Module #8 Flashcards
What are micronutrients?
Support molecules needed in small amounts that prevent disease and regulate life processes.
What processes do micronutrients help regulate?
Digestion, growth, muscle contraction, nerve impulses, and vision.
What are the two main types of micronutrients?
Minerals and vitamins.
True or False: All antioxidants are micronutrients.
False
What role do antioxidants play in the diet?
They serve as a dietary defense against oxidative stress.
Where is vitamin K primarily produced?
By the bacteria in your colon.
In addition to bacterial production, where else can vitamin K be found?
In foods from the cabbage family.
What is the importance of vitamin K?
It is important in blood coagulation.
What is the primary function of Vitamin D?
Responsible for the absorption of minerals such as calcium from the intestine
Crucial in bone health and in fighting viruses.
What is the best natural source of Vitamin D?
Sunshine
It turns cholesterol in your skin into Vitamin D.
In which food items can Vitamin D be found?
Fortified milk and meat
What role does Vitamin A play in the body?
Vital in vision
Where can Vitamin A be found?
Liver and yellow vegetables
What is the primary function of Vitamin C?
Essential for making collagen
What condition is caused by a deficiency of Vitamin C?
Scurvy
What is Vitamin E important for?
Protecting DNA and cell membrane, necessary for enzyme function
Where is Vitamin E commonly found?
Vegetable oil
How many different B complex vitamins are there?
There are 8 different B complex vitamins.
Are B complex vitamins water soluble?
Yes, B complex vitamins are water soluble.
Why must B complex vitamins be consumed daily?
Because they are water soluble.
What are the functions of B complex vitamins?
They are crucial in energy production, construction of complex chemicals like DNA, production of red blood cells, and maintenance and repair of life processes.
What symptoms can occur from a deficiency in B complex vitamins?
Symptoms include mouth sores, anemia, fatigue, skin troubles, and bloodshot eyes.
What foods provide plenty of B vitamins?
A well-balanced diet of protein foods (such as seafood, poultry, meat, or eggs), whole grains, and legumes such as beans.
If a person receives a _________________ ______ of a vitamin, then a deficiency disease can be cured
Therapeutic dose
What is a milligram?
A thousandth of a gram
What is a microgram?
A thousandth of a milligram (one millionth of a gram)
Minerals
Elements found in the earth that are drawn up by plant roots and incorporated in the plants that become our food
What are the five macrominerals? How much are of each are needed every day?
Potassium, sodium, calcium, phosphorus, magnesium
Hundreds or thousands of milligrams
Which vitamins are water soluble?
Which vitamins are fat soluble?
Water: B complex vitamins, vitamin C
Fat: Vitamin A, vitamin D, vitamin E, vitamin K
What can happen if too much fat-soluble vitamins build up in body fat?
It can reach toxic levels and cause illness
All the calcium and phosphorus (and one-quater to one-third of the potassium and magnesium) that you need will be supplied in what?
Three 8-oz. cups of milk each day
What macrominerals need to be lowered and which one needs to be raised?
Raise the amount of potassium and lower the sodium
Zinc and iron are more bioavailable if they are from…
Animal sources rather than plant sources
Name the 4 trace minerals (only need a few milligrams or less each day).
Zinc, iron (women need more than men; 18mg while men need only 8mg), fluoride, and manganese
Zinc, a valuable antioxidant mineral, is what?
Not stored in the body, which means it must be in the diet every day
Name the 5 teeny, tiny trace minerals (needed in micrograms–barely visible amounts)
Copper, idoine, selenium, molybdenum, chromium
What do red blood cells need to form hemoglobin (the oxygen-carrying protein in blood)
Iron
Eating foods with what vitamin increases the absorption of zinc and iron?
Vitamin C
Fluoride
Prevents tooth decay
Iodine
Needed for the thyroid and is found in iodized table salt
What are the most commonly missed micronutrients in the poor?
Vitamin A, iron, and iodine
What is the general term for substances that disarm free radicals?
Antioxidant
What harmful molecules are produced by oxidation?
Free radicals
What is the combined damage from oxidation in the body?
Oxidative stress
The corrosive element causes oxidation damage?
Oxygen
What are some specific examples of antioxidants?
Vitamins A, C, and E, and the minerals zinc and selenium
What is the most important antioxidant in the blood?
The most important antioxidant in the blood is uric acid.
What are substances in the diet that raise uric acid levels called?
Substances in the diet that raise uric acid levels are called antioxidants.
What role do antioxidants play in the body?
Antioxidants boost your ability to fight disease, mend wounds, and build physical fitness.
What are plant chemicals that affect the body called?
Plant chemicals that have an effect on your body are called photochemicals.
What are flavonoids?
Flavonoids are brightly colored plant pigments that are a group of photochemicals.
How do brightly colored plants affect health?
Eating brightly colored plants improves health and raises uric acid levels in the blood.
Fiber
Indigestible parts of plant foods
Soluble or insoluble fiber?
Dissolves in water and absorbs water to form gel
Soluble
Soluble or insoluble fiber?
Does not dissolve in water
Insoluble
Soluble or insoluble fiber?
Slows done the emptying of the stomach; attracts water, increasing in size as it absorbs water in the digestive juices in your intestine.
Soluble
Soluble or insoluble fiber?
Makes you feel full longer after a meal. Glucose from the meal stays in the gel and isn’t absorbed quickly out of the stomach, fighting reactive hypoglycemia, insulin resistance, and, potentially, diabetes.
Also contains prebiotics
Soluble
Soluble and insoluble fiber?
Does not form a gel, but consists of plant structures that resist water and add bulk to the chyme and feces.
Insoluble
Soluble and insoluble fiber?
Speeds up the movement of the chyme and feces; has a laxative effect.
Less water is reabsorbed so feces mains moist and soft
Insoluble
Soluble and insoluble fiber?
Cellulose
Insoluble
Soluble and insoluble fiber?
In oatmeal, legumes, apples, pears, strawberries, and blueberries
Soluble
Soluble and insoluble fiber?
In whole grains, tomatoes, zucchini, raisins, grapes root vegetable skins, and cabbage-family foods such as broccoli
Insoluble
Soluble and insoluble fiber?
Stickiness lowers bad LDL cholesterol
Soluble
What is food preservation?
Food preservation is one of the greatest achievements of mankind.
Which is better: fresh foods, frozen foods, canned foods, or dried foods?
It is better to choose fresh foods over frozen foods, and either of those over canned foods or dried foods.
Why are fresh foods preferable?
Fresh foods are preferable because the heat used in processing can destroy delicate vitamins.
How can fresh foods be kept fresh longer?
Fresh foods can be kept fresh longer if a preservative is added.
What do antimicrobials do?
Antimicrobials keep food from being destroyed by bacteria, fungi, or mold.
Give an example of an antimicrobial.
An example of an antimicrobial is sulfur dioxide.
What do antioxidants do?
Antioxidants keep oils in foods from going rancid and stop ripening enzymes (example: Vitamin E & C)
What is the effect of ripening enzymes?
Ripening enzymes turn freshly cut foods an unappetizing brown color.
What do chelating agents do?
Chelating agents tie up the metals in food-destroying enzymes, disabling the enzyme.
What have mankind relied on to cure meat?
Mankind has relied on nitrites to cure meat.
What does curing meat with nitrites prevent?
Curing meat with nitrites preserves it from botulism, a form of food poisoning caused by Clostridium bacteria.
What is a downside of cooking meat with nitrites?
Cooking meat with nitrites can cause a cancer-causing agent to form (nitrosamine).
How can one avoid cancer-causing agents when eating cured meat?
A person can choose to avoid this kind of meat or eat foods along with it that contain vitamin C.
Apples and strawberries naturally contain ______________ ____, which is effective against mold and bacteria
Propionic acid
Cranberries contain _____________ and _______________, which work against fungi
Benzoates and sorbates
What enhances food quality?
Food quality is enhanced with color, texture, and flavor additives.
What are natural color additives?
Natural color additives include beet juice and grape skin extract.
What are artificial color additives made from?
Artificial color additives are man-made from petroleum or coal.
What happens to color additives that cause cancer?
If any color additives are shown to cause cancer, they are removed from use.
What do food texture additives do?
Food texture additives can make food more solid or protect moisture.
Give examples of food texture additives.
Examples include gum arabic, carrageenan, gelatin, and paraffin.
What is nature-identical flavor?
Chemicals that produce the flavor can be isolated and duplicated in a lab.
What are artificial flavors?
Flavor additives that are not found in nature and produced in a lab. They taste like a natural flavor.
What is the general reaction of people to food additives?
Most people have no bad reactions to these chemicals.
What is the most dangerous risk associated with food additives?
The most dangerous risk is allergy to artificial color, texture, or flavor additives.
What is monosodium glutamate?
(MSG) a form of an amino acid natural to all proteins and found in fermented products. Glutamate combine with sodium to form MSG.
MSG can caused what in some people?
Headaches and discomfort because the freed amino acid glutamate is absorbed quickly, and these people are sensitive to high glutamate levels in the blood
What do whole grains contain?
Starch, the germ, and some of the bran from the original kernel of grain
What hormone is released that causes a person to feel hungry?
Ghrelin is released from digestive tract and travels to the brain’s hypothalamus
When minerals or vitamins are added to foods to improve the nutrition, the food is said to be…
Fortified
What are the 4 common artificial, nonnutritive sweeteners?
Aspartame
Sucralose
Saccharine
Acesulfame postassium
