Eating healthy foods throughout our lives helps us to keep our bodies and minds strong, to live long healthy lives, and to prevent diseases. But how and why do we know what foods to eat most? To guide us, scientists, governments, and other experts do a step-by-step review of the scientific evidence about food and health to develop dietary guidelines. Dietary guidelines provide us with advice on healthy eating. We can think of foods as delivery trucks that are filled with nutrients to deliver to our bodies. Nutrients are elements in foods that our bodies use to function. There are two groups of nutrients in foods, macronutrients, and micronutrients. Macronutrients, including carbohydrates, protein, and fats, are the main components of foods and provide energy for us to move and function. Micronutrients, like vitamins and minerals, such as vitamin C, calcium and iron, are elements that our bodies need in small amounts for healthy growth and development. If our bodies do not get enough nutrients, we could get sick and develop diseases. The amounts of nutrients that our bodies need can be different depending on our activity level and age.

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Go to source: https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2019.00057