An Introduction to

NUTRITIONAL in life
For public

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 OBJECTIVES

• To adhere the knowledge about the requirement of diet

intake in human body.
• To identify the fat and human diseases such as obesity,
diabetes and coronary heart disease.

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HUMAN DIETARY REQUIREMENTS

• Two aspects requirement of fat in human diet:

• Qualitative – certain fat are needed for good health such as essential
fatty acids.
• Quantitative – in normal diet, some 25% to 30% of the total calories
are conveniently supplied as fat, usually make food more palatable.
• Human diet always contain fat but vary in amounts and types
of fat.
• Solid food contain protein, carbohydrate and fat as three
macronutrients along with a large number of important
micronutrients.
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HUMAN DIETARY REQUIREMENTS

• The energy levels of fat (38kJ/g), carbohydrate (17kJ/g)

and protein (16kJ/g) are as indicated as parentheses –
average value.
• For daily intake of 2000 kcal, 67g of fat correspond to 30%
of total energy.
• These weight relate to actual intake and do not allow for
loss through incomplete absorption and consequent
faecal loss.
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HUMAN DIETARY REQUIREMENTS

• Short chain acid have lower energy values since they

contain higher proportion of oxygen in their molecules
• Long chain acid sometimes have lower energy values
because of incomplete absorption.
• Fat are the richest source of energy on a weight basis and
excess of fat beyond that required for daily energy
requirements is laid down as reserve depot fat usually
after some structural modification.
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HUMAN DIETARY REQUIREMENTS

• Fat is laid down in anhydrous condition whereas

carbohydrate is stored in limited amount and in hydrated
form with even less energy (3 g water/1 g glycogen)

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 HUMAN DIETARY
REQUIREMENTS: DIGESTION AND
ABSORPTION OF FATS IN HUMAN BODY

• Fat digestion begins in the mouth (lingual lipase) and

continues in the stomach, but occurs mainly in the duodenum
(small intestine)
• Disorders in digestion and absorption will lead to impaired fat
intake.
• A problem associated with fat digestion, absorption and
transport is that fat is insoluble in aqueous solutions such as
blood, though the products of digestion are more hydrophilic
and more easily dispersed.

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 HUMAN DIETARY
REQUIREMENTS: DIGESTION AND
ABSORPTION OF FATS IN HUMAN BODY

• Lipids are therefore incorporated into lipoprotein

complexes for transport through aqueous solutions.
• The duodenum is the major site of fat digestion but the
stomach contributes by its churning action to create a
coarse oil-in-water emulsion stabilized by phospholipids.
• Proteolytic digestion also releases lipids from food
particles where they may be present as lipoprotein
complexes.
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 HUMAN DIETARY
REQUIREMENTS: DIGESTION AND
ABSORPTION OF FATS IN HUMAN BODY

• The fat emulsion entering the duodenum mixes with bile

which acts as a powerful emulsifying agent and with
pancreatic juice which contains lipase.
• The rate of triacylglycerol hydrolysis depends on chain
length.
• Short chain acids (C8 and C10) are hydrolysed faster and
long-chain acids (C20 and C22) are hydrolysed slower
than the common C16 and C18 acids.
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 HUMAN DIETARY
REQUIREMENTS: DIGESTION AND
ABSORPTION OF FATS IN HUMAN BODY

• Over 90 per cent of triacylglycerols are absorbed in this

way but only about 50% of the cholesterol esters are
absorbed.
• Dietary fat is transported as free acid to adipose tissue
where it is converted to triacylglycerols.
• Endogenous fat, made mainly in the liver but also in other
organs, is exported as VLDL into plasma.
• Cholesterol is carried to peripheral tissue in LDL and returned to
the liver in HDL which acts as a scavenger for cholesterol.
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 HUMAN DIETARY
REQUIREMENTS: ESSENTIAL FATTY ACIDS
• Essential fatty acids required for animal health and
wellbeing but cannot be made by animals themselves and
must be obtained from plant sources.
• Two major family fatty acids:
• Consists of linoleic acid as the first or parent member along with
its metabolites which are produced within a healthy animal
• known as omega 6 (n-6)
• The most common metabolite in this family is arachidonic acid
(20:4)

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 HUMAN DIETARY
REQUIREMENTS: ESSENTIAL FATTY ACIDS

• Consists of polyunsaturated based on linolenic acid

• known as omega 3 (n-3)
• The most important metabolites in this group are eicosapentaenoic acid
(EPA,20:5), docosapentaenoic acid (DPA, 22:5) and docosahexaenoic acid
(DHA,22:6)

• Diets with too much linoleic acid will produce too much
arachidonic acid and its metabolites.
• Diet with too little linolenic acid will produce too little
EPA and its metabolites
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 HUMAN DIETARY
REQUIREMENTS: ESSENTIAL FATTY ACIDS

• To correct the balance it may be necessary to increase the

dietary intake of linolenic acid and, at the same time, to
reduce the intake of linoleic acid which competes so
strongly for the enzymes required for metabolic change.

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 FATS AND HUMAN DISEASE:
ROLE OF FATS IN HEALTH AND DISEASE

• Many diseases that remain, whether they are killers or not, are
related in some part to life-style, of which diet, pollution of the
environment, and level of physical activity.
• It is important to realise that fat is only part of our diet and that
diet is only part of the problem.
• Fat has a very negative image at the present time and we need
to correct that.
• We know what fats we should consume and in what quantity.
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 FATS AND HUMAN DISEASE:
OBESITY

• Body mass index (BMI) is used increasingly as a measure

of weight to height ratio and allows us to recognize five
categories of body sizes.
• The body mass index is defined as weight (expressed in
kg) divided by height squared (expressed in cm).

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 FATS AND HUMAN DISEASE:
OBESITY

• Five categories of body sizes:

Underweight <18.4
Normal 18.5±24.9
Overweight 25.0±29.9
Obese 30.0±39.9
Severely obese >40.0
• A growing number of persons fall into the last three categories due to
imbalance over many years between increased caloric intake and
decreased energy requirement resulting from more sedentary and less
active lifestyles.

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 FATS AND HUMAN DISEASE:
OBESITY

• The problem of obesity is partly genetic (40±70%) and partly

environmental (food intake and physical inactivity).
• Obesity is a potent risk factor for type-2 diabetes,
hypertension and dyslipidemia.
• Bonow & Eckel (2003) write:
‘The recipe for effective weight loss is a combination of
motivation, physical activity, and caloric restriction;
maintenance of weight loss is a balance between caloric intake
and physical activity with lifelong adherence.’
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 FATS AND HUMAN DISEASE:
OBESITY

• For dietary fat they recommend: total fat 33% energy,

saturated acids 10%, polyunsaturated fatty acids 6% (and
not exceeding 10%), cis monounsaturated acids 12%, and
trans unsaturated acids <2%.

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 FATS AND HUMAN DISEASE:
CONONARY HEART DISEASE (CHD)

• Cardiovascular disease is a broad term embracing

diseases of the blood vessels of the heart, brain
(cerebrovascular disease, stroke) and the limbs
(peripheral vascular disease).
• Coronary heart disease (CHD) is a major cause of death in
the developed world with a peak age of death of 70±74 for
men and 75±79 for women,

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 FATS AND HUMAN DISEASE:
CONONARY HEART DISEASE (CHD)

• Three stages in the development of CHD:

• injury of coronary
• arteries, fibrous plaque formation
• thrombosis leading to heart attack or stroke.
• The following have been recognised as risk factors: high blood
pressure, high levels of plasma LDL (low density lipoprotein)
cholesterol, low levels of plasma HDL (high density lipoprotein)
cholesterol, high levels of plasma fibrinogen and low levels of
plasma antioxidants.
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 FATS AND HUMAN DISEASE:
CONONARY HEART DISEASE (CHD)

• These risk factors are linked to a range of controllable and

uncontrollable factors.
• The uncontrollable factors are family history, being male,
advancing age, racial origin (Asians show higher rates of
incidence than white Caucasians) and possibly low birth
weight.
• Controllable factors include smoking, exercise (lack of),
stress and diet.
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 FATS AND HUMAN DISEASE:
CONONARY HEART DISEASE (CHD)

• Diets with a high content of fat/SFA/cholesterol lead to

high concentrations of total cholesterol in the blood and
especially of LDL-cholesterol which results in a high
morbidity and mortality from CHD.
• Reducing the amount of fat/SAF/cholesterol in the diet
reduces the concentration of cholesterol in the blood and
especially in the LDL.

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 FATS AND HUMAN DISEASE:
DIABETES

• Diabetes mellitus is a chronic disease in which the

metabolism of sugars (and of fats and proteins) is
disturbed by lack of or by decreased activity of the
hormone insulin, produced by the endocrine part of the
pancreas.
• Its main characteristic is an increase in the level of blood
sugar provoking acute symptoms such as thirst, frequent
voiding and weight loss.
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 FATS AND HUMAN DISEASE:
DIABETES

• Diabetes is an independent risk factor for CVD.

• Type 1 diabetes (15%) is found particularly in children,
adolescents and young adults.
• It results from auto-immune destruction of the insulin-
secreting cells of the pancreas.
• Most diabetic individuals (85%) have type 2 diabetes.
• Two dysfunctions are involved: decreased insulin secretion
after a glucose challenge and a decrease in its activity on
target organs (liver and muscles).

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 FATS AND HUMAN DISEASE:
DIABETES

• Nutritionist suggests that individuals with normal body

weight and normal lipid levels should limit fat intake to
less than 30% total energy with saturated fatty acids
restricted to 10%, polyunsaturated acids to less than 10%,
and monounsaturated
acids at 10±15%.

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