Science Reviewer

Diet - the sum of food consumed by a person or other organism. Often implies the use
of specific intake of nutrition for health or weight – management reasons.

Animals get their food from other organisms - from plants or other animals. They
cannot make their own food as plants do.
The food an animal eats everyday is called it diet.
Most animals need seven types of nutrients in their diet, these are:
 Carbohydrates
 Proteins
 Fats
 Vitamins
 Minerals
 Water
 Fibre
A diet which contains all of these things, in the correct amounts and proportions,
is called a balanced diet.

The energy you use each day comes from the food you eat. If you eat too much food,
some of the extra will probably be stored as fat. If you eat too little, you may not be
able to obtain as much energy as you need. This will make you feel tired.
All food contains some energy. One gram of fat contains about twice as much
energy as one gram of protein or carbohydrate.

Nutrients
To make sure that you eat a balanced diet, you must eat foods containing
carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, minerals, fibre and water. These substances are
called nutrients. Your body will not be able to work properly if your diet doesn’t contain
all these nutrients.

Vitamins - These are natural/organic substances that is usually found in food that
makes your body healthy. Vitamins are only needed in tiny amounts. If you do not have
enough of a vitamin, you may get a deficiency disease.
Vitamin A - Vitamin A promotes healthy vision and skin, and it also supports bone and
tooth growth. In addition, Vitamin A helps your immune system and is important in the
reproductive process. Vitamin A enables your heart, kidneys, lungs, and other organs
to work properly.

Vitamin B12 - Vitamin B12 promotes healthy nerve function and also helps your body
make new cells. It can also help you lower your risk of heart disease because it breaks
down fatty and amino acids.

Vitamin C - Vitamin C is important for preventing infections and promoting a healthy

immune system. It also helps the body absorb iron, which is a critical component in the
process of carrying oxygen through your blood cells.

Vitamin D - Vitamin D promotes the absorption of calcium in the body, which is

important for bone health and development as you grow. It also helps reduce
inflammation and benefits your immune system.

Vitamin E - Vitamin E acts as an antioxidant to protect cells from damage and may
also help in the fight against cancer and Alzheimer’s disease. It is also important to the
immune system, fighting off bacteria and preventing infections.

Vitamin K - Vitamin K is important for blood clotting and promotes bone health.
Scientists are studying its effect on reducing the risk of coronary heart disease and
osteoporosis.

VITAMIN FOODS THAT WHY IS IT DEFICIENCY

CONTAIN IT NEEDED? DISEASE
Vitamin C Citrus fruits (such To make the Scurvy, which
as oranges, limes), stretchy protein causes pain in joints
raw vegetables collagen, found in and muscles, and
skin and other bleeding from gums
tissues; keeps and other places;
tissues in good this used to be a
repair common disease of
sailors, who had no
fresh vegetables for
long voyages
 Vitamin D Butter, egg yolk Helps calcium to be Rickets, in which
(and can be made absorbed, for the bones become
by the skin when making bones and soft and deformed;
sunlight falls on it) teeth this disease was
common in young
children in
industrial areas,
who rarely go out
into the sunshine.

Minerals - They are inorganic substances. They are also naturally occurring
chemicals compound, usually of crystalline form and not produced by life process. Only
small amounts of them are needed in the diet.

Two Types of Minerals:

 Macro minerals - Macro minerals are inorganic nutrients that the human body
requires in large quantities because they carry out several critical bodily functions.
The most important macro minerals include potassium, calcium, magnesium,
sodium, chloride, sulfur and phosphorus.
 Micro minerals - Micro minerals are often referred to as trace minerals, meaning
they are present at low levels in the body or required in smaller amounts in the
animals diet. Micro minerals include chromium, cobalt, copper, fluorine, iodine,
iron, manganese, molybdenum, selenium, and zinc.

The Function of Minerals:

 Minerals are essential component of skeletal structures such as bones and teeth.
 Minerals serve as structural components of soft tissues.
 Minerals are essential for the transmission of nerve impulses and muscle
contraction.
 Minerals play a vital role in the acid-base equilibrium of the body, and thus regulate
the pH of the blood and other body fluids.
 Minerals serve as essential components of many enzymes, vitamins, hormones, and
respiratory pigments, or as co-factors in metabolism, catalysts and enzyme
activators.

Mineral Foods that Why is it Deficiency

Element contain it needed? disease
Calcium, Ca Milk and other For bones and Brittle bones and
dairy products, teeth; for blood teeth; poor blood
bread clotting clotting

Iron, Fe Liver, red meat, For making Anaemia, in

egg yolk, dark haemoglobin, which there are
green vegetables the red pigment not enough red
in blood which blood cells so the
carries oxygen tissues do not get
enough oxygen
delivered to
them
Fibre - Fibre helps keep the alimentary canal working properly. Food moves through
the alimentary canal because the muscles contract and relax to squeeze it along. This is
called peristalsis.
 Fibre keeps the digestive system in good working order, and helps prevent
constipation.
 All plant foods, such as fruits and vegetable, contain fibre. This is because the plant
cells have cellulose cell walls. Humans cannot digest cellulose.
 One common form of fibre is the outer husk of cereal grains, such as oats, wheat
and barley. This is called bran.

Fat and Heart Disease

The kind of fat found in animal foods is called saturated fat. These foods also contain
cholesterol.
People who eat a lot of saturated fat and cholesterol are more likely to get heart
disease than people who do not because fat deposits build up on the inside of arteries,
making them stiffer and narrower.
If this happens in the coronary arteries supplying the heart muscle with blood, then
not enough blood can get through since the heart muscles run short of oxygen and
cannot work properly. This is called coronary heart disease.

Obesity - People who take in more energy than they use up get fat. Being very fat is
called obesity. Obesity is dangerous to the health since they are more likely to get heart
disease, strokes and diabetes.

Starvation and Malnutrition - Starvation is a severe deficiency in caloric energy

intake. It is the most extreme form of malnutrition. While Malnutrition is caused by not
eating a balanced diet.
One common form of malnutrition is kwashiorkor. This is caused by a lack of
protein in the diet. It is most common in children between the ages of nine months and
two years, after they have stopped feeding on breast milk.

Kwashiorkor is often caused by poverty because the child’s carers don’t have any high-
protein food to give to the child. It is sometimes caused by a lack of knowledge about the right
kinds of food that should be eaten.
 Children suffering from kwashiorkor are always underweight for their age but they may
often look quite fat because their diet may contain a lot of carbohydrates; however, if they are
to be put onto a high-protein diet, they will begin to grow normally again.

The most severe forms of malnutrition result from a lack of both protein and energy in the
diet. Severe shortage of energy in the diet causes marasmus, in which a child has body weight
much lower than normal and looks emaciated.

Malnutrition can also be the result of having too much of something in your diet.