Carefully planned nutrition must provide an energy balance and a nutrient balance. The nutrients are:
Proteins - essential to growth and repair of muscle and other body tissues.
Fats - one source of energy and important in relation to fat soluble vitamins.
Carbohydrates - our main source of energy.
Minerals - those inorganic elements occurring in the body and which are critical to its normal functions.
Vitamins - water and fat-soluble groups play important roles in many chemical processes in the body.
Water - essential to normal body function - as a vehicle for carrying other nutrients and because 60% of the human body is water.
Roughage - the fibrous indigestible portion of our diet essential to health of the digestive system.