General Health Flashcards
Supplement
A substance added to something to fill a deficiency or to make something more functional or complete.
Dietary Supplement
A product taken to provide the body with nutrients that are not obtained in a large enough quantity in the diet.
Vitamin
A substance that living organisms need for their cells to function, grow, and develop correctly. The essential vitamins required by the human body must be obtained from the diet, as the body cannot synthesize them in adequate amounts.
Mineral
A substance that contains no carbon (whereas vitamins do) and that forms naturally in the earth. Your body needs minerals for many different physiological functions, including building bones, making hormones, and regulating your heartbeat.
Dehydration
The human body is 75% water. Water is lost by sweating, urination, and breathing, and you need to replace it every day.
This is the state in which the body has replaced too little water for it to properly function. This has various negative side effects like headaches, tiredness, weakness, and, in extreme cases, even death.
Nerve
A bundle of tissues in the body that carries electrical messages between the brain, spinal cord, organs, and muscles. These messages give sensations and cause muscles and organs to operate. They are the “communication lines” of the body.
Processed
Means to use chemicals or machines to change or preserve it. Many methods of processing food destroy some or most of the vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients that it naturally contains, and often involves the addition of chemicals that can be harmful to the body.
Heavily processed foods often have fewer nutrients but more calories than their less processed counterparts.
Organic
Is free of artificial food additives and often has been raised and made with fewer artificial methods, materials, and conditions, such as chemical ripening, food irradiation, and genetically modified ingredients. Pesticides are allowed as long as they aren’t synthetic.
To be certified organic, food products must be grown and manufactured in a manner that adheres to standards set by the governments of the countries they are sold in.
All-natural
Are often assumed to be foods that are minimally processed or that do not contain any food additives such as hormones, antibiotics, sweeteners, food colors, or flavorings.
That said, while the label implies minimal processing and additives, the lack of standards and regulation means that it is essentially meaningless.
Cholesterol
A soft waxy substance found in most body tissues, including the blood and nerves.
It is necessary for survival and is used in building the cells and vital hormones in the body, as well as for other important functions. Too much cholesterol in the blood, however, increases the risk of heart attack, stroke, and other disease.
Your body makes some of the cholesterol it needs, and the rest comes from animal products you consume, such as meat, fish, eggs, butter, cheese, and whole milk. Cholesterol is not found in foods made from plants.
Body Mass Index (BMI)
A scale used for estimating how much people should weigh depending on their height.
It is meant to give a snapshot of the health of large groups of people or whole populations, but when it’s used to evaluate an individual, it’s often inaccurate because of different body types, like having a thing frame, having a lot of muscle tissue, or being very tall.
Body Composition
Used to describe the percentage of fat, bone, water, and muscle in human bodies.
As you’ll learn in this book, weight and BMI aren’t nearly as important in gauging our progress as body composition. Our goal isn’t to reach a certain number on the scale or a particular BMI reading–it’s to achieve a certain type of look, and that boils down to a certain amount of muscle with a low body fat percentage or a certain type of body composition.
