How does food nutrition improve our health and quality of life and why is it important?

Food nutrition is the study of the nutrition and safety of foods to improve human health and quality of life. In recent years, there has been a lot of research into finding healthier foods through new ingredients, such as anthocyanins in blueberries.

 

Food is the most essential element for the survival of all living things, including humans. All creatures instinctively seek out their mothers’ milk, bite, chew, and swallow food without being taught to do so. Humans are not satisfied with just eating for energy; we seek out more flavorful and qualitatively better food. Food nutrition is a discipline that grew out of this desire.
Food nutrition is the study of living organisms’ diets, especially human diets, and food itself. From the entire human dietary culture to the detailed structure of the substances that make up food, and the mechanisms by which each component acts on the human body. In other words, the process by which a food enters the human body, is digested and broken down into its simplest substances, and the specific pathways by which the substances affect the human body chemically and biologically are studied. Furthermore, this research seeks to find ways to improve the nutrition, safety, palatability, and convenience of foods.
As human living standards improve, people are looking for healthier foods. As people focus on the “nutritional quality” of food, food nutritionists are turning their attention to research in this area. One of the most active areas of research is new food materials. Food novelties are new substances with bioactive functions in traditional foods and biomaterials. In other words, they are chemical components of a food that have a positive effect on the body’s ability to perform its functions.
For example, anthocyanins, which are found in blueberries and raspberries, act as antioxidants in the body to fight harmful free radicals. When oxygen enters the body during breathing, it undergoes several metabolic processes that make it unstable and reactive. These free radicals cause oxidation in the body, damaging cell membranes, DNA, and other cellular structures. They oxidize amino acids, altering the structure and function of proteins, which in turn impairs the function of various enzymes and body organs. Recent studies have even linked free radicals to inflammatory diseases like diabetes and cancer. Since the discovery of the antioxidant properties of anthocyanins, they have been extracted from blueberries and developed into dietary supplements.
In the past, blueberries were not well known for their health benefits and few people enjoyed eating them, but now they are gaining a lot of attention. Recent research on new food materials has led to the discovery of foods that are unfamiliar to people, such as blueberries, but have very good nutritional properties, and new substances that are more effective or have fewer side effects than those currently used in dietary supplements and pharmaceuticals.
For humans in the past, eating was simply about getting energy for activity and sustaining life, but for modern humans, eating is not just about sustaining life, it’s about preventing disease and enhancing the body’s function to lead a more fulfilling and happy life. The ultimate goal of food nutrition is to improve human health through diet, and in turn, improve the quality of life. The research of new food materials is the field of research that best fulfills this goal.
As the standard of living of humans has improved compared to the past, people are looking for new and qualitatively better foods. A wide variety of new products are produced based on food nutrition theories, and this expands the number of food choices available to consumers. As you can see, the field of food nutrition has a wide scope and impacts many different areas, so it will continue to be an active field of research.