Briefly explain the relationship between nutrition, health & nutritional status.

Nutrition is closely interlinked with health. If a person eats the right kind of foods in the required amounts, he or she will keep good health provided no other factors intervene. On other hand, a poor eating pattern or eating too little or too much will result in poor health.

Good food is one of the crucial factors in ensuring health, it is not only one. The food eaten must not only be nutritious but it must be wholesome & clean & free from harmful germs. If this is not so the person eating the food would get ill even if the food is nutritious.

And nutritional status is the condition of health of an individual as influenced by the utilization of nutrients. Information have to be together to determine all nutritional status-

• What kind of diet is being consumed.
• What types of illness, the person has suffered from including any observable signs of ill health such as discolored skin or bleeding.
• What is the level of nutrients & other substances in the blood & urine.

List the functions & food sources of Vitamin A & calcium

Item	Source	Functions
Vitamin A	i) Retinol: Liver, yolk, egg, cream, butter, ghee, milk. ii) Beta Carotene: Yellow & orange vegetables, green leafy vegetables	i) Maintenance of health of epithellal tissues. ii) Vision in dimlight iii) Growth of skeletal & soft tissue
Calcium	i) Milk & milk products like curb, khoa, channa are excellent sources of calcium. ii) Foods like fish (chingri, chela etc) especially dried fish & other sea foods (e.g crab shrimp) provide substantial quantities of calcium.	i) Development of bones & teeth: Calcium are mainly present in bones & teeth. Teeth, like the bones, also require Ca for their proper development. It is for this reason that the need for Ca is the most during the growing years. ii) Regulation of body processes: a) Regulating the contraction & relaxation of muscles especially that of the heart. b) Regulating the passage of substances into & out of the cells. c) Conveying messages from one nerve cell to another d) The clotting of blood.