What is Nutrition?

According to Wikipedia...
Nutrition (also called nourishment or aliment) is the provision, to cells and organisms, of the materials necessary (in the form of food) to support life. Many common health problems can be prevented or alleviated with a healthy diet.

The diet of an organism is what it eats, which is largely determined by the perceived palatability of foods. Dietitians are health professionals who specialize in human nutrition, meal planning, economics, and preparation. They are trained to provide safe, evidence-based dietary advice and management to individuals (in health and disease), as well as to institutions. Clinical nutritionists are health professionals who focus more specifically on the role of nutrition in chronic disease, including possible prevention or remediation by addressing nutritional deficiencies before resorting to drugs. While government regulation of the use of this professional title is less universal than for "dietician", the field is supported by many high-level academic programs, up to and including the Doctoral level, and has its own voluntary certification board,professional associations, and peer-reviewed journals, e.g. the American Society for Nutrition and the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

A poor diet can have an injurious impact on health, causing deficiency diseases such as scurvy and kwashiorkor; health-threatening conditions like obesity and metabolic syndrome; and such common chronic systemic diseases as cardiovascular disease,diabetes, and osteoporosis.

Pyroluria

My daughter was diagnosed with Pyroluria when she was almost 3, about 18 months ago.

Pyroluria is a genetic condition that causes anxiety, depression and withdrawal most often starting in late-teens and continuing throughout the person's life. It can be very severe or very mild and very much affected by levels of stress. It's onset usually occurs with a traumatic incident such as going away to college or to the army, parental divorce or death of a loved one. There may be severe depression, schizophrenia, alcoholism, autism, bipolar disorder (manic-depressive disorder) or on rare occasions, DID (dissociative identity disorder more commonly known as multiple personalities) in the family tree. All of these are different manifestations of pyroluria.

Pyroluria is a blood disorder. When the body produces hemoglobin, a constituent of red blood cells, there is a byproduct called kryptopyrroles. Normally harmless, in this group of people the kryptopyrroles multiply too rapidly and block receptor sites for B-6 (pyrodoxine) and zinc leading to a serious deficiency of these two nutrients. Among other things, B6 and zinc directly help maintain a healthy emotional state.

Though pyroluria was identified over 40 years ago, it has only been recognized as a medical condition for about 10 years and many mental health practitioners are not taught about it in school. People with pyroluria don't respond well to common anti-depressants such as SSRIs and are often suicidal. It's wide-spread and estimates as high as 20% of all psychiatric patients and 40% of people with schizophrenia have pyroluria. It seems to affect women more than men. And the sad truth is that most people with pyroluria go undiagnosed.