WHAT IS NUTRITION?

Nutrition is the Science of how your body uses food. Two aspects: Energy from food. Measured in calories. Energy = ability to do work. Nutrients in food. Allow the body to build, maintain and repair tissues. And to do everything else a body does.

There are also 2 types of Nutrients Macronutrients: protein, fat, carbohydrates, water Micronutrients: vitamins and minerals What do macro and micro mean?

What is an essential nutrient? (It is not what it sounds like!) What does an essential nutrient have to do with this picture?

An essential nutrient… Cannot be manufactured in the body. An essential nutrient is linked to a specific deficiency disease. For example, Kwashiorkor is a condition resulting from inadequate protein intake. A large, protuberant belly is common.

What is a body made up of? For a 140 pound (lb) person: 84 lbs water 28 lbs body fat Up to 25 lbs protein Up to 7 lbs minerals Up to 1.4 lbs. carbohydrates Trace amount of vitamins

So how does it work? Well, do you remember the digestive system? What will happen to this mystery food in this mystery person’s body?

Digestion…it’s a two part process Mechanical digestion. Teeth chewing up food; stomach churning food. Chemical digestion— food broken down by enzymes and other substances.

Your old buddy…The Small Intestine Nutrients are absorbed here in this order… 1 st : Carbohydrates 2 nd : Proteins 3 rd : Fats 4 th : Vitamins

Gross But True Story William Beaumont, a surgeon in the United States army was… Peephole: The first man to watch a living human gut in action.

1822, wounded fur trader… Alexis St. Martin was wounded by a musket ball that discharged accidentally. It tore through his back and out his stomach, leaving a wound that healed but never closed. (To keep food and liquid from spilling out of the small opening, Beaumont kept it convered with a cotton bandage.) How could this be useful to study nutrition?

Yep, the wound was used to test how quickly food dissolved. Ummm…not quite like this Beaumont’s method: He tied small pieces of food (cooked meat, raw meat, cabbage, bread) to a silk string and inserted the food into the hole in St. Martin’s stomach.

230 times of “stomach fishing” later… He discovered that the carbohydrates (cabbage and bread) were digested quickly. It took up to 8 hours for the stomach juices to break down the proteins and fats.

What is a calorie? And how is it like a car?

A Calorie Like a car that burns gasoline to get the energy needed to move… Your body burns (metabolizes) food to produce energy in the form of heat.

So if a food has 100 calories… That means it produces 100 calories of heat that your body can use. A calorie is the amount of energy it takes to raise the temperature of water 1 degree Celcius.

But are all calories equal? Some foods provide empty calories (no or little nutritional value).

Other foods provide … Calories AND Nutrition

For listening to this talk, you deserve a tasty treat… Which one will you choose?