Importance of Nutrition

• Nutrition is the study of nutrients.
• Nutrition studies how the body utilizes nutrients for health, wellness, growth, restoration, and overall ability.
• Nutrition studies the relationship between a balanced diet, health, wellness, and disease.

Nutrients

• Nutrients are what living organisms intake to maintain life, grow, respond to stimuli, and adapt, providing energy for daily tasks.
• Nutrients get absorbed, used, and recycled.
• There are six categories of nutrients.

Purpose of Nutrition

• Nutrition is required for survival and maintains function, allows for growth, and aids in overall health.
• Without enough of each nutrient, bodies don't run at normal levels.
• Nutrition plays a key role in optimal health, development, and sustainment.

Nutrient Intake Methods

• Oral: Eating and digesting.
• Total Parenteral Nutrition (TPN): Administered through a catheter, bypassing the gastrointestinal tract.
• Enteral nutrition: Liquid nutrition through a nasogastric tube.

Why Bodies Need Nutrition

• Women need adequate nutrition during pregnancy for fetal development, growth, and to decrease complications.
• From birth to adulthood, humans use nutrition to grow to their full potential.
• Lack of nutrients in middle age or old age can result in disease and premature death.

Nutritional Deficiency

• Lack of nutrients is known as nutritional deficiency.
• Deficiencies can affect newborns and geriatrics and can occur even with sufficient ingestion if the body doesn't absorb enough.
• Deficiencies include: anxiety, diarrhea, fatigue, and rash.
• Moderate to severe problems from deficiencies include: malnutrition, dementia, anemia, stunted growth, and delayed wound healing.

Excess of Nutrients

• Excess nutrients can cause issues, with mild examples being stomach cramps, headache, and confusion.
• Moderate to severe issues from excess nutrients include hair loss, mild nerve damage, and birth defects.

Six Classes of Nutrients

• Six classes of nutrients are necessary for optimal function, requiring a balance of each.
• The six categories are carbohydrates, lipids, minerals, proteins, vitamins, and water.

Macronutrients

• Carbohydrates, lipids, proteins, and water are macronutrients and a necessary food source.

Carbohydrates

• Carbohydrates consist of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen.
• Carbohydrates are classified as simple or complex.
• Carbohydrates include fiber, starch, and sugar.
• Carbohydrates can be stored in the body as glycogen and aid in metabolism.

Lipids

• Lipids are insoluble in water but soluble in organic solvents.
• Lipids include fats, hormones, oils, and parts of some membranes.
• Lipids communicate signals, send chemical messages, act as an insulator for heat regulation, produce hormones, and maintain cell wall structure.
• Lipids transport and absorb certain vitamins and hold the substances that make food taste.

Minerals

• Minerals are classified as the elements in food, and on the earth, that we need to maintain a healthy lifestyle.
• Minerals are micronutrients and exist as macrominerals and trace minerals.
• Macrominerals include calcium, chloride, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, sodium, and sulfur.
• Trace minerals are chromium, cobalt, copper, fluoride, iodine, iron, manganese, molybdenum, selenium, and zinc.
• Minerals are essential for hormone production and bone, brain, heart, and muscle health.
• Minerals aid in immune system function, glucose regulation, and transmit nervous system signals.

Proteins

• Proteins aid in injury recovery.
• Proteins control appetite/hunger levels
• Proteins boost muscle mass and strength
• Proteins increase fat burning, metabolism, and weight loss
• Proteins lower blood pressure
• Proteins provide a structural framework for the body
• Proteins are made up of long chains of twenty amino acids.
• Protein can be found in dairy products, eggs, lean meats, legumes, nuts, poultry, seafood, seeds, soy products, vegetables, and whole grains.

Vitamins

• Vitamins are organic substances that the body requires but doesn't synthesize.
• Vitamins aid in blood coagulation and wound healing, convert food to energy, promote healthy teeth and gums, and repair cell damage
• Vitamins A, D, E, and K are fat-soluble.
• B vitamins (B6, B12, Biotin, Folate, Niacin, Pantothenic acid, Riboflavin, and Thiamine) and Vitamin C are water-soluble.

Water

• A person can only survive without water for about three days.
• Water carries nutrients and oxygen to cells, cushions the brain, and protects body organs and tissues.
• Water helps excrete waste, improves cognitive function, and regulates body temperature.

Types of Nutrition

• There are 2 types of nutrition: autotrophic and heterotrophic.

Autotrophic Nutrition

• Autotrophic nutrition is when organisms make their own food using substances in their surroundings.
• Autotrophs require carbon dioxide, chlorophyll, and water to perform photosynthesis.
• Chemotrophic nutrition: organisms obtain energy when chemical compounds oxidize.
• Phototrophic nutrition: organisms obtain energy from sunlight.

Heterotrophic Nutrition

• Heterotrophic nutrition is when organisms cannot produce their own food and rely on other animals, plants, water, and substances.
• Holozoic nutrition: organisms intake solid food.
• Parasitic nutrition: organisms derive energy from another organism.
• Saprophytic nutrition: organisms feed on decaying organic substances.

Nutrients

• Nutrients come from food, water, and other substances to aid the body in survival.

Nutrition is the study of nutrients and how the body utilizes them for health, growth, and overall function. It emphasizes the relationship between a balanced diet, wellness, and disease prevention. Adequate nutrition is essential for survival, growth, and maintaining optimal health.