FOOD AND NUTRITION

Life science library

1.FROM SOUP TO NUTS

The calorie ratin of food measures its energy content in terms of heat. The heat
that is needed to raise the temperature of 1 kg of water from 15 C to 16 C
corresponds to one food calorie.
In 1783 Lavoisier and Laplace discover that the body burns food using oxygen
similar to the burning of coal which produces carbon dioxide.
There are 5 main groups of nutrients: carbohydrates, fats, proteins, minerals
and vitamins.

2.FILLING THE LARDER

Around 7000 B.C. man learned to produce food by discovering the plant life cycle
(the sow and sprout of plants) and the domestication of animals. Earlier than this
man had learned to store food like fruits and fish.
7500 B.C. man started to cultivate wheat.

3.FIRE, SPICE AND ICE-THE PRESERVERS

Before advanced food-storing techniques and equipment were discovered, spices
were used to extend foods life. Cooking the food also extends its life, improves the
taste and texture (making it easier to eat), increases the performance of nutrients
(usually transforming the chemical composition) though in vitamins and minerals,
cooking does the opposite. Refrigeration and freezing of food slow down its
spoiling because of the inactivity of the enzymes and microorganisms to operate.
Dehydration of food removes the water, without which, again the enzymes and
microorganism cannot operate. All the food that is produced from the factory is
processed in some way such as physically or chemically, by applying different
methods depending on the food.
 4.MIRACLE OF DIGESTION
Digestion starts in mouth, where food is chewed, a mechanical process that
breaks down food in smaller parts, and also exposes different parts of it to saliva,
which has the function of moisturizing the food and it also carries substances to
start the chemical digestion. From mouth, foods passes through esophagus to
reach the stomach, which again digests food physically (peristalsis) and chemically
by the help of digestive fluids (enzymes, hydrochloric acid, pepsin). Foods high in
carbohydrates stay in stomach for a short time, while foods high in protein and
and fat stay longer, because it takes more time to process them. From stomach
the chyme (mixture of food and digestive fluids), through a valve, passes to the
first part of the small intestine (duodenum). As the chime travels through the
small intestine, more digestive fluids; from liver (bile), from pancreas (enzymes)
and from the small intestine (mucosa) join to further digest the chyme. Proteins
are now broken down to amino acids, starches are split into simple sugars, fats
divided in smaller molecules, vitamins and minerals need no processing, they are
used from the body in their original forms. The watery non-nutrient residue
moves to the large intestine, where water is absorbed and the remaining solid
waste will be eliminated.
Up to this point none of the nutrients has gone inside the interior of the body,
although it travelled through the alimentary canal, which is separated from the
interior of the body by the walls of mouth, the esophagus stomach and intestines.
The absorption of the nutrients is performed by fingerlike tentacles present in the
inner walls of the small intestine called villi. From here the nutrients continue
their journey through two routes; fats move through lymphatics that run from the
villi to the bloodstream; and other nutrients are carried away from the villi by tiny
blood vessels (capillaries), to the portal vein leading to the liver, where nutrients
may change into new compounds, depending on the needs of individual cells.
Some of them are stored, some are used by liver and the remainder goes into the
bloodstream, from which it is picked up by the cells.

5. THE GREAT VITAMIN MYSTERY