Important Questions Test: Components of Food

The components of food are certain organic substances and minerals found in food that are known as nutrients. They provide the body with energy and enable it to grow, repair, and maintain itself.

Milk contains almost all nutrients, but vitamins such as niacin, vitamin C, vitamin E, and vitamin K are present in very less amount.

The kind of sugar we usually think about, table sugar is called sucrose. It's the way the atoms are connected that makes each type of carbohydrate different.
In each molecule of table sugar, there are: 12 carbon atoms, 22 hydrogen atoms, and 11 oxygen atoms.

About 2/3 of the average human body is water, mostly within the cells.

• The average adult human body is 50-65% water, averaging around 57-60%.
• The percentage of water in infants is much higher, typically around 75-78% water, dropping to 65% by one year of age.

Burgers and pizzas from big fast-food chains are called junk food because they usually have a lot of calories and are very high in fat, carbs, sodium, and/or sugar while having little nutritional value. 

Fat produces more than two times more energy per gram than either carbohydrates or protein.

Any excess of these nutrients will be stored as fat in the body. In other words, regardless of whether it is carbohydrates, protein, or fat, it will be converted into fat storage in the body if it is not used. As our body fat accumulates, our body weight increases.

Proteins help in the formation of immunoglobulins, or antibodies, to fight infection and protect the body from harmful invaders like bacteria and viruses.

Vitamin D₃ (cholecalciferol) is synthesized in the skin by the reaction of 7-dehydrocholesterol with UVB radiation, present in sunlight with an UV index of three or more.

Iron deficiency anaemia is a common type of anaemia — a condition in which blood lacks adequate healthy red blood cells. Red blood cells carry oxygen to the body's tissues.

• The most important nutrient related to thyroid health and function is iodine.
• Iodine deficiency can lead to a condition known as hypothyroidism, which results from the thyroid producing too little hormone.

Iodine deficiency is the major cause of goitre worldwide. As iodine is less commonly found in plants, vegan diets may lack sufficient iodine.
This is rarely a cause in more economically developed countries where iodine is routinely added to salt.

Dietary iodine is found in:
(i) Seafood
(ii) Plant food grown in iodine-rich soil.
(iii) Cow's milk

Because water can absorb and transfer heat well, the human body uses it to stabilize temperature. Water also helps expel excess heat from the body as water vapor from the lungs and sweat on the skin.

Health authorities commonly recommend eight 8-ounce glasses, which equals about 2 litres, or half a gallon.

Roughage is the rich fibrous indigestible edible material present in our food in form of grains or vegetables, which helps in elimination of waste from the large intestine.

• Rickets is a bone disorder caused by a deficiency of vitamin D, calcium, or phosphate.
• There are different bony abnormalities associated with rickets, but all are due to poor mineralization with calcium and phosphate.
• The active form of vitamin D is synthesized by skin cells when exposed to sunlight.

• Overweight and obesity are defined as abnormal or excessive fat accumulation that presents a risk to health.
• Overweight and obesity are major risk factors for a number of chronic diseases, including diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and cancer.
• Once considered a problem only in high income countries, overweight and obesity are now dramatically on the rise in low- and middle-income countries, particularly in urban settings.

• Protective foods are the foods that contain adequate amounts of vitamins, minerals, and high-quality proteins and they protect against the development of a deficiency disease.
• Including protective foods in your diet is a natural way to fight disease, ward off infection and maybe even extend your lifespan. Protective foods have benefits beyond disease prevention as well.
• The calcium and nutrients found in low-fat dairy products, vegetables, fruits, grains and lean proteins, for example, can guard against certain cancers, hypertension, scurvy, diabetes, osteoporosis heart disease, bone loss, kidney stones and stroke.
• Diet alone cannot guarantee good health and is not a magical cure-all, but its significance is enormous.

• Jaggery contains about 98% carbohydrates and about 97% sugar content. 10 grams jaggery provides 38 calories.
• It is Indian sweetener manufactured from sugarcane.
• It might be a healthy substitute of industrial sugar or chemically processed and cleaned sugar. 

• Of this 90% is accounted for by seven minerals (calcium, phosphorus, potassium, sulphur, sodium, chloride and magnesium).
• The other minerals are known as trace elements as these add together to about 10% of the total mineral content of the body.
• The largest concentration of minerals is found in the bones and teeth.

• Iodine can be used in a simple test for starch.
• Iodine is normally a brownish-yellow colour.
• However, in the presence of starch, iodine turns blue or bluish-black in colour. 

Vegetables provide us minerals.

• Vitamin A is needed for healthy vision as well as for healthy skin, while vitamin D is essential in bone development.
• Fish is rich in calcium and phosphorus and a great source of minerals, such as iron, zinc, iodine, magnesium, and potassium.

Scurvy is the name for a vitamin C deficiency. It can lead to anaemia, debility, exhaustion, spontaneous bleeding, pain in the limbs, and especially the legs, swelling in some parts of the body, and sometimes ulceration of the gums and loss of teeth.

• Night blindness caused by nearsightedness, cataracts, or vitamin A deficiency is treatable.
• Corrective lenses, such as eyeglasses or contacts, can improve nearsighted vision both during the day and at night.
• Let your doctor know if you still have trouble seeing in dim light even with corrective lenses.

• About 70 percent of our body's iron is found in the red blood cells of our blood called haemoglobin and in muscle cells called myoglobin.
• Haemoglobin is essential for transferring oxygen in our blood from the lungs to the tissues.