MICRONUTRIENTS

FOOD
Food is that which nourishes the body.

Food may also be defined as anything eaten or drunk,

which meets the needs for energy, building,
regulation and protection of the body.

Nutrition has been defined as food at work in the

body. Nutrition includes everything that happens to
food from the time it is eaten until it is used for various
functions in the body.

Nutrients are components of food that are needed by

the body in adequate amounts in order to grow,
reproduce and lead a normal, healthy life.
 NUTRIENTS

Nutrients include
i) Water,
ii) Proteins,
iii) Fats,
iv) Carbohydrates,
v) Minerals and
vi) Vitamins.
 Some Definitions
• Adequate, optimum and good nutrition are expressions
used to indicate that the supply of the essential nutrients
is correct in amount and proportion.
• It also implies that the utilization of such nutrients in the
body is such that the highest level of physical and mental
health is maintained throughout the life-cycle.
• Nutritional status is the state of our body as a result of
the foods consumed and their use by the body.
Nutritional status can be good, fair or poor.
• Malnutrition means an undesirable kind of nutrition
leading to ill-health. It results from a lack, excess or
imbalance of nutrients in the diet. It includes
undernutrition and overnutrition.
 Some Definitions
Good Nutritional Status are an alert, good natured
personality, a well developed body, with normal weight &
height, well developed and firm muscles, healthy skin,
reddish pink colour of eyelids and membranes of mouth,
good layer of subcutaneous fat, clear eyes, smooth and
glossy hair, good appetite and excellent general health.

Poor Nutritional Status is evidenced by a apathetic or

irritable personality, undersized poorly developed body,
abnormal body weight (too thin or fat and flabby body),
muscles small and flabby, pale or sallow skin, too little or
too much subcutaneous fat, dull or reddened eyes,
lustreless and rough hair, poor appetite, lack of vigour
and endurance for work and susceptibility to infections.
 Some Definitions

Diet refers to whatever you eat and drink each day. Thus
it includes the normal diet you consume and the diet
people consume in groups (hostel diet).

Nutritional care is the use of nutritional knowledge in

planning meals and the preparation of these meals in an
acceptable and attractive manner to feed people.

Health refers to the condition of the body, good health

not only implies freedom from disease, but physical,
mental and emotional fitness as well.
 Classification of Nutrients
Nutrients can be classified in accordance to their
chemical property, to their function, to their essentiality,
to their concentration and to their nutritive value.
According to the chemical nature, the dietary
components of food are classified according to its
chemical nature.

• Carbohydrates • Minerals
• Proteins • Vitamins
• Fats • Water

Macronutrients Micronutrients
 Micronutrients

Micronutrients play a central part in

metabolism and in maintenance of tissue
function.

•Vitamins

•Minerals

•Water
 VITAMINS
• The word "vitamin" was coined in 1911 by the Warsaw-
born biochemist Casimir Funk (1884-1967).
• At the Lister Institute in London, Funk isolated a
substance that prevented nerve inflammation (neuritis) in
chickens raised on a diet deficient in that substance.
• He named the substance "vitamine" because he believed
it was necessary to life and it was a chemical amine.
•The "e" at the end was later removed when it was
recognized that vitamins need not be amines.
• The letters (A, B, C and so on) were assigned to the vitamins
in the order of their discovery. The one exception was Vitamin
K which was assigned its "K" from "Koagulation" by the Danish
researcher Henrik Dam.
 VITAMINS

• Vitamins are organic substances that are

essential for several enzymatic functions in
human metabolism

• A compound is called vitamin when it cannot

be synthesized in sufficient quantities by an
organism, and must be obtained from the diet.
 Functions of Vitamins

• Acts as hormones (vitamin D)

• Acts as antioxidant (vitamin E)
• Acts as mediators of cell signalling and
regulators of cell and tissue growth and
differentiation (vitamin A)
• Acts as precusors for enzyme cofactor
biomolecules (coenzymes) that help act as
catalysts and substrates in metabolism
 VITAMINS
• Vitamins are classified according to solubility
into fat soluble & water soluble.
• 13 vitamins are known, 4 fat soluble (K, E, D &
A) & 9 water soluble (C, Folate & the B group).

• Water soluble-dissolve easily in water readily

excreted from the body.
• Fat soluble-absorbed through the intestinal
tract with the help of lipids(fats).