Week 9_ Digestion

Question 1

An animal’s diet provides (3)

Answer 1

1. Chemical Energy - which is converted into ATP to power cellular process
2. Organic Building Blocks - such as organic carbon and organic nitrogen to synthesize a variety of organic molecules
3. Essential Nutrients - nutrients that the animal can’t assemble from simpler organic materials; MUST BE OBTAINED FROM DIET

Question 2

Four classes of essential nutrients

Answer 2

1. essential amino acids
2. essential fatty acids
3. vitamins
4. minerals

Question 3

Essential Amino Acids

Answer 3

• animals can synthesize about half of the 20 amino acids from their diet.
• The rest of the essential amino acids must be obtained in preassembled form of food.
• –> proteins in animal products provide all essential amino acids - complete proteins
• –> most plant proteins are incomplete, therefore a variety of plants need to be included in the diet.

Question 4

Essential Fatty Acids

Answer 4

• Animals can synthesize most of their fatty acids from their diet
• Essential fatty acids include certain unsaturated fatty acids
• -> fatty acid deficiencies are rare.
• -> fatty acid profiles of animal tissue can be used to determine the types of food the animal eats.