Nutrients

Question 1

What dietary components in food contribute to the energy content of a food?

Answer 1

Dietary components in food that contribute to the energy content of a food include carbohydrates, fats, proteins and alcohol

Question 2

What are Atwater factors?

Answer 2

Atwater factors are used to calculate metabolisable energy when you know the amount of macronutrient eaten

Question 3

How can you work out the amount of energy in a serving of food?

Answer 3

To find how much energy is in a serving of a particular food you times the macronutrient g by the Atwater factor, divide it by the serving size and times it by 100 if trying to find energy/100ml

Question 4

What are the nutrient reference values?

Answer 4

The nutrient reference values are a set of recommendations for nutritional intake based on currently available scientific knowledge, they apply to around 97-98% of healthy people

Question 5

What are the estimated energy requirements and what % of the population are they set to meet the needs of?

Answer 5

They are the average dietary energy intake predicted to maintain energy balance in a healthy adult. Set to meet the needs of 50% of the population, it is different for each individual

Question 6

What are some factors the EER of a person will vary from?

Answer 6

Age, gender, weight, height, level of physical activity, consistent with good health
Pregnant and lactating women

Question 7

What are macronutrients?

Answer 7

Macronutrients are required in the diet in large quantities (grams). They are foods or liquids that have nutrients which provide energy. Water does not provide energy while carbohydrates, fats and proteins do.

Question 8

What are micronutrients?

Answer 8

Micronutrients are required in small quantities (milligrams, micrograms) and do not provide energy
They are vitamins (organic molecules) and minerals (inorganic molecules)

Question 9

What is gross energy?

Answer 9

The total chemical energy of a food, not all of it is avaliable to the body, determined by combustion of a food sample in a ‘bomb’ calorimeter
Heat of combustion = gross energy of the food

Question 10

How do you calculated the % of total energy in the diet coming from a macronutrient?

Answer 10

% energy = ((g of macronutrient x atwater factor)/total energy kJ) x 100

Question 11

What are nutrients?

Answer 11

Nutrients are molecules found in food and beverage needed by the body for energy, growth, development and reproduction
Six types: water, carbs, lipids, proteins, vitamins and minerals