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Science - Important energizing nutrients, Vitamins minerals and trace elements

2.) Describe the most important energizing nutrients, their chemical characteristics and explain why
they are important to the body - Give examples of vitamins, minerals and trace elements your body
needs, and how to ensure varied diet. These two curriculum goals above are large, and are important in
understanding digestion and energy conversion as well. - Explain the main features of digestion,
transport and conversion of energizing nutrients in the body.

2.1 Most important energizing nutrients vitamins, minerals and trace elements – chemical
characterisiticsa and why are they important?

Nutrients are substances needed by an organism to survive, grow and reproduce. They get divided in
macronutrients needed in relatively large amounts and micronutrients needed in smaller amounts.
Macronutrients provide the energy needed by the organism and the micronutrients support metabolism
(conversion of food the energy). To ensure a varied diet one can refer to consumer advisories such as
the United States Dietary Reference Intake, they provide macronutrient and micronutrient guides for
both lower and upper limits of intake.

Macronutrients:

 Chemical elements consumed in large quantities: Carbon (C), hydrogen (H), nitrogen (N),
oxygen (O), phosphorus (P) and sulphur (S), summarized (CHNOPS). Beside them: Calcium
(Ca), sodium (Na), potassium (K), magnesium (Mg) and chloride ions (Cl -).
 Chemical compounds get consumed in large quantities and provide bulk energy:
Carbohydrates (made up of sugar), proteins (consists of amino acids), fats and water.

Micronutrients:

 Dietary minerals such as trace elements, salts and irons


 Vitamins

We take a closer look at the so called essential nutrients. They are required for a normal physiological
function of the human body.

 water
 nine amion acids (phenylalanine, valine, threonine, tryptophan, methionine, leucine,
isoleucine, lysine, and histidine )
 two fatty acids (alpha-linolenic acid (an omega-3 fatty acid) and linoleic acid (an omega-6
fatty acid),
 thirteen vitamins (A, C, D, E, K, thiamine (B1), riboflavin (B2), niacin (B3), pantothenic acid
(B5), vitamin B6, biotin (B7), folate (B9), and cobalamin (B12)),
 fifteen minerals (potassium, chloride, sodium, calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, iron, zinc,
manganese, copper, iodine, chromium, molybdenum, selenium and cobalt)
2.2 Digestion, transport and conversion of energizing nutrients

The nutrition consumed need to get digestioned in the body. To enter the body, food must be absorbed
across the epithelium that lines the digestive tract. Digestion is a process that breaks or dissembles the
things that you eat into molecules small enough to be absorbed by cells that line the digestive tract.
Ultimately these small molecules enter the cytoplasm of every cell in your body, where their nutritive
value is utilized and converted into energy.

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