NATS1560: Understanding Food Week 1 Part 1 Science and Technology Lecture Notes PDF

NATS1560: Understanding Food Week 1 Part 1: Science and Technology Meet Food NATS1560 Angela Cope [email protected]  LEARNING OBJECTIVES To define science and technology and explain how they are related to food To describe the main general characteristics of modern science To define nutri...

NATS1560: Understanding Food Week 1 Part 1: Science and Technology Meet Food NATS1560 Angela Cope [email protected]  LEARNING OBJECTIVES To define science and technology and explain how they are related to food To describe the main general characteristics of modern science To define nutrition science and food science & technology To distinguish between foods and nutrients To give a preview of human nutritional needs 2  UNDERSTANDING FOOD Today, to understand food we rely mostly on modern science Our methods of food production and processing are largely based on industrial technology Nutrition science: the scientific study of the processes through which food provides nourishment to the body Food science, also known as food science and technology: scientific and technological research on the properties of food substances, aimed at inventing new food products and new methods of preservation and processing Other sciences, such as agricultural science and environmental science, study the systems of food production 3 SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY Science: systematic study to obtain knowledge about the natural world, and the knowledge so produced Technology: manipulation of nature for practical purposes, and the artifacts and systems so produced IMPORTANT: They are both social processes – science involves agreement on what constitutes scientific knowledge, training, organization, and interaction In our culture, science and technology are so closely interdependent that we often talk of “science and technology” as an inseparable pair. In many cases we can describe them as “technoscience” Technoscience has many significant consequences, good and bad, intended and unintended Technoscientific controversies often arise, concerning technical, social, political, and ethical issues 4  SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY MEET FOOD Nutrition science and food technoscience share the general characteristics of the modern sciences General characteristics of the modern sciences − materialism: a living organism is just a physical system governed by the laws of matter and energy − reductionism: complex phenomena are reducible to the physical and chemical interactions of their simplest components, atoms and molecules − experimentalism: scientific explanations must be derived from and supported by experiments Technoscientific controversies around food: entangled technical, social, political, and ethical issues 5  Why is this important when it comes to Understanding Food? – Food, nutrient requirements, and metabolism are extremely complex topics. – Food is inextricably linked with culture. – While nutrition science can study food in a reductionist, materialist and experimentalist way, we must remember that it’s not telling the whole story: the whole story is political, economic, cultural, and social. We cannot talk about food science without remembering food culture. What’s a tomato? FOODS AND NUTRIENTS 8 – No human diet consists of a single kind of food – Foods: substances that we eat; commonly recognizable parts of a diet – Nutrients: chemically identified components of foods that have been found to provide nourishment – The foods we commonly eat are complex sources of nutrients – Almost none of the foods we commonly eat is composed by a single nutrient or by a single type of nutrients – Nutrition science aims to “understand food” by identifying all the nutrients needed for a healthy diet, finding out in what quantities they are needed, and clarifying their functions  HUMAN NUTRIENTS KNOWN SO FAR Water Simple carbohydrates or sugars: monosaccharides, disaccharides Complex carbohydrates: oligosaccharides, Carbohydrates polysaccharides Digestible: sugars and starches, indigestible: dietary fibre Macronutrients Saturated fats Fats Unsaturated fats: monounsaturated, polyunsaturated Many different types (100000-150000 in human Proteins cells) built from amino acids (20 in living cells) Major minerals: calcium, phosphorus, magnesium Electrolytes: sodium, potassium, chlorine (chloride) Minerals Trace minerals: iron, zinc, sulfur, iodine (iodide), Micronutrients fluorine (fluoride), cobalt, copper, selenium, manganese, chromium, molybdenum Water soluble vitamins: B complex, vitamin C Vitamins Fat soluble vitamins: A, D, E, K Carotenoids: alpha- and beta-carotene, lutein, Phytochemicals lycopene, etc. (still under study) Polyphenols: flavonoids, phenolic acids, etc. REVIEW: 10 – What is an example of food? – What is an example of nutrient? – How are nutrients related to foods? – What are the nutrients that our body can use for energy? Pieter Claesz, Still life, 1630