Why nutrition is important for women

By Patrick Gerenge

Nutrition to a woman is very important. It is crucial in maintaining good health, weight and keeping diseases such as breast cancer, osteoporosis and iron deficiency at bay.

While new information on what is good or bad health practices seems to surface almost daily, it is important to be clear about what parts of a healthy diet have special importance for women.

Vitamins and minerals

As it often said, a well balanced diet will meet many daily nutrition requirements. However, for good health, women need to pay special attention to two particular minerals, calcium and iron. Calcium is necessary for building optimal bone mass during our early years of life. Low calcium levels are a factor in the development of osteoporosis — a condition in which progressive loss of bone mass occurs with aging, causing the bone to be more susceptible to fracture. Unfortunately, women are at a higher risk of developing osteoporosis compared to men. It is, therefore, necessary that during adolescence and early adulthood up to the ages of 30-35, women increase their food sources of calcium, which include milk, cheese, salmon, tofu, broccoli, peas and beans.

That women also lose a good amount of iron during their menses, means that they need these minerals more than men do. An iron deficiency could result in diseases like anaemia whose symptoms include fatigue and headaches. Food sources for iron include meat, fish, poultry, peas, beans, spinach, kale, potatoes and whole grain and iron fortified cereal products.

• .

  Keep Reading

• 
  Clinical officers now call for an overhaul of SHA board leadership
• 
  Sports CS Kipchumba Murkomen says amputee football team not stranded in Germany
• 
  Kenya finishes strong but South Africa retains Rugby Africa Women's 7s title
• 
  Africa 7s: Faith Livoi set to make debut as Kenya Lionesses head to Ghana

Researchers say the link between breast cancer and high fat diets is so strong and they recommend that fat must not constitute more than 30 per cent of your total calories daily. Fats provide energy and help the body absorb certain vitamins.

Quality and quantity

But it is easy to eat too much of it because many foods contain fat. But in terms of heart disease, the kinds of fat you eat are as important as how much of it you take. There are three kinds of fat namely, saturated, poly-unsaturated and mono-unsaturated fats. All three are equal as far as providing calories is concerned but they are not equal in terms of how much they affect your health.

Saturated fat can raise your blood cholesterol level, which is bad for your health, but poly-unsaturated and mono-unsaturated fats actually lower your cholesterol levels.

Because women are more predisposed to getting fat compared to men, they should be weary of foods that contain saturated fat and embrace the ones that abundantly provide poly and mono-unsaturated fats.

Foods with the highest amount of saturated fat come from animals (meat) and animal products such as butter, cream, cheese and coconuts. Palm kernels from plants are also rich in saturated fat. The best sources for poly-unsaturated fats are plant based oils, sunflower, corn and soybean. Mono-unsaturated fats are found in largest amounts in olive and peanut oils.

Getting a variety of foods

Dietary guidelines dictate that many of the nutrients your body requires should come from a variety of foods and this usually confuses many of us. A good way to ensure variety is to choose foods each day from the three major food groups, which are carbohydrates, protein, vitamins and minerals. By choosing different foods from each group daily, it will serve as the basis for the dietary guideline "eat a variety of foods" and that is the tenet of nutrition advice for all people.

The writer is a fitness and nutrition consultant at the Redcourt Hotel’s Health [email protected]