Human bodies require the specific nutrition in order to support their activities and to function appropriately. That is why, any changes in nutrition influence directly the state of the people’s health. To understand these processes, it is necessary to pay attention to the definition of health as the state of the human well-being and fitness related to the absence of diseases and positive physical, mental, and emotional processes (Cade et al. 2012). The problem of the adequate or optimum nutrition is based on the individual approach because the human organisms require different amounts of calories and vitamins in order to preserve the energetic balance in the body. Moreover, the factor of environment also affects the situation because people living in various climatic regions need different nutrition according to their life style and particular features of location (Weichselbaum & Buttriss 2011). From this point, the concept of health should be discussed from the individualistic perspective. However, this aspect does not influence the role of nutrition for the people’s health because the optimum nutrition remains the main requirement to support people’s health and well-being effectively.
To grow, develop, and function successfully, the human body needs a lot of such nutrients as vitamins, macroelements and microelements, proteins, hormones, acids, and enzymes. All these elements are contained in the food, it is possible to speak about the positive health state of a person when he or she receives the balanced nutrition to satisfy the needs of the organism (Tappenden et al. 2013). Well-nourished people are in harmony with their bodies because the organism can receive the adequate amount of the necessary elements to function appropriately, be energetic and active (Goldberg & Sliwa 2011). Furthermore, the adequate nutrition is the first step to stabilizing the work of all the organism’s systems in order to avoid obesity, problems with hormones and metabolism (Cheng, Buyken, & Shi 2012). A healthy person who receives the healthy nutrition regularly can also enhance the work of the immune system as the main protector of the body. When the immune system works appropriately a person is protected from many infections and viruses which can be harmful for those people who suffer from malnutrition (Weichselbaum & Buttriss 2011). Thus, it is possible to avoid a lot of illnesses and health problems while paying attention to the aspect of nutrition as the key factor to regulate the work of an organism as a system.
The focus on nutrition is also important with references to the general practice because general practitioners are responsible for helping people to cope with many different acute and chronic diseases, and the prescription of a healthy diet based on the balanced nutrition is often the first stage at the path of the full recovery (Goldberg & Sliwa 2011; Nogiec & Kasif 2013). Before prescribing the effective system of treatment, a general practitioner examines the person’s nutritional status in order to receive the adequate picture of the person’s health and potential (Nogiec & Kasif 2013). Nutrition is the significant factor to regulate the processes of recovery and provide the relief from sufferings in relation to many acute and chronic diseases. Thus, the person’s health state directly depends on nutrition, if a man suffers from diabetes, obesity, and food allergies (Weichselbaum & Buttriss 2011). Moreover, the balanced diets in which the amounts of necessary elements and vitamins are regulated can be discussed as effective to help in treating such diseases as cancer, cardiac diseases, and problems with hormones (Ball 2011). The modern researches support the idea that many problems associated with the people’s health depend on the imbalance on nutrients in order to provide the resources for the organism’s adequate work (Nogiec & Kasif 2013). As a result, general practitioners are inclined to use not only the achievements of medicine but also the findings of the nutrition science in order help people to cope with their health problems. That is why, treatments proposed by general practitioners as the professionals working with multiple issues are often associated with the special diet which is developed according to the individual needs of a patient (Ball 2011).
However, the problem is in the fact that the quality of modern products is often rather low in relation to containing nutrients in different regions or at different territories. Thus, many fruits and vegetables cannot provide a person with the necessary amount of vitamins and microelements required for the organism and its active functioning (Ball, Hughes, & Leveritt 2010; Goldberg & Sliwa 2011). The quality of nutrition can change drastically if a person chooses to follow definite diets without the control or advice of specialists (Nogiec & Kasif 2013). Moreover, the life style of many people prevents them from following the appropriate healthy diets, and organisms suffer from the lack of the necessary nutrition. To overcome the situation, it is necessary to refer to the assistance of a general practitioner and nutritionist who can develop the diet according to the person’s needs (Weichselbaum & Buttriss 2011). Nevertheless, general practitioners can rely on chemical supplements as the components of the diet today because it is rather difficult to rely on the quality of many products and on their nutritional value (Nogiec & Kasif 2013). As a result, the ethical and medical problem of using supplements is observed.
The solution to the problem of malnutrition or the lack of adequate nutrition to help the organism to preserve the energetic balance is in using different supplements as the additional useful elements to meet the bodies’ needs. The debates on the use of supplements are active because there are rather opposite ideas on the effectiveness of natural nutrients containing in products and on chemical supplements (Alanne 2012; Misak 2011). It is stated clearly that it is rather impossible to change the diets based on the balanced amounts of natural elements with their chemical substitutes because of the organism’s needs to receive the adequate nutrition and energy. Nevertheless, general practitioners and nutritionists support the idea that supplements can be used additionally if a person has no opportunity to receive the necessary element from food (Goldberg & Sliwa 2011; Nogiec & Kasif 2013). From this point, the use of supplements can be effective to change the nutritional status of a person and contribute to the positive health changes if the use of these substances is controlled by the specialist.
Thus, inadequate diets lead to deficiencies and malnutrition as well as to provoking different chronic diseases. To avoid these negative effects, people should pay more attention to their food because it is the key to the health and energy. Modern nutritionists refer to using supplements because they have adequate amount of the necessary nutrients to add to the daily meals (Cheng, Buyken, & Shi 2012; Goldberg & Sliwa 2011; Nogiec & Kasif 2013). Although there is no single idea on the effectiveness of supplements to cope with the malnutrition problems, it is important to note that this strategy as the additional one to the effectively developed diet can be successfully used to overcome people’s problems associated with the immune system, metabolism, obesity, and diabetes.
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