Home  Merimed  Vitaminsprays
nutrients

 

Description

A nutrient is any element or compound necessary for or contributing to an organism's metabolism, growth, or other functioning. Six nutrient groups exist, classifiable as those that provide energy and as those that otherwise support metabolic processes in the body: Some of them are essential because they cannot be synthesized in the body and must be obtained from a food source.

Functions

Substances that provide energy

  • Carbohydrates: compounds made up of sugars used or stored as energy
  • Proteins: nitrogenous organic compounds, including amino acids, that provide the building blocks (amino acids) for enzymes and other proteins within the body. The body does not manufacture certain amino acids (termed essential amino acids): the diet must supply these
  • Fats: including fatty acids (a fat consists of an assemblage of three fatty acids linked to a central glycerineessential fatty acids): the diet must supply these. molecule). The body does not manufacture certain fatty acids (termed

Fat has an energy content of 9 kcal/g; proteins and carbohydrates 4 kcal/g. Ethanol (grain alcohol) has an energy content of 7 kcal/g.

Substances that support metabolism

  • Minerals: generally trace elements, salts, or ions such as copper and iron; essential to normal metabolism
  • Vitamins: organic compounds essential to the body's functioning, usually acting as coenzymes
  • Water: absolute requirement for normal growth and metabolism directly involved in all the chemical reactions of life — sometimes referred to as the forgotten nutrient.

Any classification of "nutrients" is likely to be arbitrary given the status of nutrition as a developing science. Researchers keep becoming more aware of a wider range of nutrients esential for health.

An organism will metabolise any organic compound to use for its energy content, for structural purposes (growth or replacement of living structures), or for participation in chemical reactions necessary for life. Any particular substance can play more than one role in the body, though researchers lack a good understanding of these roles.

The discovery of the group of nutrients called phytonutrients reinforces the provisional nature of our knowledge. We know little about phytonutrients, organic compounds from plants which play an essential role in the normal functioning of a body and have complex hormonal effects on health or play an active role in the amelioration of disease. They do not fit readily into the scheme of the traditional nutrition categories.