Source of Macronutrients and Micronutrient in Human Diet

Question: Identify macronutrients and micronutrient in the human diet and possible source of these nutrients. Analyse the way in which diet may be a contributory factor in illness or disease. e g obesity.( who gets it, signs and symptoms.) Answer: Nutrients Nutrients are known as chemical substance present in the food or dietary supplementation of an individual. Nutrients are classified into two categories based on the requirement i.e. macronutrients and micronutrients. Both of these classes of nutrients in combination with water are very essential for regulation, growth and development of body. Macronutrients include protein, carbohydrates and fats while micronutrients include vitamin minerals and trace elements. Macronutrients are nutrients which provide bulk calories or energies as literal meaning of macro is large indicating that nutrients which are required in large quantity. Macronutrients provide energy and it is a known that carbohydrates give 4 calories per gram, proteins provide 4 calories per grams and fat provides 9 calories per gram. Carbohydrates Carbohydrate is used for energy in our body as it is main source of fuel because all the cell and tissues in our body utilizes glucose for the energy. Kidney, brain, heart and the central nervous system of human body utilizes carbohydrates for proper functioning. Carbohydrate plays an important role in waste elimination and intestinal health. It is found in starchy foods like potatoes, milk and yogurt. Proteins According to the dietary references about 15-40% of calories should come from protein. Protein is essential for growth of children and is majorly required by pregnant women as it plays vital role in tissue repair, immune modulation and manufacturing of enzymes and hormones. It is found in fish, meat, milk, cheese, legume and vegetables. Fats Although fat is been associated with the weight gain and is been considered as limiting source for healthy life but some types of fats are essential for body as 25-40% of calories comes from fats. Fat plays important role in absorbing vitamins and carotenoids and is been considered as most concentrated source of energy.it provides help to the organs and is essential for cell membrane maintenance and basically found in oil, lard and several grain products. Micronutrient are often referred as those nutrients which are required in small amount and is essential for growth and developments i.e. vitamins and minerals. Micronutrients are found in natural products and in variety of plant and animal based foods. In the recent advances micronutrients may be synthesised at the laboratory also. It is advised about intake of these micronutrients as its deficiency may cause serious health ailment and harm to individual. The deficiency of micronutrient may cause mental retardation, death of infants, neural tube defects and other ailments. Some of the major micronutrients and mineral are listed below along with the complication on their deficiency (Platel Srinivasan, 2007). Vitamin Deficiency of this enzyme may cause death of infants and is known to induce child blindness. It is also known that deficiency of this micronutrient may induce immune compromised situation in children. Zinc Zinc is associated with reduction in the incidence of diarrhoea in infants and deficiency may leads to the death of 9 million children per year and is known to cause acute respiratory problems (Pathak et.al, 2004). Iron It is a micronutrient which is associated with blood related disorder and is known to cause anaemia and cause impairment in mental development (Metz, 2007). Folic acid It is known to cause severe birth defect due to maternal folate deficiency that leads to heart defects (Stamm Houghton, 2013).. The obesity is mainly referred as eating too much of calories and in comparison less physical activity may lead to abnormal weight gain and size. There are varieties of factors that increase the consumption of unhealthy food leading to obesity. Obesity basically disturb all the terms of health from respiratory to reproductive function as it increases the risk of cancers, heart defects and diabetes. The main reason behind obesity is defect in some of the metabolic defects that leaves some by-products that adds some extra pounds by involvement of some enzyme, hormones and metabolic degradation. Obesity alters the duration as well as quality of the life and that ultimately increases the healthcare cost. Fat cells which are deposited at the waist secrete some hormones that triggers the inflammation that makes body less responsive towards insulin and makes prone toward type II diabetes (Bowen, Barrington and Beresford, 2015). Obesity also increase the risk of cardiovascular disease as wit h increase of BMI leads to increase of blood pressure and cholesterol and blood sugar initiates inflammation that cause coronary and heart disease (Habich Sell, 2015). References Bowen DJ, Barrington WE, Beresford SA. (2015). Identifying the Effects of Environmental and Policy Change Interventions on Healthy Eating. Annu Rev Public Health. 36:289-306. Habich C, Sell H. (2015). Heat shock proteins in obesity: links to cardiovascular disease. Horm Mol Biol Clin Investig.21(2):117-124. Metz J. (2007).A high prevalence of biochemical evidence of vitamin B12 or folate deficiency does not translate into a comparable prevalence of anemia. Food Nutr Bull.29(2 Suppl):S74-85. Pathak P, Kapil U, Kapoor SK, Saxena R, Kumar A, Gupta N, Dwivedi SN, Singh R, Singh P. (2004). Prevalence of multiple micronutrient deficiencies amongst pregnant women in a rural area of Haryana. Indian J Pediatr. 71(11):1007-10014. Platel K, Srinivasan K.. (2015). Bioavailability of Micronutrients from Plant Foods: An Update. Crit Rev Food Sci Nutr. (In Press) Stamm RA, Houghton LA. (2013). Nutrient intake values for folate during pregnancy and lactation vary widely around the world. Nutrients. 5(10):3920-3947.