Digestive and Nutrition Flashcards
What is nutrition?
A: nutrition is the process by which organisms get and use their food
What are the two parts of nutrition?
- Ingestion
- Digestion
What ingestion?
A: process of taking food into the digestive system to be digested and absorbed
What is digestion?
A: the breakdown of food into pieces your cell can use
What are the two types of digestion?
- Chemical
- Mechanical
What are autotrophs?
A: can make their own food
What are heterotrophs?
A: cannot make their own food
What two things are micronutrients?
- Vitamins
- Minerals
What amounts of micronutrients are needed for your body to function normally?
A: small amounts
What is special about micronutrients?
A: they (and water) can be absorbed without digestion
What are three things that are macronutrients?
- Proteins
- Fats
- Carbohydrates
What amounts of macronutrients are needed for the body to function normally?
A: large amounts
What are carbohydrates?
A: starches
Macronutrients require _________.
A: digestion
How much percent of energy for the body should carbohydrates (sugars and starches) make up?
A: 50%
What are carbohydrates a major source of?
A: energy for the body
What three foods are carbohydrates found in?
- Fresh fruits
- Vegetables
- Whole grains
What is fibre?
A: a type of carbohydrate that cannot be digested
What muscles does fibre stimulate?
A: muscles of the intestines
What has an adequate amount of fibre in a diet been shown to do?
A: reduce the risks of colon and rectal cancers
What are proteins?
A: the building blocks of cells and tissues in living things
What are proteins needed for?
A: help repair and make new cells
Proteins help ________ _________ take place in the body.
A: chemical reactions
What are six sources of fats?
- Meats
- Seafoods
- Nuts
- Oils
- Dairy
- Eggs
What are the four functions of fat?
- They can store energy
- Help absorb vitamins
- Protect organs
- Keep the body warm
What can too much fat lead to?
A: high cholesterol which can lead to heart disease and obesity, potentially causing other health problems
What is another term for sugar?
A: empty calories
Why are sugars considered “empty calories”?
A: it provides energy but little to no other nutrients
What are four things that sugar can cause?
- Obesity
- Heart disease
- Diabetes
- Cancer
What are four things nutrition labels must include?
- Serving size
- Calories
- % daily value
- Thirteen core nutrients
What is a calorie?
A: a unit to measure the energy potential of food
What must happen to food for it to be used by cells?
A: must be broken down into smaller pieces
What is digestion?
A: the process by which food molecules are broken down
What does chemical digestion do?
A: changes the kinds of molecules
What is chemical digestion carried out by?
A: digestive enzymes
What are two examples of chemical digestion?
- Saliva: breaks down starch into sugars
- Bile: produced in the liver, stored in the gall bladder, breaks down fats
What does mechanical digestion do?
A: turns big pieces of food into smaller pieces to help with chemical digestion
What are two examples of mechanical digestion?
- Mouth: food is crushed, broken and cut into smaller pieces
- Stomach: stomach churning squishes food into smaller pieces
What is the pathway of food through the body?
- Mouth
- Esophagus
- Stomach
- Small intestine
- Large intestine
What are the three parts of the mouth?
- Tongue
- Teeth
- Saliva
What does the tongue do?
A: move food around
What do teeth do?
A: mechanically break down food
What does saliva do?
A: moistens food and chemically digests starch into sugars
What is the esophagus?
A: the tube that carries food to the stomach
What is peristalsis?
A: involuntary wave-like muscle contractions which move food through the digestive tract
What is the epiglottis?
A: a flap in the throat that covers the trachea when food is swallowed to prevent food from entering the lungs
What are the stomach’s three jobs?
- Temporarily stores food
- Mechanically digests food
- Begins digesting proteins
How long does the stomach store food?
A: usually 2-4 hours after it’s been eaten
How does the stomach begin digesting proteins?
A: using hydrochloric acid
What is the small intestine?
A: a long, narrow twisted-up tube
Where is digestion finished and nutrients are absorbed into the blood?
A: small intestine
What two structures help the small intestine?
- Liver
- Pancreas
What does the liver produce?
A: bile, which is stored in the gall bladder and helps digest fat
What does the pancreas produce?
A: enzymes which help with chemical digestion
What is the large intestine?
A specialized tube that absorbs water
What is the appendix?
A: a sac-like structure in humans
Where is the appendix found?
A: where the small intestine turns into the large intestine
What is heart burn?
A: acid from the stomach comes up the esophagus
What are ulcers?
A: sores on the inner lining of the stomach stomach wall, caused by bacterial infections
What are gallstones?
A: an accumulation of hardened deposits in the gallbladder
What is liver cirrhosis?
A: scarring of the liver
What is anorexia?
A: a psychological condition where one refuses to eat
What is bulimia?
A: psychological condition where one binge eats and force vomits repeatedly
What is appendicitis?
A: inflammation of the appendix due to infection
What is constipation?
A: a condition where the large intestine is emptied with difficulty. Too much water is absorbed and the waste hardens
What is diarrhea?
A: a condition where the waste moves too quickly through the intestines. Less water and fewer nutrients are absorbed into the bloodstream
