vegetable to balance each meal.

So a healthy meal should have some grain product, animal product, fruit, vegetable and liquid. According to a study, if you eat three meals a day, in each meal you should have 2-4 servings of grain product, 2-3 servings of fruit and vegetable, 1-2 servings of animal product and a glass of drink. If you have a labor job which require a lot of physical activities or do a lot of exercise, then eat 4 servings of grain product. If you are small or less than 100 pounds, for example, then you can eat only one servings of animal product. If you have a glass of milk for the drink, then eat less animal product. If you have a glass of orange juice then eat less fruit and vegetables. If you eat 4 servings of grain product and 2 servings of animal products which both are acidic, then you should eat 3 servings of fruit and vegetables to balance it.

If you follow the food principle that I have outlined here you should not have malnutrition or overweight problem. If you consistently eat to the contrary of the food principle you should have health problem.