Chapter 1: Science of Nutrition Flashcards
Nutrition
science of how living organisms obtain and use food to support all the processes required for their existance.
Dietitians
Nutrition professionals who help people make dietary changes and food choices to support a healthy lifestyle.
Nutrients
Substances in food required or used by the body for at least one of the following: energy, structure, or regulation of chemical reactions.
Vitamins
Essential for chemical reactions such as those needed to protect your body from damaging effects. (Fruits, vegtables and grains); contain carbon, oxygen and hydrogen atoms; But some include phosphorous and sulfur; Needed to regulate chemical reactions and promote growth and deveopment.
Six nutrient categories
Carbohydrates, Proteins, Lipids, water, Minerals and Vitamins.
Essential Nutrient
Substance that must be obtained from the diet, because the body needs it and cannot make it in required amounts.
Non-Essential Nutrient
Those your body can make in amounts needed to satisfy its physiological requirements.
Conditionally Essential Nutrient
When a normally nonessential nutrient can become essential.
Macronutrients
Water, carbohydrates, proteins and lipids. Needed in large quantities (Over a gram a day)
Micronutrients
Vitamins and minerals. Needed in small amounts. (Micrograms or milligrams a day).
Organic Compound
Molecules that contain carbon atoms bonded to hydrogen atoms or other carbon atoms.
Inorganic Compound
Do not contain hydrogen-carbon bons or carbon-carbon.
Certified Organic Foods
Plant and animal foods that have been grown harvested and processed without conventional pestisides, fertilizers, growth promoters, bioengenieering or ionizing radiation.
Phytochemicals
health promoting compounds found in plants.
Zoonutrients
compounds present in animal foods that provide health benefits beyond the provision of traditional nutrients and energy.
Functional Foods
May promote optimal health above and beyond simply helping the body meet its basic nutritional needs.
3 requirements of functional foods
1). Enhanced amounts of traditional nutrients 2). Phytochemicals 3). and/or zoonutrients.
Protein
Important for providing the basic stuctures of muscles, bone and skin. Consists primarily of carbon, oxygen, nitrogen and hydrogen atoms; but sometimes sulfur and selenium.
Dietary Fats
Provides an important source of energy, needed to power body’s activities.
Carbohydrates
Serve as a variety of functions in the body. Made up of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen atoms.
Most Important Carbohydrate
Glucose, most cells use it as their primary source of energy.
Protein is abundant in what foods
Meat, legumes and some cereal products.
Lipids
Include variety of oils and fats found in foods and the body generally consist of carbon, oxygen and hydrogen atoms. Provide large amounts of energy and are needed for your nervous and reproductive systems to function properly; regulate a variety of cellular processes.
Water
Oxygen and hydrogen atoms; 60% of your body weight. Functions are vital including: transport of nutrients, gases and waste products; serving as a medium in which chemical reactions occur; involvement in many chemical reactions; important in regulating body temperature and protecting your internal organs from damage.
Antioxidants
Help protect body from air pollution
Which energy yielding nutrient is not used directly for structure or energy
Vitamins; Instead play important role in the chemical process required for building/maintaining tissue; Classified on how they act with water.
Water soluble vitamins
Vitamins C & B
Fat Soluble Vitamins
Vitamins A, D,E,K
Minerals (Sodium, Iron, Selenium)
Inorganic substances that occur naturally in the Earth. ( At least 16 are essential nutrients)
Energy Yielding Nutrient
Nutrient the body can use to produce ATP (carbohydrates,proteins, lipids); Energy never created or destroyed just transferred from one form to another.
Energy
The capacity of a physical system to do work. (“Has energy”= can cause something else to happen).
Adenosine Triphosphate (ATP)
Chemical used by the body to preform work; Allows muscles to move, drives nutrient digestion and keeps you warm.
calorie
Unit of measure used to express the amount of energy in a food; More calories=More ATP.
Kilocalorie
1 kCal = 1,000 calories = 1 Calorie