Good nutrition is one of the most essential elements for good health and a long life. People deal with food every day, and food has been a part of life since the beginning of civilization. What we eat becomes our diet, and our diet plays a major role in determining our health and how well our body functions. Without proper nutrition, our body cannot perform the functions it needs. Most people have some common knowledge of what is good and what is bad for the human body. Fruits, vegetables, nuts, and grains are common things people think of when they think of healthy foods. However, it is not enough to know which foods are good for your body, it is also important to understand why certain foods are good for you and what they do to help the body function. Food is everything we consume, whether for taste or nutritional value. The nutritional value of a food is the value it brings to the functioning of the body. To determine whether a food has poor or good nutritional value, people use a Nutrition Facts table. These charts can display the amount of fat, sugar, calories, fiber, carbs, cholesterol, calories, etc. Kavanaugh 2All of these substances serve one purpose or another when consumed by the body. Carbohydrates, for example, are broken down in the body to provide energy for the body to perform reactions and regain endurance. Protein helps muscles recover stronger than before and helps skin and hair cells grow. Certain substances, such as fats and sugar, can be misinterpreted as being harmful to the body. However, fats and sugars are vital to the human body and without them certain processes within the body could not take place ("What's In Food", Nutriti...... middle of paper ..... .ts. It is important to understand which substances should be consumed more than others and also why the body needs to consume a substance. Proper diet and nutrition is an essential part of a long and healthy life. Works Cited "MedlinePlus - Health Information from the National Library of Medicine." National Library of Medicine - National Institutes of Health. Web. March 6, 2011. Postlethwait, John H. and Janet L. Hopson. "Body Function and nutrition." Modern Biology. Orlando: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 2006. Print. Potter, Norman N. and Joseph H. Hotchkiss. Food Science. Gaithersburg, MD: Aspen, 1998. Print. "Why good nutrition is- "Best College in Ohio." Case Western Reserve University Web, March 6, 2011. "What's In Food." Internet. March 06. 2011.