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.