Proteins and Amino Acids: Sources and Requirements

Posted by on Feb 13, 2025 in Human Nutrition and Dietetics | 0 comments

Proteins and Amino Acids: Dietary Sources, Allowances, Deficiency, and Risks

Background:

  • Proteins are polymer chains made of amino acids linked together by peptide bonds.
  • The most important aspect and defining characteristic of protein, from a nutritional standpoint, is its amino acid composition.
  • 1g of protein = 4kcal.
  • Physiology:
    • Proteins are broken down in the stomach during digestion by enzymes known as proteases into smaller polypeptides to provide amino acids for the body.

Amino Acids

  • Amino acids
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Digestive Glands: Types, Functions, and Digestive Process

Posted by on Feb 12, 2025 in Human Nutrition and Dietetics | 0 comments

Digestive glands are a set of glands responsible for producing digestive juices needed for the chemical digestion of food in the digestive tract. These glands include the salivary glands, gastric glands, intestinal glands, liver, and pancreas.

Gastric and intestinal glands are numerous, very tiny, and located in the inner wall of the stomach and intestines, respectively. The salivary glands, liver, and pancreas are located outside the digestive tract and pour their secretions into it through ducts.

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Meat Composition and Processing

Posted by on Feb 12, 2025 in Human Nutrition and Dietetics | 0 comments

Meat: Composition and Characteristics

Connective Tissue Proteins

Collagen:

  • The main representative of connective tissue, also found in skin and bones.
  • Contains glycine (30%), proline, and hydroxyproline (25%), conferring rigidity and strength.
  • Its basic unit is tropocollagen, a helical structure consisting of 3 chains.
  • Features a crystal structure, which might be related to rigidity and resistance to mastication. These features increase with the animal’s age due to an increased number of links.
  • Easily
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Nutritional Deficiencies, Diabetes, and Biomolecules

Posted by on Feb 9, 2025 in Human Nutrition and Dietetics | 0 comments

Nutritional Deficiencies

Nutritional Oedema

  • It results from a long-continued loss of protein and usually occurs in famine areas. Protein deficiency in adults is very rare.
  • Deficiency symptoms include weight loss, reduced fat, infections, frequent loose stools, delayed wound healing, and oedema.
  • Consuming soybeans, milk, eggs, and other nutritious foods can cure protein deficiency syndrome in adults.

Marasmus

  • It is a disease of infants below one year of age.
  • Its cause is protein and carbohydrate or other
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Nutritional Facts and Thermogenesis in Human Health

Posted by on Feb 9, 2025 in Human Nutrition and Dietetics | 0 comments

Key Nutritional Facts and Their Implications

Here’s a review of essential nutritional concepts and their impact on health:

  1. Food composition tables allow for the calculation of nutrient intake, which implies a certain amount of food. True
  2. Nutrients are involved in the prevention and development of pathologies. True

Thermogenesis and Its Role in Metabolism

Thermogenesis is the body’s ability to generate heat due to metabolic reactions. Heat dissipation balances this internal generation, resulting in thermal

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Amino Acid Metabolism and Urea Cycle

Posted by on Feb 9, 2025 in Human Nutrition and Dietetics | 0 comments

Essential and Non-Essential Amino Acids

Essential Amino Acids: Isoleucine (Ile), Leucine (Leu), Valine (Val), Threonine (Thr), Methionine (Met), Cysteine (Cys), Tryptophan (Trp), Phenylalanine (Phe), Tyrosine (Tyr), Lysine (Lys), Arginine (Arg), Histidine (His).
Non-essential Amino Acids: Alanine (Ala), Asparagine (Asn), Aspartate (Asp), Glutamate (Glu), Glycine (Gly), Proline (Pro), Serine (Ser).

Ammonia Elimination

Organisms eliminate ammonia through different mechanisms:

  • Ammonotelic: Excretion of
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