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Orientation to human nutrition

  Orientation to human nutrition   The major purpose of this series of four textbooks on nutrition is to guide the nutrition student through the exciting journey of discovery of nutrition as a science. As apprentices in nutrition science and practice stu-dents will learn how to collect, systemize, and classify knowledge by reading, experimentation, observation, and reasoning. The road for this journey was mapped out millennia ago. The knowledge that nutrition – what we choose to eat and drink – influences our health, well-being, and quality of life is as old as human history. For millions of years the quest for food has helped to shape human development, the organization of society and history itself. It has influ-enced wars, population growth, urban expansion, economic and political theory, religion, science, med-icine, and technological development.   It was only in the second half of the eighteenth century that nutrition started to experience its first renaissance with the observati
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An integrated approach of Human Nutrition

  An integrated approach Human nutrition describes the processes whereby cellular organelles, cells, tissues, organs, systems, and the body as a whole obtain and use necessary sub-stances obtained from foods (nutrients) to maintain structural and functional integrity. For an under-standing of how humans obtain and utilize foods and nutrients from a molecular to a societal level, and of the factors determining and influencing these pro-cesses, the study and practice of human nutrition involve a spectrum of other basic and applied scien-tific disciplines. These include molecular biology, genetics, biochemistry, chemistry, physics, food science, microbiology, physiology, pathology, immunology, psychology, sociology, political science, anthropology, agriculture, pharmacology, communi-cations, and economics. Nutrition departments are, therefore, often found in Medical (Health) or Social Science, or Pharmacy, or Agriculture Faculties at tertiary training institutions. The multidisciplinary n
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A conceptional framework for the study of nutrition

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  A conceptional framework for the study of nutrition In the journey of discovery into nutrition science it will often be necessary to put new knowledge, or new applications of old knowledge, into the perspective of the holistic picture. For this, a conceptual frame-work of the multidisciplinary nature of nutrition science and practice may be of value. Such a conceptual framework, illustrating the complex interactions between internal or constitutional factors and exter-nal environmental factors which determine nutritional status and health, is given in Figure 1.1.   Figure 1.1  Conceptual framework   for a holistic, integrated understand-ing of human nutrition. On a genetic level it is now accepted that nutrients dictate phenotypic expression of an individual’s gen-otype by influencing the processes of transcription, translation, or post-translational reactions. In other words, nutrients can directly influence genetic (DNA) expression, determining the type of RNA formed (transcription
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Relationship between nutrition and health

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  Relationship between nutrition and health   Figure 1.2 shows that individuals can be broadly categorized into having optimal nutritional status or being undernourished, overnourished, or malnourished. The major causes and consequences of these nutritional states are indicated. It is important to realize that many other lifestyle and environmental factors, in addition to nutrition, influence health and well-being, but nutrition is a major, modifiable, and powerful factor in promoting health, preventing and treating disease, and improving quality of life.
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Nutrients: the basics

  Nutrients: the basics People eat food, not nutrients; however, it is the combination and amounts of nutrients in consumed foods that determine health. To read one must know the letters of the alphabet; to do sums one must be able to count, add, subtract, multiply, and divide. To understand nutrition, one must know about nutrients. The study of nutrients, the ABC and numeric calculations of nutrition, will form a major part of the student’s nutrition journey, and should include:   ●    the chemical and physical structure and character-istics of the nutrient   ●    the food sources of the nutrient, including food composition, the way in which foods are grown, harvested, stored, processed and prepared, and the effects of these on nutrient composition and nutri-tional value   ●    the digestion, absorption, circulatory transport, and cellular uptake of the nutrient, as well as regu-lation of all these processes   ●    the metabolism of the nutrient, its functions, storage, and excretion
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Global malnutrition

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  Global malnutrition It is a major tragedy that millions of people currently live with hunger, and fear starvation. This is despite the fact that food security or “access for all at all times, to a sustainable supply of nutritionally adequate and safe food for normal physical and mental develop-ment and healthy, productive lives” is a basic human right embedded in the constitution of most develop-ing countries. It is also despite the fact that sufficient food is produced on a global level. Food Box 1.2 Food insecurity: when people live with hunger, and fear starvation. Food  security:  access  for  all,  at  all  times,  to  a  sustainable, affordable supply of nutritionally adequate and safe food for normal physical and mental development and healthy, productive lives. insecurity is an obstacle to human rights, quality of life, and human dignity. It was estimated that, during the last decade of the twentieth century, 826 million people were undernourished: 792 million in develop-ing
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Relationship between nutrition science and practice

  Relationship between nutrition science and practice The journey through the scientific domain of nutrition will, at a specialized stage, fork into different roads. These roads will lead to the different scopes or branches of nutrition science that are covered in the second, third, and fourth texts of this series. These different branches of nutrition science could lead to the training of nutrition specialists for specific prac-tice areas. The main aim of nutrition professionals is to apply nutrition principles to promote health and well-being, to prevent disease, and/or to restore health (treat disease) in individuals, families, communities and the population. To help individuals or groups of people to eat a balanced diet, in which food supply meets nutrient needs, involves application of nutri-tion principles from a very broad field to almost every facet of human life. It is therefore not surprising that these different branches or specialties of nutrition have evolved and are devel
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