What are the processes involved in nutrition ?

respiration

transportation

nutrition

excretion

digestion

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Nutrition is the process by which an organism assimilates food and uses it for growth and maintenance.
 
Five steps involved in the process of nutrition are:
 
  1. Ingestion: Taking in food, chewing and swallowing it.
  2. Digestion: Conversion of complex food into simpler absorbable form
  3. Absorption: Absorbing digested food
  4. Assimilation: Utilization of digested food by body tissues
  5. Egestion: Removal of undigested food from the body.
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Nutrition (also called nourishment or aliment) is the provision, to cells and organisms, of the materials necessary (in the form of food) to support life. Many common health problems can be prevented or alleviated with a healthy diet.
The diet of an organism refers to what it eats. Dietitians are health professionals who specialize in human nutrition, meal planning, economics, preparation, and so on. They are trained to provide safe, evidence-based dietary advice and management to individuals (in health and disease), as well as to institutions.
Poor diet can have an injurious impact on health, causing deficiency diseases such as scurvy, beriberi, and kwashiorkor; health-threatening conditions like obesity and metabolic syndrome, and such common chronic systemic diseases as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and osteoporosis.


Nutritional science investigates the metabolic and physiological responses of the body to diet. With advances in the fields of molecular biology, biochemistry, and genetics, the study of nutrition is increasingly concerned with metabolism and metabolic pathways: the sequences of biochemical steps through which substances in living things change from one form to another.

The human body contains chemical compounds, such as water, carbohydrates (sugar, starch, and fiber), amino acids (in proteins), fatty acids (in lipids), and nucleic acids (DNA and RNA). These compounds in turn consist of elements such as carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, phosphorus, calcium, iron, zinc, magnesium, manganese, and so on. All of these chemical compounds and elements occur in various forms and combinations (e.g. hormones, vitamins, phospholipids, hydroxyapatite), both in the human body and in the plant and animal organisms that humans eat.

The human body consists of elements and compounds ingested, digested, absorbed, and circulated through the bloodstream to feed the cells of the body. Except in the unborn fetus, the digestive system is the first system involved. In a typical adult, about seven liters of digestive juices enter the lumen of the digestive tract. These break chemical bonds in ingested molecules, and modulate their conformations and energy states. Though some molecules are absorbed into the bloodstream unchanged, digestive processes release them from the matrix of foods. Unabsorbed matter, along with some waste products of metabolism, is eliminated from the body in the feces.
Studies of nutritional status must take into account the state of the body before and after experiments, as well as the chemical composition of the whole diet and of all material excreted and eliminated from the body (in urine and feces). Comparing the food to the waste can help determine the specific compounds and elements absorbed and metabolized in the body. The effects of nutrients may only be discernible over an extended period, during which all food and waste must be analyzed. The number of variables involved in such experiments is high, making nutritional studies time-consuming and expensive, which explains why the science of human nutrition is still slowly evolving.

In general, eating a wide variety of fresh, whole (unprocessed), foods has proven favorable compared to monotonous diets based on processed foods. In particular, the consumption of whole-plant foods slows digestion and allows better absorption, and a more favorable balance of essential nutrients per Calorie, resulting in better management of cell growth, maintenance, and mitosis (cell division), as well as better regulation of appetite and blood sugar. Regularly scheduled meals (every few hours) have also proven more wholesome than infrequent or haphazard one

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 Types of nutrition

There are mainly two types of nutrition autotrophic nutrition and heterotrophic
nutrition.
Nutrition
Autotrophic nutrition Heterotrophic nutrition
(Auto : self, trophos : food) (Hetero : different, trophos : food)
Green plants and certain bacteria Food (organic substances)
manufacture their own obtained by feeding on other organisms.
food (organic substances) from
inorganic substances (CO2
 and
H2O) using sunlight energy.
Holozoic Saprotrophic Parasitic
Organisms take food Ogranisms secrete digestive Food derive from
into the body, digest it enzymes on to dead organic other living
and absorb the soluble material and absorb the organisms by living
products of digestion, products of digestion, eg., on or inside their
eg., humans. certain bacteria and fungi. body eg., certain
bacteria,roundworm,
tapeworm, cuscuta, etc.
There are Five Major Steps in Animal Nutrition (Holozoic nutrition)
The food we take contains highly complex substances like protein, carbohydrates
and fats. These substances cannot be utilized as such by our body. These have to
be broken down into simipler and smaller molecules before they can enter into the
cells. Proteins must be broken down into amino acids, carbohydrates into glucose,
fats into fatty acids and glycerol. Amino acids, glucose, fatty acids and glycerol
are simpler substances, and can be utilised by our body. This breakdown of complex
food constituents and their absorption is accomplished by the digestive system. The
processes involved in nutrition are :
(i) Ingestion : Taking in of the food, its chewing or sucking and swallowing.
(ii) Digestion : Conversion of complex food into simpler absorbable form.
(iii) Absorption : Absorbing digested food from the gut to reach the body
tissues.
(iv) Assimilation : Utilization of digested food nutrients by the body tissues.
(v) Egestion : Removal of undigested and unabsorbed food from the body
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  1. ingestion
  2. digestion
  3. absorption
  4. assimilation
  5. egestion
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ingestion, digestion, absorption, assimilation, egestion. Give thumbs up.

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ingestion:the process of taking food in the gut
digestion: the process of breaking complex solid food in absorbable form
Absorption: the process of absorbing the simple absorbable compounds
Assimilation: the process of utilizing the absorbed components
Egestion: the process of ejecting undigested waste material
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Different steps involved in the process of nutrition are :-
*Ingestion* The process of taking in food into the body is called ingestion,in most simple terms ingestion means eating of food by an animal

*Digestion* The process in which the food containing large,insoluble molecules is broken down into small, water soluble molecules{which can be be absorbed by the body} is called digestion

*Absorption* The process in which the digested food passes through the intestinal wall into blood stream is called absorption

*Assimilation* The process in which the absorbed food is taken in by body cells and used for energy,growth and repair is called assimilation

*Egestion* The process in which the undigested food is removed from the body is called egestion
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