a. Macro Nutrient Materials
Nutrients are environmental substances used for energy, growth, and bodily functions by organisms. Depending on the nutrient, these substances are needed in small amounts or larger amounts. Those that are needed in large amounts are called macronutrients.
There are three macronutrients required by humans: carbohydrates (sugar), lipids (fats), and proteins. Each of these macronutrients provides energy in the form of calories.
i. Carbohydrates
Humans need carbohydrates in the largest amounts. Currently, the USDA recommends that adults get 45% - 65% of their daily caloric intake from carbohydrates.
Carbohydrates are primarily found in starchy foods, like grain and potatoes, as well as fruits, milk, and yogurt. Other foods like vegetables, beans, nuts, seeds, and cottage cheese contain carbohydrates, but in lesser amounts. These foods also contain fiber.
Fiber cannot be digested by human body. However, fiber aids our intestine in expelling waste and can help lower cholesterol.
Carbohydrates can be simple or complex, which refers to their chemical structure. Simple carbohydrates taste very sweet (like fruit sugar), while complex carbohydrates taste savory (like starch in potatoes).
Excess intake of macronutrients can lead to obesity and related disorders excess intake of micronutrients can be toxic. Also, the balance of various types of nutrients, such as how much unsaturated vs. saturated fat is consumed, can influence the development of disorders.
* Simple carbohydrates are Monosaccharides
* Complex carbohydrates are Disaccharides, Oligosaccharides
Monosaccharides:
Monosaccharides are the simplest units of carbohydrates and the simplest form of sugar. They are made up of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen atoms. Monosaccharides are classified as well based on their functional groups. A functional group is categorized by atoms or bonds that are responsible for the chemical reactivity within a molecule.
If a monosaccharide contains a ketone group in an inner atom, then the monosaccharide is classified as a ketose. A ketone group is a carbon atom forming a double bond with oxygen and single bonds with two hydrocarbon groups.
A hydrocarbon group is a group that contains carbon bonded with hydrogen. Monosaccharides cannot be converted into simpler carbohydrates by hydrolysis.
Glucose and fructose are examples of monosaccharides. Sucrose is a disaccharide compound that can be converted by hydrolysis into two monosaccharides.
Glucose is also called Simple Sugar, Aldose Sugar, Blood Sugar, Instant energy giving Sugar. The most important monosaccharide is glucose.
Fructose is the sweetest sugar. It is also known as ketose sugar, honey sugar and fruit sugar.
Ribose Sugar:
Ribose is an organic compound classified as a monosaccharide, or simple sugar. Ribose is composed of five carbon atoms, ten hydrogen atoms, and five oxygen atoms that have been bonded together. Ribose is a pentose sugar. This means that the five carbons that form the majority of the structure give the molecule a pentagon shape.
Ribose is extremely important in biology because a form of it is used in DNA. The letters in DNA stand for deoxyribonucleic acid. The letters ribo in the middle of the word indicate that it has a ribose sugar. But, the prefix deoxy means that this particular form of ribose has lost one of its oxygen molecules, making it deoxyribose.
In DNA, there are four different bases - Adenine (A) and Guanine (G) are the larger purines. Cytosine (C) and Thymine (T) are the smaller pyrimidines.
RNA also contains four different bases. Three of these are the same as in DNA - Adenine, Guanine, and Cytosine. RNA contains Uracil (U) instead of Thymine (T).
Clogged heart arteries (coronary artery disease) taking ribose by mouth seems to be effective for improving the heart's ability to manage low blood flow in people with coronary artery disease.
Disaccharides:
Disaccharide also called double sugar, any substance that is composed of two molecules of simple sugars (monosaccharides) linked to each other. Disaccharides are crystalline water-soluble compounds. The monosaccharides within them are linked by a glycosidic bond (or glycosidic linkage), the position of which may be designated α or β or a combination of the two (α, ββ).
Lactose (milk sugar), found in the milk of all mammals, consists of glucose and galactose connected by a ββ - linkage.
Maltose is a product of the breakdown of starches during digestion, consists of two molecules of glucose connected via α - linkage.
Polysaccharides:
Polysaccharides are complex carbohydrate polymers consisting of more than 2 monosaccharides linked together covalently by glycosidic linkages in a condensation reaction. Being comparatively large macromolecules, polysaccharides are most often insoluble in water. Polysaccharides are extremely important in organisms for the purposes of energy storage and structural integrity.
Starch:
Starch or amylum is a carbohydrate consisting of a large number of glucose units joined by glycosidic bonds. This polysaccharide is produced by most green plants as an energy store.
Glycogen:
Glycogen is a multi branched polysaccharide of glucose that serves as a form of energy storage in animals and fungi. In humans, glycogen is made and stored primarily in the cells of the liver and the muscles hydrated with three or four parts of water.
Glycogen is the analogue of starch, a glucose polymer that functions as energy storage in plants. It has a similar structure to amylopectin (a component of starch), but is more extensively branched and compact than starch.
Cellulose:
Cellulose is a major component of wood. Cellulose fibers in wood are bound in lignin, a complex polymer. Paper-making involves treating wood pulp with alkalis or bisulfites to disintegrate the lignin, and then pressing the pulp to matte the cellulose fibers together.
Agar – Agar:
Agar – Agar is a jelly-like substance, obtained from algae. It is used in tissue culture experiments. It uses as solidifying agent.
ii. Proteins
Any group of complex organic macromolecules contain carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, and usually sulfur and are composed of one or more chains of amino acids. Proteins are fundamental components of all living cells and include many substances, such as enzymes, hormones, and antibodies that are necessary for the proper functioning of an organism.
* These are macro nutrient materials.
* These are important for body growth & development and healing of wounds.
* Proteins are very important for body repair mechanism.
* Structural units of proteins are Amino Acids.
* Amino acids are bound together by peptide bond.
* Many peptide bonds collectively called poly peptide bonds.
* One Protein contains minimum one peptide bond.
* Proteins available in meat, egg, milk and pulses.
* Highest proteins present in Soya.
* Animal proteins are called first class proteins. These proteins contain essential amino acids. These are not synthesized in our body.
* Protein deficiency causes Kwashiyarkar (Neglected Child).
* All enzymes are chemically Proteins.
iii. Lipids (Fats + Oil)
Lipids are molecules that contain hydrocarbons and make up the building blocks of the structure and function of living cells. Examples of lipids include fats, oils, waxes, certain vitamins, hormones and most of the non-protein membrane of cells.
Lipids are molecules that can be extracted from plants and animals using non polar solvents such as ether, chloroform and acetone. Fats (and the fatty acids from which they are made) belong to this group as do other steroids, phospholipids forming cell membrane components etc.
* Lipids are macro nutrient materials.
* These give double energy than carbohydrates.
* Lipids are part of cell membrane.
* Structural units of Lipids are Fatty Acids.
* Lipids available in all animal fats, milk, Ghee and butter.
Fats:
Fats are two types
Saturated fats:
Saturated fats are commonly found in animals, are hard at room temperature. Lard, suet and butter are common saturated animal fats; coconut and palm oil are two saturated vegetable oils. Saturated fats are generally more stable than the unsaturated fats and go rancid (undergo an oxidative change in molecular structure) less easily.
Saturated fats have no double bond. Saturated fats improve bad cholesterol. Bad cholesterol present in coronary arteries, which leads to heart attack.
Unsaturated Fats:
These contain double bonds and triple bonds. These are further classified into two types. Unsaturated fats are unstable at room temperature and sensitive to interaction with oxygen, light and heat.
Mono Unsaturated Fats:
If two adjoining carbon atoms are attached by a double bond, there is room for one more pair of hydrogen atoms, and the fatty acid is said to be mono unsaturated.
Fish oil contains Omega – 3 – fatty acids, which are essential for nerves system development.
Poly Unsaturated Fats:
When more than one area of the carbon chain can accept additional hydrogen atoms, the fat is said to be poly unsaturated. Linoleic acid, an essential fatty acid found in safflower oil, soybean oil and other vegetable oils, is an example of a poly unsaturated fat. Other oils of this category include peanut, corn and cottonseed oils.
The essential fatty acids (EFA) include linoleic, linolenic and arachidonic acids collectively termed vitamin F. They are all poly unsaturated fatty acids that cannot ordinarily be synthesized in the body; although, if sufficient quantities of linoleic acid (omega-6) are present, arachidonic acid can be made.
Alpha-linolenic, an omega-3 fatty acid that is found in special oils such as linseed (flax), rapeseed (canola), and soybean, is also essential and is the precursor of other important omega-3 oils EPA and DHA commonly found in fish. Ideally we need more linolenic, about a 2:1 ratio, than linoleic. The essential fatty acids are important for normal growth, especially of the blood vessels and nerves, and to keep the skin and other tissues youthful and supple through their lubricating quality.
b. Micro Nutrient Materials
Micronutrients are nutrients required by humans and other organisms throughout life in small quantities to orchestrate a range of physiological functions, for people, they include dietary trace minerals in amounts generally less than 100 milligrams/day - as opposed to macro minerals which are required in larger quantities.
The micro minerals or trace elements include at least iron, cobalt, chromium, copper, iodine, manganese, selenium, zinc and molybdenum. Micronutrients also include vitamins, which are organic compounds required as nutrients in tiny amounts by an organism, as well as phytochemicals.
