human nutrition
What is human nutrition?
What nutrients are essential for human nutrition?
What foods are the main sources of human nutrition?
What does meat provide in human nutrition?
human nutrition, process by which substances in food are transformed into body tissues and provide energy for the full range of physical and mental activities that make up human life.
The study of human nutrition is interdisciplinary in character, involving not only physiology, biochemistry, and molecular biology but also fields such as psychology and anthropology, which explore the influence of attitudes, beliefs, preferences, and cultural traditions on food choices. Human nutrition further touches on economics and political science as the world community recognizes and responds to the suffering and death caused by malnutrition. The ultimate goal of nutritional science is to promote optimal health and reduce the risk of chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease and cancer as well as to prevent classic nutritional deficiency diseases such as kwashiorkor and pellagra.
This article covers the major issues of human nutrition, such as energy generation and balance, essential nutrients, and recommended dietary guidelines. For a full-length treatment of health problems created by failure in nutrition, see nutritional disease. The utilization of food materials by all living things is described in nutrition, and specific biochemical processes are described in metabolism.
Utilization of food by the body
Calories and kilocalories: energy supply
The human body can be thought of as an engine that releases the energy present in the foods that it digests. This energy is utilized partly for the mechanical work performed by the muscles and in the secretory processes and partly for the work necessary to maintain the body’s structure and functions. The performance of work is associated with the production of heat; heat loss is controlled so as to keep body temperature within a narrow range. Unlike other engines, however, the human body is continually breaking down (catabolizing) and building up (anabolizing) its component parts. Foods supply nutrients essential to the manufacture of the new material and provide energy needed for the chemical reactions involved.
Carbohydrate, fat, and protein are, to a large extent, interchangeable as sources of energy. Typically, the energy provided by food is measured in kilocalories, or Calories. One kilocalorie is equal to 1,000 gram-calories (or small calories), a measure of heat energy. However, in common parlance, kilocalories are referred to as “calories.” In other words, a 2,000-calorie diet actually has 2,000 kilocalories of potential energy. One kilocalorie is the amount of heat energy required to raise one kilogram of water from 14.5 to 15.5 °C at one atmosphere of pressure. Another unit of energy widely used is the joule, which measures energy in terms of mechanical work. One joule is the energy expended when one kilogram is moved a distance of one metre by a force of one newton. The relatively higher levels of energy in human nutrition are more likely to be measured in kilojoules (1 kilojoule = 103 joules) or megajoules (1 megajoule = 106 joules). One kilocalorie is equivalent to 4.184 kilojoules.
The energy present in food can be determined directly by measuring the output of heat when the food is burned (oxidized) in a bomb calorimeter. However, the human body is not as efficient as a calorimeter, and some potential energy is lost during digestion and metabolism. Corrected physiological values for the heats of combustion of the three energy-yielding nutrients, rounded to whole numbers, are as follows: carbohydrate, 4 kilocalories (17 kilojoules) per gram; protein, 4 kilocalories (17 kilojoules) per gram; and fat, 9 kilocalories (38 kilojoules) per gram. Beverage alcohol (ethyl alcohol) also yields energy—7 kilocalories (29 kilojoules) per gram—although it is not essential in the diet. Vitamins, minerals, water, and other food constituents have no energy value, although many of them participate in energy-releasing processes in the body.
The energy provided by a well-digested food can be estimated if the gram amounts of energy-yielding substances (non-fibre carbohydrate, fat, protein, and alcohol) in that food are known. For example, a slice of white bread containing 12 grams of carbohydrate, 2 grams of protein, and 1 gram of fat supplies 67 kilocalories (280 kilojoules) of energy. Food composition tables (see table) and food labels provide useful data for evaluating energy and nutrient intake of an individual diet. Most foods provide a mixture of energy-supplying nutrients, along with vitamins, minerals, water, and other substances. Two notable exceptions are table sugar and vegetable oil, which are virtually pure carbohydrate (sucrose) and fat, respectively.
| food | energy (kcal) | carbohydrate (g) | protein (g) | fat(g) | water (g) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Source: Jean A.T. Pennington, Bowes and Church's Food Values of Portions Commonly Used, 17th ed. (1998). | |||||
| whole wheat bread (1 slice, 28 g) | 69 | 12.9 | 2.7 | 1.2 | 10.6 |
| white bread (1 slice, 25 g) | 67 | 12.4 | 2.0 | 0.9 | 9.2 |
| white rice, short-grain, enriched, cooked (1 cup, 186 g) | 242 | 53.4 | 4.4 | 0.4 | 127.5 |
| lowfat milk (2%) (8 fl oz, 244 g) | 121 | 11.7 | 8.1 | 4.7 | 17.7 |
| butter (1 tsp, 5 g) | 36 | 0 | 0 | 4.1 | 0.8 |
| cheddar cheese (1 oz, 28 g) | 114 | 0.4 | 7.1 | 9.4 | 10.4 |
| lean ground beef, broiled, medium (3.5 oz, 100 g) | 272 | 0 | 24.7 | 18.5 | 55.7 |
| tuna, light, canned in oil, drained (3 oz, 85 g) | 168 | 0 | 24.8 | 7.0 | 50.9 |
| potato, boiled, without skin (1 medium, 135 g) | 117 | 27.2 | 2.5 | 0.1 | 103.9 |
| green peas, frozen, boiled (1/2 cup, 80 g) | 62 | 11.4 | 4.1 | 0.2 | 63.6 |
| cabbage, red, raw (1/2 cup shredded, 35 g) | 9 | 2.1 | 0.5 | 0.1 | 32.0 |
| orange, navel, raw (1 fruit, 131 g) | 60 | 15.2 | 1.3 | 0.1 | 113.7 |
| apple, raw, with skin (1 medium, 138 g) | 81 | 21.0 | 0.3 | 0.5 | 115.8 |
| white sugar, granulated (1 tsp, 4 g) | 15 | 4.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Throughout most of the world, protein supplies between 8 and 16 percent of the energy in the diet, although there are wide variations in the proportions of fat and carbohydrate in different populations. In more prosperous communities about 12 to 15 percent of energy is typically derived from protein, 30 to 40 percent from fat, and 50 to 60 percent from carbohydrate. On the other hand, in many poorer agricultural societies, where cereals comprise the bulk of the diet, carbohydrate provides an even larger percentage of energy, with protein and fat providing less. The human body is remarkably adaptable and can survive, and even thrive, on widely divergent diets. However, different dietary patterns are associated with particular health consequences (see nutritional disease).