Nutrition and Metabolism Quiz

Nutrition and Metabolism

• Nutrition studies how food affects the human body and influences health.
• Metabolism is the process by which the body changes food into energy.
• Good nutrition is essential to wellness, while poor nutrition contributes to disease.

Reliable Sources of Nutrition Information

• Standards: provide references for nutrient intake to meet the nutritional needs of most healthy people.
• Food guides: practical tools for educating patients and families, specifying daily servings of food and guiding healthy meal choices.
• Dietary Reference Intakes: comprise nutrient reference values for males and females in different age groups, used to plan and assess healthy diets.

Nutrient Reference Values

• Estimated Average Requirements (EAR): the estimated amount of nutrients to meet the requirements for half of healthy people of all ages and genders.
• Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA): the average amount of nutrients sufficient to meet the needs of 98% of healthy people.
• Adequate Intake (AI): the amount of nutrients healthy people consume.
• Tolerable Upper Intake Level (UL): the maximum amount of nutrients unlikely to cause adverse health effects for almost everyone.
• Acceptable Macronutrient Distribution Range (AMDR): the percentage of protein, fat, and carbohydrates associated with reduced risk of chronic disease and providing other essential nutrients.

Nutrition Guides

• MyPlate: a colorful guide illustrating a healthy meal, available in multiple languages.
• Create Your Plate: used to help people with diabetes manage blood glucose and lose weight.
• MyVeganPlate: used to guide vegetarian nutrition.

Nutrition Labels

• Nutritional facts labels are required on all packaged foods in the United States.

Energy Nutrients

• Macronutrients supply energy, while micronutrients manufacture, repair, and maintain cells.
• Anabolism: the building up of small molecules, requiring energy.
• Catabolism: the breaking down of large molecules, releasing energy.

Macronutrients

• Carbohydrates: the body's primary source of energy.
• Types of carbohydrates:
  • Simple: sugars (water-soluble, produced naturally by plants and animals).
  • Complex: starches (insoluble, non-sweet forms of carbohydrates, found naturally in plants).
  • Dietary Fiber: a complex carbohydrate derived from plants, supplying roughage and bulk to the diet, and helping with digestion and waste elimination.

Functions of Carbohydrates

• Energy supply: carbohydrates supply energy for muscle and organ function, and are more easily and quickly digested than proteins and lipids.
• Carbohydrates provide nearly all the energy for the brain and nervous system.
• Carbs are stored in the liver and skeletal muscles as glycogen, converted back into glucose for energy needs.
• Sparing of proteins: if glycogen stores are low, physical activity causes the breakdown of body stores of protein and lipids to use for energy.

Test your knowledge on nutrition and metabolism, including how food affects the body, energy production, and the importance of good nutrition for overall wellness. Explore the impact of poor nutrition on health and learn about reliable sources of nutrition information.