Carbohydrates

Let me give you few basic information regarding carbohydrates.
Like you all know the term carbohydrate refers to a large family of organic compounds essentially made of three elements i.e. carbon, hydrogen and oxygen.

Carbohydrates are widely distributed in plant foods. They are present in the form of three types of compounds called sugars, starches and fibers.
Theses three types of compounds can also be classified as available and non-available carbohydrates. Carbohydrates like sugars and starches are digestible in the human digestive tract and hence can be made available to the body for its functioning. These carbohydrates are termed as available carbohydrates.
Cellulose and certain other large carbohydrate molecules that cannot be digested in the human digestive tract are collectively referred to as fibre or non-available carbohydrates.

Cholesterol

Cholesterol and its relationship to health and disease is the hot topic of discussion. Hope you might have come across this term in newspapers, magazines, conversations, advertisements, etc.

What is cholesterol then?
It is a fat-like substance present in foods. Its structure is different from fats and oils(triglycerides).
Animal foods like milk, egg, organ meats, ghee, butter, cream are all rich sources of cholesterol.
Plant foods like vegetable oils(mustard oil, groundnut oil, soya oil), nuts and oils do not contain cholesterol.
We have often seen that some manufacturers of vegetable oils try to mislead the general public by claiming that their products do not contain cholesterol. Now you know that this claim has no basis.

Let me brief the role played by cholesterol in the body:

• Cholesterol is the structural component of membranes of body cells.
• The breakdown of cholesterol by the liver produces bile salts. Bile salts are important for the digestion and absorption of fats and some vitamins.
• It is also necessary for the synthesis of many hormones in the body.

However, extra cholesterol over and above the body needs can be harmful.

Nutrition

'Nutrition' the term which had always fascinated me made me opt 'Nutrition for the community' as one of the course subjects sometime back. I would be posting few topics on this which have impressed me, which have made me think, re think on the foods I take, and it's direct/indirect consequences on the overall health.
Let me begin with the very common term 'Malnutrition'.
Malnutrition is an impairment of health resulting from a deficiency, excess or imbalance of nutrients.
In other words, m
alnutrition implies to both undernutrition and overnutrition, not like what it is been commonly thought as only undernutrition.

Undernutrition means a deficiency or lack of one or more nutrients and overnutrition  means excess of one or more nutrients. Both undernutrition and overnutrition result in ill health.