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Related information about Nutrition

The scientific study of all aspects of what organisms (in particular, human beings) eat. It involves the analysis of what people eat, the psychology of why they eat, what happens to food in the body, and how the balance of food affects health. Nutrition is deeply rooted in biochemistry and physiology, but also involves chemistry, psychology, sociology, statistics, economics, agriculture, and medicine. An expert in nutrition is known as a nutritionist (often wrongly referred to as a ‘nutritionalist’).

Nutrition is a science which studies the relationship between diet and states of health and disease. Dieticians are Health professionals who are specialized in this area of expertise. They are also the only highly trained health professionals able to provide safe, evidence-based and accurate dietary advice and interventions.

Between the extremes of optimal health and death from starvation or malnutrition, there is an array of disease states that can be caused or alleviated by changes in diet. Deficiencies, excesses and imbalances in diet can produce negative impacts on health, which may lead to diseases such as scurvy, obesity or osteoporosis, as well as psychological and behavioral problems. Moreover, excessive ingestion of elements that have no apparent role in health, (e.g. lead, mercury, PCBs, dioxins), may incur toxic and potentially lethal effects, depending on the dose.
The science of nutrition attempts to understand how and why specific dietary aspects influence health. With advances in molecular biology, biochemistry, and genetics, nutrition is additionally developing into the study of integrative metabolism, which seeks to connect diet and health through the lens of biochemical processes.

The human body comprises chemical compounds such as water, amino acids (proteins), fatty acids (lipids), nucleic acids (DNA/RNA), and carbohydrates (e.g. sugars). These compounds in turn consist of elements such as carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, and phosphorus, and may or may not contain minerals such as calcium, iron, or zinc. Minerals ubiquitously occur in the form of salts and electrolytes. hormones/vitamins, phospholipids, hydroxyapatite), both in the human body and in organisms (e.g. plants, animals) that humans eat.

The human body necessarily comprises the elements that it eats and absorbs into the bloodstream. The digestive system, except in the unborn fetus, participates in the first step which makes the different chemical compounds and elements in food available for the trillions of cells of the body. In the digestive process of an average adult, about seven litres of liquid, known as digestive juices, exit the internal body and enter the lumen of the digestive tract. The digestive juices help break chemical bonds between ingested compounds as well as modulate the conformation and/or energetic state of the compounds/elements. Any unabsorbed matter is excreted in the feces. (hence the devastating effects of persistent diarrhea).

Study in this field must take carefully into account the state of the body before ingestion and after digestion as well as the chemical composition of the food and the waste. The number of variables (e.g. 'confounding factors') involved in this type of experimentation is very high. This makes scientifically valid nutritional study very time-consuming and expensive, and explains why a proper science of human nutrition is rather new.

In general, eating a variety of fresh, whole (unprocessed) foods has proven hormonally and metabolically favourable compared to eating a monotonous diet based on processed foods. In particular, natural, whole foods provide higher amounts and a more favourable balance of essential and vital nutrients per unit of energy, resulting in better management of cell growth, maintenance, and mitosis (cell division) as well as regulation of appetite and energy balance.

History

Humans are believed by scientists to have evolved as omnivorous hunter-gatherers over the past 250,000 years. Early diets were primarily vegetarian with infrequent game meats and fish where available.

Agriculture developed about 10,000 years ago in multiple locations throughout the world, providing grains such as wheat, rice, and maize, with staples such as bread and pasta. Cooking developed as a ritualistic activity due to efficiency and reliability concerns requiring adherence to strict recipes and procedures, and also contributed to demands for food purity and consistency. 475 BC: Anaxagoras states that food is absorbed by the human body and therefore contained "homeomerics" (generative components), thereby deducing the existence of nutrients.

• c. 400 BC: Hippocrates says, "Let food be your medicine and medicine be your food."
  
• The first recorded nutritional experiment is found in the Bible's Book of Daniel. Daniel and his friends were captured by the king of Babylon during an invasion of Israel. But they objected, preferring vegetables (pulses) and water in accordance with their Jewish dietary restrictions. Appearing healthier, they were allowed to continue with their diet.
  
• 1500s: Scientist and artist Leonardo da Vinci compared metabolism to a burning candle.
  
• 1747: Dr. James Lind, a physician in the British navy, performed the first scientific nutrition experiment, discovering that lime juice saved sailors who had been at sea for years from scurvy, a deadly and painful bleeding disorder. The essential vitamin C within lime juice would not be recognized by scientists until the 1930s.
  
• 1770: Antoine Lavoisier, the "Father of Nutrition and Chemistry" discovered the details of metabolism, demonstrating that the oxidation of food is the source of body heat.
  
• 1790: George Fordyce recognized calcium necessary for fowl survival.
  

Modern era through 1941

• Early 1800s: The elements carbon, nitrogen, hydrogen and oxygen were recognized as the primary components of food, and methods to measure their proportions were developed.
  
• 1816: François Magendie discovers that dogs fed only carbohydrates and fat lost their body protein and died in a few weeks, but dogs also fed protein survived, identifying protein as an essential dietary component.
  
• 1840: Justus Liebig discovers the chemical makeup of carbohydrates (sugars), fats (fatty acids) and proteins (amino acids.)
  
• 1860s: Claude Bernard discovers that body fat can be synthesised from carbohydrate and protein, showing that the energy in blood glucose can be stored as fat or as glycogen.
  
• Early 1880s: Kanehiro Takaki observed that Japanese sailors developed beriberi (or endemic neuritis, a disease causing heart problems and paralysis) but British sailors did not. Adding milk and meat to Japanese diets prevented the disease.
  
• 1896: Baumann observed iodine in thyroid glands.
  
• 1897: Christiaan Eijkman worked with natives of Java, who also suffered from beriberi. Over two decades later, nutritionists learned that the outer rice bran contains vitamin B1, also known as thiamine.
  
• Early 1900s: Carl Von Voit and Max Rubner independently measure caloric energy expenditure in different species of animals, applying principles of physics in nutrition.
  
• 1906: Wilcock and Hopkins showed that the amino acid tryptophan was necessary for the survival of mice. Gowland Hopkins recognized "accessory food factors" other than calories, protein and minerals, as organic materials essential to health but which the body can not synthesise.
  
• 1912: Casmir Funk coined the term vitamin, a vital factor in the diet, from the words "vital" and "amine," because these unknown substances preventing scurvy, beriberi, and pellagra, were thought then to be derived from ammonia.
  
• 1913: Elmer V. McCollum discovered the first vitamins, fat soluble vitamin A, and water soluble vitamin B (in 1915; now known to be a complex of several water-soluble vitamins) and names vitamin C as the then-unknown substance preventing scurvy.
  
• 1919: Sir Edward Mellanby incorrectly identified rickets as a vitamin A deficiency, because he could cure it in dogs with cod liver oil. Unraveling the Enigma of Vitamin D - a paper funded by the United States National Academy of Sciences
  
• 1922: McCollum destroys the vitamin A in cod liver oil but finds it still cures rickets, naming vitamin D
  
• 1922: H.M. Bishop discover vitamin E as essential for rat pregnancy, originally calling it "food factor X" until 1925.
  
• 1925: Hart discovers trace amounts of copper are necessary for iron absorption.
  
• 1927: Adolf Otto Reinhold Windaus synthesizes vitamin D, for which he won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1928.
  
• 1928: Albert Szent-Gyorgyi isolates ascorbic acid, and in 1932 proves that it is vitamin C by preventing scurvy. Szent-Gyorgyi concurrently elucidates much of the citric acid cycle.
  
• 1930s: William Cumming Rose identifies essential amino acids, necessary proteins which the body can not synthesize.
  
• 1935: Underwood and Marston independently discover the necessity of cobalt.
  
• 1936: Eugene Floyd Dubois shows that work and school performance are related to caloric intake.
  
• 1938: The chemical structure of vitamin E is discovered by Erhard Fernholz, and it is synthesised by Paul Karrer.
  
• 1941: The first Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDAs) were established by the National Research Council.
  

Recent

• 2002 Study shows relation between nutrition and violent behavior
  
• 2005 Obesity may be caused by adenovirus in addition to bad nutrition"Can a virus make you fat?" at BBC News; "Contagious obesity? Identifying the human adenoviruses that may make us fat" at Science Blog
  

Nutrition and Health

Ill health can be caused by an imbalance of nutrients, producing either an excess or deficiency, which in turn affects body functioning cumulatively. our phenotype. The strength and nature of this link are continually under investigation, but observations especially in recent years have demonstrated a pivotal role for nutrition in hormonal activity and function and therefore in health.

One source of articles on nutrition and health is the quarterly newsletter of the Nutrition for Optimal Health Association (NOHA). www.nutrition4health.org/NOHA_NEWS.htm

Essential and non-essential amino acids

The body requires amino acids to produce new body protein (protein retention) and to replace
damaged proteins (maintenance) that are lost in the urine.

Vitamins

Mineral and/or vitamin (tocotrienol and tocopherol) deficiency or excess may yield symptoms of diminishing health such as goitre, scurvy, osteoporosis, weak immune system, disorders of cell metabolism, certain forms of cancer, symptoms of premature aging, and poor psychological health (including eating disorders), among many others Shils et al. ISBN 0-7817-4133-5..

As of 2005, twelve vitamins and about the same number of minerals are recognized as "essential nutrients", meaning that they must be consumed and absorbed - or, in the case of vitamin D, alternatively synthesized via UVB radiation - to prevent deficiency symptoms and death. Certain vitamin-like substances found in foods, such as carnitine, have also been found essential to survival and health, but these are not strictly "essential" to eat because the body can produce them from other compounds. Moreover, thousands of different phytochemicals have recently been discovered in food (particularly in fresh vegetables), which have many known and yet to be explored properties including antioxidant activity (see below). Other essential nutrients include essential amino acids, choline and the essential fatty acids.

Fatty acids

In addition to sufficient intake, an appropriate balance of essential fatty acids - omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids - has been discovered to be crucial for maintaining health. Both of these unique "omega" long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids are substrates for a class of eicosanoids known as prostaglandins which function as hormones. The omega-3 eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) (which can be made in the body from the omega-3 essential fatty acid alpha-linolenic acid (LNA), or taken in through marine food sources), serves as building block for series 3 prostaglandins (e.g. Both DGLA and AA are made from the omega-6 linoleic acid (LA) in the body, or can be taken in directly through food. Moreover, the conversion (desaturation) of DGLA to AA is controlled by the enzyme delta-5-desaturase, which in turn is controlled by hormones such as insulin (up-regulation) and glucagon (down-regulation). Because different types and amounts of food eaten/absorbed affect insulin, glucagon and other hormones to varying degrees, not only the amount of omega-3 versus omega-6 eaten but also the general composition of the diet therefore determine health implications in relation to essential fatty acids, inflammation (e.g. immune function) and mitosis (i.e.

Sugars

Several lines of evidence indicate lifestyle-induced hyperinsulinemia and reduced insulin function (i.e. insulin resistance) as a decisive factor in many disease states. For example, hyperinsulinemia and insulin resistance are strongly linked to chronic inflammation, which in turn is strongly linked to a variety of adverse developments such as arterial microinjuries and clot formation (i.e. Hyperinsulinemia and insulin resistance (the so-called metabolic syndrome) are characterized by a combination of abdominal obesity, elevated blood sugar, elevated blood pressure, elevated blood triglycerides, and reduced HDL cholesterol. The negative impact of hyperinsulinemia on prostaglandin PGE1/PGE2 balance may be significant.

The state of obesity clearly contributes to insulin resistance, which in turn can cause type 2 diabetes. Importantly, it has been demonstrated that appropriate exercise, more regular food intake and reducing glycemic load (see below) all can reverse insulin resistance in overfat individuals (and thereby lower blood sugar levels in those who have type 2 diabetes).

Obesity can unfavourably alter hormonal and metabolic status via resistance to the hormone leptin, and a vicious cycle may occur in which insulin/leptin resistance and obesity aggravate one another. Both insulin and leptin normally function as satiety signals to the hypothalamus in the brain; In any case, analogous to the way modern man-made pollution may potentially overwhelm the environment's ability to maintain 'homeostasis', the recent explosive introduction of high Glycemic Index- and processed foods into the human diet may potentially overwhelm the body's ability to maintain homeostasis and health (as evidenced by the metabolic syndrome epidemic).

Antioxidants are another recent discovery. As cellular metabolism/energy production requires oxygen, potentially damaging (e.g. mutation causing) compounds known as radical oxygen species or free radicals form as a result. For normal cellular maintenance, growth, and division, these free radicals must be sufficiently neutralized by antioxidant compounds, some produced by the body with adequate precursors (glutathione, Vitamin C in most animals) and those that the body cannot produce may only be obtained through the diet through direct sources (Vitamin C in humans, Vitamin A, Vitamin K) or produced by the body from other compounds (Beta-carotene converted to Vitamin A by the body, Vitamin D synthesized from cholesterol by sunlight). vitamin C can reactivate free radical-containing glutathione or vitamin E by accepting the free radical itself, and so on. Some cannot be present in certain areas of free radical development (Vitamin A is fat-soluble and protects fat areas, Vitamin C is water soluble and protects those areas). Having a variety of antioxidants allows any byproducts to be safely dealt with by more efficient antioxidants in neutralizing a free radical's butterfly effect.

Phytochemicals

A growing area of interest is the effect upon human health of trace chemicals, collectively called phytochemicals. One of the principal classes of phytochemicals are polyphenol antioxidants, chemicals which are known to provide certain health benefits to the cardiovascular system and immune system. These chemicals are known to down-regulate the formation of reactive oxygen species, key chemicals in cardiovascular disease.

Perhaps the most rigorously tested phytochemical is zeaxanthin, a yellow-pigmented carotenoid present in many yellow and orange fruits and vegetables. Both compounds have been observed to collect in the retina when ingested orally, and they serve to protect the rods and cones against the destructive effects of light.

Another caretenoid, beta-cryptoxanthin, appears to protect against chronic joint inflammatory diseases, such as arthritis. Am J Epidemiology 2006 163(1). Similarly, a red phytochemical, lycopene, has substantial credible evidence of negative association with development of prostate cancer.

The correlations between the ingestion of some phytochemicals and the prevention of disease are, in some cases, enormous in magnitude. It is more highly concentrated, however, in processed tomato products such as commercial pasta sauce, or tomato soup, than in fresh "healthy" tomatoes.

Nutrition and longevity

Calorie restriction

Lifespan may be somehow related to the amount of food energy consumedWeindruch R, et al. A pursuit of this principle of caloric restriction followed, involving research into longevity of those who reduced their food energy intake while attempting to optimize their micronutrient intake. See Calorie Restriction Society.

Underlying this research was the hypothesis that oxidative damage was the agent which accelerated aging, and that aging was retarded when the amount of carbohydrates (and thereby insulin release) was reduced through dietary restriction.

However, recent research has produced increased longevity in animals (and shows promise for increased human longevity) through the use of insulin uptake retardation. This was done through altering an animal?s metabolism to allow it to consume similar food-energy levels to other animals, but without building up fatty tissueBluher, Khan BP, Kahn CR, Extended longevity in mice lacking the insulin receptor in adipose tissue. Science 299(5606): 572-4, Jan 24, 2003..

This has set researchers off on a line of study which presumes that it is not low food energy consumption which increases longevity. However, several other factors including low body temperature seem to promote longevity also and it is unclear to what extent each of them contribute.

Antioxidants have recently come to the forefront of longevity studies which have included the Food and Drug Administration and Brunswick labs. Also, ?the richer the diet is in the kinds and amounts of nutrients and antioxidants provided by foods of plant origin, the lower the risk of chronic degenerative diseases.?

The cover article of the November 2005 issue of National Geographic is titled The Secrets of LIVING LONGER. or

• Living in the South requires the body to produce less heat, allowing a slower, and therefore healthier, metabolic rate.
  

Nutrition, industry and food processing

Since the Industrial Revolution some two hundred years ago, the food processing industry has invented many technologies that both help keep foods fresh longer and alter the fresh state of food as they appear in nature. These latter technologies include pasteurisation, autoclavation, drying, salting, and separation of various components, and all appear to alter the original nutritional contents of food. But some of the (new) food processing technologies undoubtedly have downfalls as well.

Modern separation techniques such as milling, centrifugation, and pressing have enabled upconcentration of particular components of food, yielding flour, oils, juices and so on, and even separate fatty acids, amino acids, vitamins, and minerals. Nonetheless, processed foods tend to have an inferior nutritional profile than do whole, fresh foods, regarding content of both sugar and high GI starches, potassium/sodium, vitamins, fibre, and of intact, unoxidized (essential) fatty acids. In addition,
processed foods often contain potentially harmful substances such as oxidized fats and trans fatty acids.

A dramatic example of the effect of food processing on a population's health is the history of epidemics of beri-beri in people subsisting on polished rice. Removing the outer layer of rice by polishing it removes with it the essential vitamin thiamine, causing beri-beri. Another example is the development of scurvy among infants in the late 1800's in the United States. It turned out that the vast majority of sufferers were being fed milk that had been heat-treated (as suggested by Pasteur) to control bacterial disease. In general, whole, fresh foods have a relatively short shelf-life and are less profitable to produce and sell than are more processed foods. Thus the consumer is left with the choice between more expensive but nutritionally superior whole, fresh foods, and cheap, usually nutritionally inferior processed foods. Because processed foods are often cheaper, more convenient (in both purchasing, storage, and preparation), and
more available, the consumption of nutritionally inferior foods has been increasing throughout the world along with many nutrition-related health complications.

Advice and guidance on nutrition

Governmental policies

Most Governments provide guidance on good nutrition, and some also impose mandatory labeling requirements upon processed food manufacturers to assist consumers in complying with such guidance. Current dietary guidelines in the United States are presented in the concept of a food pyramid. There is no apparent consistency in science-based nutritional recommendations between countries, indicating the role of politics as well as cultural bias in research emphasis and interpretation.

Teaching

Nutrition is taught in schools in many countries. In England and Wales the Personal and Social Education and Food Technology curriculums nutrition included, stressing the importance of a balanced diet and teaching how to read nutrition labels on packaging.

Issues

Challenging issues in modern nutrition include:

"Artificial" interventions in food production and supply:

• Should genetic engineering be used in the production of food crops and animals?
  
• Are the use of pesticides, and fertilizers damaging to the foods produced by use of these methods (see also organic farming)?
  
• Are the use of antibiotics and hormones in animal farming ethical and/or safe?
  

Sociological issues:

• Is it possible to eat correctly on a low income? How do we increase access to whole foods in impoverished neighborhoods?
  
• How do we minimise the current disparity in food availability between first and third world populations (see famine and poverty)?
  
• How can public advice agencies, policy making and food supply companies be coordinated to promote healthy eating and make wholesome foods more convenient and available?
  
• Do we need nutritional supplements in the form of pills, powders, liquids, etc.?
  
• How can the developed world promote good worldwide nutrition through minimising import tariffs and export subsidies on food transfers?
  

Research Issues:

• How do different nutrients affect appetite and metabolism, and what are the molecular mechanisms?
  
• What yet to be discovered important roles do vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients play in metabolism and health?
  
• Are the current recommendations for intake of vitamins and minerals appropriate?
  
• How and why do different cell types respond differently to chronically elevated circulating levels of insulin, leptin, and other hormones?
  
• What does it take for insulin resistance to develop?
  
• What other molecular mechanisms may explain the link between nutrition and lifestyle-related diseases?
  
• What role does the intestinal bacterial flora play in digestion and health?
  
• How essential to proper digestion are the enzymes contained in food itself, which are usually destroyed in cooking (see Living foods diet)?
  
• What more can we discover through what has been called the phytochemical revolution?
  

See also

For detailed information, see related entries in the following categories:

left}}}" valign="}" | Lists: List of food topics List of life extension related topics List of nutrition related topics Profession: Dietetics Nutritionist Food: Food Functional food Paleolithic diet Vegetarianism Weston A. Price Foundation The Internet Nutrition Database

left}}}" valign="}" | Health: Auxology Calorie restriction Eating disorders Natural Hygiene Health Healthy eating Illnesses related to poor nutrition Life extension Nootropic Obesity Biology and biochemistry: Cells China project Digestion Enzyme Essential amino acid Essential fatty acid Phytochemicals Important publications in nutrition

References

• The Times newspaper, January 31 2004 Could vitamins help delay the onset of Alzheimer?s? by Jerome Burne.
  
• The Times newspaper February 28, 2004 Autism: I can see clearly now .