Question

what is nutrition ?


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Answer 1

Answer:

the food that you eat and the way that it affects your health

Answer 2

The process of taking in food and using it for growth, metabolism, and repair. Nutritional stages are ingestion, digestion, absorption, transport, assimilation, and excretion. 2: A nourishing substance, such as nutritional solutions delivered to hospitalized patients via an IV or IG tube.

We are indulged in a lot of daily activities. To carry out these activities a large amount of energy is required. This energy comes from the food we consume. Food is vital as it provides the energy needed for growth, repair, and other life processes. All these come under the life process called nutrition.

“Nutrition is the process of taking in food and converting it into energy and other vital nutrients required for life.”

Nutrients are the substances which provide energy and biomolecules necessary for carrying out the various body functions. All living organisms need nutrients for proper functioning and growth. But they show divergence in how they fulfill this demand. Some animals feed on simple inorganic compounds to meet their nutrient requirement, while others utilise complex compounds. The mode of nutrition varies from one species to another.

Types of Nutrition
Broadly, there are two types of nutrition among living organisms, namely:

Autotrophic mode
Heterotrophic mode
Autotrophic Nutrition
In the autotrophic mode, organisms use simple inorganic matters like water and carbon dioxide in the presence of light and chlorophyll to synthesize food on their own. In other words, the process of photosynthesis is used to convert light energy into food such as glucose. Such organisms are called autotrophs. Plants, algae, and bacteria (cyanobacteria) are some examples where autotrophic nutrition is observed.

During photosynthesis, carbon dioxide and water get converted into carbohydrates. These carbohydrates are stored in the form of starch in plants. Plants later derive the energy required from the stored starch. The process of photosynthesis can be explained in three stages:

Absorption: The chlorophyll present in leaves traps the light coming from the sun.
Conversion: The absorbed light energy gets converted into chemical energy. And water absorbed will split into hydrogen and oxygen molecules.
Reduction: At last, carbon dioxide gets reduced i.e. hydrogen molecules combine with carbon, to form carbohydrates (sugar molecules).