Nutrients provide our bodies with energy (in the form of calories). They can be found in foods and dietary supplements. Nutrition science studies how food influences health conditions including disease, growth and development.
Calcium and vitamin D play an essential role in maintaining strong bones. We can source our calcium through dairy foods, fortified beverages and dark green vegetables as well as fish with bones such as sardines.
Definition
Nutrients are essential substances needed in small amounts for overall health and growth, such as carbon, hydrogen and oxygen; nitrogen, phosphorus and sulfur; water; calcium, potassium and magnesium; carbohydrates, fats and proteins.
Water is one of the most essential elements in our diets. Comprising approximately 60% of body weight, water plays an integral part in transporting nutrients and other chemicals through cells to cells; regulating temperature; cushioning organs; lubricating joints; storing energy (as glycerol); and preventing dehydration.
Food contains many different kinds of nutrients, including macro-nutrients such as carbohydrates, proteins, fats and minerals as well as micro-nutrients such as vitamins and minerals. Some nutrients are essential to your body in large amounts that it cannot synthesize for itself and must obtain from food or water; such as carbohydrates, proteins, fats calcium iron vitamin C zinc. Other nutrients may support different metabolic systems and help combat stress respond to disease repair tissue faster.
Classification
Human bodies require various nutrients for optimal functioning and growth. Macronutrients provide bulk energy sources like carbohydrates, proteins and fats; micronutrients serve specific functions like vitamins and minerals.
Plants and other autotrophs produce their own nutrients through photosynthesis or by taking in organic and inorganic substances from the environment, while animals obtain what they need by eating other organisms or by eating preexisting nutrients found in food or the environment.
Protein is one of the body’s primary sources of energy and composed of chains of amino acids – simple molecules made up of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen). Human bodies cannot manufacture all 20 essential amino acids required for making proteins; we must rely on diet for their supply. Protein also plays an essential role in tissue maintenance and repair and moving nutrients and waste through our systems – it can be found in meats, dairy products, eggs, beans, or other plant-based sources of nutrition.
Energy (Calorie) Yielding Nutrients
The body gets energy from carbohydrates, fats (lipids) and proteins. Carbohydrates contain 4 calories per gram while fats produce 9 and proteins provide 4. Calories can also be referred to as kilocalories; one gram of carbohydrates or proteins contribute one thousand times more work than an equivalent gram of fat would.
Food provides energy that the body requires for everyday activities. Any excess calories are either stored as fat or glycogen for later use or consumed immediately by your cells as fuel.
Other nutrients don’t provide energy directly but aid the body’s various other functions, including water, vitamins, and minerals. Although vitamins and minerals cannot be broken down to yield energy directly, they serve as cofactors or components of enzymes to speed metabolic reactions; additionally they are essential to cell functioning as they cannot be synthesized within our bodies and must therefore come from food sources; also known as indispensable nutrients – there are over 40 known essential nutrients.
Essential Nutrients
Human bodies cannot produce some essential nutrients; thus they must be consumed through diet. Examples of essential nutrients are proteins (20 amino acids of which nine cannot be synthesized by the body in sufficient amounts), fatty acids and fat-soluble vitamins such as ascorbic acid, vitamin D, E & K and water as well as certain trace elements.
Carbohydrates, proteins and fats are considered macronutrients because they supply large amounts of energy in the form of calories. Meanwhile, six other nutrients known as micronutrients provide vital nutrition in much smaller amounts – requirements can differ depending on age, sex and other factors such as activity levels, medical conditions or pregnancy – with copper, iron, iodine manganese molybdenum selenium being essential components. Boron can be synthesized from precursors; similarly this holds true with plant essential nutrients like nitrogen phosphorous phosphorous potassium calcium magnesium and sulfur.
