Nutrients 1

Diet- what you eat.

· Energy (move, keep warm, make new materials)
· Growth and repair
· Health
Food substances that provide raw materials are called nutrients. These include carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins
and minerals.
Two main carbohydrates in food are starch and sugars.
Oils: liquid fats
Lipids: fats and oils
Fibre- made of plant cells walls & not used by the body.
· Keep us healthy by helping food move through the intestines
· Stopping them getting blocked (constipation)
Water:
· Act as a lubricant
· Dissolves things so that they can be carried around the body
· Fills up cells so that they hold their shape
· Cools you down, when you sweat
Nutrition information labels:
1. Show the amounts of different nutrients in a food. (can compare foods using ‘per 100 gram of food’)
2. Show the amount of fibre
3. Show the amount of energy stored in the food
4. A list of ingredients
5. Point out substances that people may be allergic to

Testing foods
Test for starch: iodine solution. Turns to a blue-black colour.
Test for protein: Biuret solution. Turns to a purple colour.
Test for fats: rub on some white paper, hold the paper up to the light. Leave a greasy mark.

Used of Nutrients

Eat  Gain mass exercise lose mass (fuel in your food is used up)
The amount of energy stored in your food should balance the amount of energy that you need. To make sure your mass
doesn’t change, the amount of fuel you use should be balanced by the amount you eat.
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The amount of energy in food is measured in kilojoules (kJ) and the process that releases it is respiration. As your cells
respire, the energy is transferred from the nutrients, making it available for you to grow, move, think and keep warm.
The amount of energy your body needs to transfer depends on:
· Age
· Male / Female
· How active
Proteins: (meat, fish, eggs, cheese, beans and milk)
1. Make new cells
2. Grow and repair our bodies

Nutrients: important for health (vitamins & mineral)

- Vitamin A: healthy skin and eyes
- Vitamin C: help cells in tissues to stick together properly
- Calcium: make bones
- Iron: make red blood cells

Balanced Diet

Eat many different foods. If you eat the right amounts of a wide variety of foods you have a balanced diet.
People who have a problem cause by too much or too little of a nutrient in their diets are said to suffer from malnutrition.
Fibre, vitamins, and minerals: fruits & vegetables
Starch: break, rice, potatoes and pasta
Fat & calcium: milk and dairy foods
Protein: meat, fish, beans, eggs & nuts. Iron: beef & eggs
People who lack a nutrient for a long time can suffer from a deficiency disease.
Lack of Proteinkwashiorkor ‘pot belly’ fluid collecting around intestines, muscles become too weak to hold the stomach in.
Lack of Vitamin Anight blindness
Lack of Vitamin Cpainful joints & bleeding gums
Lack of Calcium & Vitamin Drickets, weak bones do not form properly
Lack of Irontiredness and shortness of breath
The most severe form of malnutrition is starvation. (lack nearly all the nutrients they need & get thinner and thinner)
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Obesity
People whose foods contains more energy than they need may become overweight.  heart disease (fat clogs the arteries
and stops enough blood reaching the heart muscle tissue)  heart attack (very little blood reaches the heart muscle,
painful squeezing feeling in the chest).
Overweight: high blood pressure (damage the heart or kidneys or cause blood vessels to burst).
Very overweight: obesity (to control: a ban on adverts for fatty or sugary foods).
Nutrition information labels: give people an idea about how much of each nutrient can be eaten in a day.
1 mg (milligram) = 0.001 g; 1 μg (microgram) = 0000 001 g

Digestion

Digestion turns large insoluble molecules into smaller soluble ones. (occurs through your gut)
The bacteria in your gut feed on your food and can digest some foods that your body cannot. The bacteria grow and
reproduce using some of these digested molecules, but the rest of the molecules can be absorbed into your body.
Yoghurt drink bacteria help control harmful
gut bacteria.

Enzymes
- Substances that speed up the breaking
down of large molecules into smaller
ones.
- In digestive juices that are added to food as it travels through the gut.
- Cut through the connections that hold the molecule together.
Substances that speed up reactions (without being altered themselves) are called catalysts. Enzymes are biological catalysts.
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Absorption

Enzymes break up large

molecules into smaller, soluble
ones. The small molecules can
then be absorbed by the small
intestine.
Starch is digested into smaller
sugars, such as glucose, by
enzymes.

Once absorbed, digested nutrients are dissolved in the blood plasma. Blood carries the nutrients around the body for cells to
use. (your cells need glucose to release energy when they respire)
Diffusion: particles spread out randomly in all directions (high concentration to low concentration)
 After a meal, there are many more digested nutrient molecules inside the small intestine than in the blood.
(overall movement into the blood, by diffusion)
 Particles move randomly in all directions. So some molecules of glucose will move from the blood into the
small intestine, but many more go the other way.
 There is an overall movement of glucose molecules in one direction.

Small intestine
adaptations
 The greater the surface area,
the more room there is for
molecules to pass between
the inside of the small
intestine and the blood.
(more diffusion of
molecules more glucose
to be absorbed more
quickly.)

 I n c r e a s e i t s
intestine is folded & contains lots of little finger-shaped villi.
 Further increase surface area: each villus cell has a folded top (microvilli).
 The wall of the villus is only one cell thick so that substances do not have to diffuse very far. This increases the speed
of absorption.
 Alcohol 🥂
Alcohol: fewer digestive enzymes are released into the small intestine.
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Sensible drinking: no harm to the small intestine.
Drinking too much for a long time: damage the villi & cause them to become shorter.