subject: Essential and Non-Essential Nutrients: What's the Difference? [print this page] Essential and Non-Essential Nutrients: What's the Difference?
As soon as you start taking an active interest in your health, you will begin to realize that things are a lot more complicated than they seem. Where before it was simply a case of burger in, and then seven hours later hitting the restroom, now you begin to realize that there are a whole host of processes that take place inside your body involving stomach acids, digestive enzymes, different nutrients and more. Some foods are better for you than others, while others are awful. One set of terms you might come across are essential and nonessential nutrients. What are they, and what do they have to do with you?
Let's clear something up right here, right now. Essential and nonessential do not make a distinction between nutrients that are healthy and not healthy. Many people think that an essential nutrient is one that you absolutely must consume in order to stay healthy, while nonessential nutrients can be skipped altogether. Folks, this is not the case, and if you find yourself in the sad company of those people who believe this to be true, than listen up and learn the difference.
Your body is capable of producing certain nutrients by itself. Things such as glucose, certain fatty acids and amino acids can be created by your body, and while they are essential for life, since you make them yourself it is not essential that you acquire them from your diet. In similar manner there are certain nutrients that your body cannot create. These are vital for your life, but your body cannot make them they are essential for you to include in your diet. These are things such as vitamins, minerals, as well as essential fatty acids and the other half of the amino acids.
Once you distinguish the difference between essential and nonessential nutrients, you quickly gain insight into what your body needs on a daily basis in order to function optimally. You need to ensure that you are indeed eating all the essential nutrients because your body cannot create these itself; it needs these nutrients from outside sources in order to survive.
However, it must be stated that there is a difference between your body surviving and being healthy. If you only eat the bare minimum requirements for your body to survive this does not mean you will be healthy, but rather that you will be alive, and clearly for most of us that is not enough.
