Summary Unit 3

Unit 3: Food and Digestion

Digestion is the process of taking nutrients from the food to our body. Nutrients are the different substances that our body needs to work: carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins and minerals.

Diet and health

A balanced diet is everything that you eat and drink and it should include all the nutrients that you need according to your age, health and physical activity. Your diet should give you energy.

The food wheel is a classification of food. There are 6 groups:

Advices for a balanced diet:

1. -          You should eat food from all the groups
2. -          You should eat more food from the bigger groups (1, 4, 5 and 6)
3. -          You shouldn´t eat a lot of sweets, animal fats or red meat.
4. -          You should eat 5 meals a day that include:

o   3 pieces of fruit

o   Carbohydrates

o   Proteins

o   Dairy products

Food hygiene

Hygiene is essential to prevent illnesses: we must wash the food and our hands before we eat. Some foods are natural (they can be found in the nature: milk) and other are processed (humans made them: butter).

Eating food in good condition keeps us healthy. We can preserve food in good condition by:

-          Heating: cooked food can be stored in hermetically sealed containers.

-          Cooling: refrigeration is the process of cooling food. Frozen foods should be eaten right after they are defrosted.

-          Adding preservatives: salt, sugar or vinegar can help to preserve food in good condition.

The Mediterranean diet is a healthy one, it includes food that we can find around the Mediterranean countries such as Spain: fish, vegetables, pulses, fruits, olive oil and cereals.

The digestion

Digestion is one of the 4 processes involved in nutrition. Through digestion we take the nutrients out of the food. The digestive system has 6 main parts:

•  Mouth
• Oesophagus
•  Stomach
• Small intestine
•  Large intestine
•     Anus