Nutrition and Nutrients: Essential Guide to a Balanced Diet

Posted on Mar 24, 2025 in Biology

Nutrition and Nutrients

Nutrition: A set of processes through which the body receives, transforms, and incorporates needed nutrients.

Nutrients: Chemical compounds contained in foods that cells need to live.

Duties of Nutrients:

  • Energy: Invigorating.
  • Plastic and Reconstructive: Contributing components to growth.
  • Regulator: Substances that control chemical reactions.

Types of Nutrients

  • Carbohydrates: They provide a lot of energy. Some are simple and easy to digest, while others are more complex.
  • Lipids: Develop.
  • Proteins: They have regulatory and plastic functions.
  • Water: It is essential, serves to cool and eliminate waste, and helps produce chemical reactions.
  • Minerals: Function in regulation and contribute to plastic processes.
  • Vitamins: Regulatory function.

Energy from Nutrients: Carbohydrates and Lipids, through cellular respiration, release much energy.

Classification of Foods

Products:

Milk / Meat, Fish, and Eggs / Legumes, Tubers, and Nuts / Vegetables / Fruits / Bread, Pasta, Cereals, and Sugar

Balanced Diet

  1. Ingest sufficient calories and 8 essential nutrients.
  2. Obtain most calories from carbohydrates, then fats, and then protein.
  3. Ingest calories from animal sources, but not in excess.
  4. Eat fish and vegetable fats because they help to lower cholesterol.
  5. Include plant fiber for good digestion.
  6. Ensure the diet is varied and enjoyable.

The Risks of Malnutrition

In developed countries, malnutrition is usually sufficient in quantity but not balanced. If poor nutrition starts from childhood, our metabolism can lead to problems such as obesity and hypertension.

Food Storage

Food is maintained without the presence of microorganisms using different procedures:

  1. Refrigeration: The cold reduces the activity of germs.
  2. Freezing: The cold stops microorganisms.
  3. Sterilization: Heated to very high temperatures, killing all germs.
  4. Pasteurization: Food is heated to high temperatures, killing most germs.
  5. Use of Additives: Improves food conservation.

Food Hygiene

  1. Need to clean vegetables.
  2. Fish should have bright eyes and not be frozen more than once.
  3. Eggshells should be clean, and avoid eating raw eggs.
  4. Preserved foods should be consumed before the expiry date and not be oxidized after opening.
  5. Minced meat should be consumed as soon as possible.
  6. Milk and its derivatives must always be kept in the fridge and not exceed the expiration date.

Diseases of Food Origin

Atherosclerosis: Due to an excess of cholesterol intake over a long period, sediment can build up and block an artery.

Obesity: Occurs when you eat excess fat, which accumulates in the body. Obesity can trigger other diseases.

Anorexia and Bulimia: Anorexia is when individuals reject all foods and have a distorted image of their body, seeing themselves as obese even when very thin. Bulimia is similar, but instead of rejecting food, individuals binge and then purge after every meal.

Digestive Apparatus

Comprises the following components:

  • Conduit: Through which food passes to the anus.
  • Glands: In the mouth, juices such as saliva, liver, and pancreas move food through peristaltic movements.

Digestive Tract Layers:

  • Inner layer or mucosa: Secretes juices and mucus that absorbs all the nutrients.
  • Muscular layer: Has fibers where involuntary contraction occurs, moving food through peristalsis.
  • Nervi: Responsible for controlling the movement of food through the tube.

Digestion

Involves 2 types of processes:

  • Mechanical: Crushing in the mouth.
  • Chemical: The addition of enzymes.

Food Bolus: The food enters the mouth, is broken down, passes through the pharynx, and reaches the esophagus and stomach. Within the stomach, it mixes with gastric juices and forms chyme. The chyme goes to the small intestine, where it is attacked by pancreatic juice and bile. The large intestine absorbs water and minerals, and stool is formed.