Nourishment exerts great influence upon a person, mainly to his/her health, capacity to work, study and leisure, his/her physical appearance (such as the aspects of teeth, skin, eyes, hair, etc.), and also in longevity.

When nourishment is deficient, a malnourished person is weak, irritated, depressed, unwilling to work, study, think, or carry out any activity that depends on muscular and cerebral effort, because a good nutritional state competes positively to mental health.

Obese people cannot be considered well nourished because excessive nourishment takes to obesity and this is a disease that will cause several other health problems.

Nourishment is a basic necessity for man and it is very important to know how to eat adequately because by doing this one will be healthy.

The cultural heritage, the nourishment extravagances, the familiar influences, “status”, access to nutritional education, the religious customs, the nourishment taboos are factors which contribute to the individual nourishment habit formation.

Many wrong nourishment habits are detected in everybody’s nourishment and their correction determines more correct nourishment, therefore increasing one’s health level. As a sudden change in a person’s nourishment habits is neither advisable nor possible, we have selected herewith some suggestions to gradually improve your nourishment:

It is very healthy to eat well in the morning before starting the daily activities.

The increase in fruit and vegetable consumption promotes the intestine functioning. They are also excellent vitamin and mineral sources.

To vary your diet, replace meats by fetters, which are cheaper and have the same nutritious value.

To prevent orange juice from losing its vitamin C, prepare it a little before serving it.

The water in which vegetables have been cooked shouldn’t be thrown away because it contains vitamins and minerals, therefore it should be used to make other dishes, for example: rice, sauces, soup, etc.

Beans can be replaced by other leguminous vegetables with similar chemical composition, such as: peas, lentils, chick-peas. Soy, however, is a kind of bean variety that has better protein.

One shouldn’t take the taboos related to mangoes seriously. This fruit should be consumed because, among others, it is a good source of vitamin A and C.

If you don’t want to gain weight, the first thing to do is to remove from your diet concentrated sweets, such as: pudding, cake, pies, canned food, candy, ice cream, soda and sweets in general.

We should eat fruit and vegetables daily, and some of it should be always raw.

Fish should replace meat once or twice a week.

Two eggs replace a 100g steak in a meal.

Milk is difficult to be replaced. Soymilk can replace it, but it should be calcium enriched.

Bread can be replaced by rice, corn, manioc, oat, and potato or even by sweet products.

Apple is a product that contains anti-diarrhea proprieties.

We should always choose foods of the season to obtain a meal that is more original, versatile and very economical.

We should always take our meals at regular times and never skip any of them.

Carrot leaves shouldn’t be thrown away because they are very nutritious and should be used.

To preserve vitamins and minerals in vegetables, these should be cooked with their skin, in big or whole pieces, in a small amount of water and with the pan covered.

Salt is essential to life, but in excess it is very harmful, causing many problems including arterial hypertension (“high pressure”).

We should drink 2 liters of water per day in average.

The main sources of vitamin C are: guava, mango, orange, lemon, tangerine, strawberry, green peppers, tomato, cabbage, kale, broccoli, etc.

Food can only be replaced by another of the same group, never by another of a different group. For example: we cannot replace meat by pasta, because it doesn’t have the same nutrition value.