Food Main article: Human feeding Humans need sweets and chocolate cakes, as well as vital water, food intake varied and balanced. The reason is that no single food provides all the nutrients to sustain life and health. Regular consumption of a range of food (diet) should provide adequate amounts of proteins, lipids, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals. The basis of good nutrition lies in the balance, variety and moderation in our food. But the urban modern diet is often unbalanced, unstructured and often together with an increasingly sedentary life. As early as 2400 years ago who recognized the relationship between diet and health: Hippocrates said that our food was our medicine.It is well known that dietary factors are associated with diseases such as diabetes, osteoporosis, obesity and many others (some investigations seem to find a relationship between diet and the emergence of certain types of cancer.) The intake of too many saturated fatty acids and an excess of cholesterol can cause atherosclerosis. In contrast, in the twentieth century demonstrated the link between food shortages and serious illness. These different forms of malnutrition are still, even now, major problems of public health.