human nutrition

Introduction & Top Questions
Utilization of food by the body
- Calories and kilocalories: energy supply
- BMR and REE: energy balance
- Body mass, body fat, and body water
Essential nutrients
- Carbohydrates
  - Glucose
  - Other sugars and starch
  - Dietary fibre
- Lipids
  - Triglycerides
  - Phospholipids
  - Sterols
- Proteins
  - Amino acids
  - Protein intake
- Vitamins
- Minerals
- Water
Food groups
- Cereals
- Starchy roots
- Legumes
- Vegetables and fruits
- Sugars, preserves, and syrups
- Meat, fish, and eggs
- Milk and milk products
- Fats and oils
- Beverages
Dietary and nutrient recommendations
- Dietary guidelines
  - Food guide pyramids and other aids
  - Adapting guidelines to culture
- Nutrient recommendations
- Dietary Reference Intakes
Nutrition throughout the life cycle
- Pregnancy and lactation
- Infancy, childhood, and adolescence
- Adulthood

References & Edit History Related Topics

Images & Videos

What really makes a nutritious and complete breakfast?

How to understand the nutrition facts on food labels

A flowchart illustrating protein and amino acid metabolism, showing how dietary proteins are digested and absorbed into the body's amino acid pool, which is then used for building tissue and plasma proteins, creating amino acid derivatives, energy metabolism, and excretion of waste products like urea.

Natural vs. synthetic vitamins: Is there a difference?

A dentist holds a glass of water while a child with an exaggerated smile reclines in a dental chair. The water glass is circled, and arrows point to it.

A bowl filled with a colorful bean salad containing kidney beans, black beans, chickpeas, white beans, and chopped herbs, garnished with a sprig of parsley.

fruits and vegetables and human nutrition

Quizzes

Ceviche. Peruvian ceviche (sebiche). Raw seafood dish with lime, cilantro, peppers, plantains. Cuisine, food

A World of Food Quiz

Grains and spices in bags, India. (Indian, vendor, market, food)

Ultimate Foodie Quiz

Related Questions

How can both nutrient deficiencies and nutrient excesses cause malnutrition?
How can cultural traditions and food preferences influence human nutrition?
How can high doses of iron or copper become toxic?
How do bile salts and micelles help the small intestine absorb fats?
How do calcium, phosphorus, vitamin D, and vitamin C contribute to healthy bone growth?
How do glycogen and adipose tissue store excess food energy?
How do ingestion, digestion, and egestion differ in humans?
How do minerals help regulate fluid balance and acid-base balance?
How do pancreatic enzymes break proteins into peptides and amino acids?
How do physical activity levels change total daily energy expenditure?
How do saliva and salivary amylase begin the digestion of starch?
How do sodium, potassium, calcium, and chloride function as electrolytes in the body?
How do stomach acid and pepsin begin protein digestion?
How does chewing make food easier for digestive enzymes to break down?
How does chronic undernutrition affect children’s growth and development?
How does human nutrition turn food into energy and body tissues?
How does indirect calorimetry estimate the energy used by the body?
How does iodine help regulate metabolism through thyroid hormones?
How does kwashiorkor develop in children whose diets provide too little protein?
How does resting energy expenditure differ from basal metabolic rate?
How does the liver store glucose as glycogen and release energy from fats?
How does vitamin D deficiency cause rickets?
How is basal metabolic rate measured under standardized conditions?
What symptoms can result from long-term malnutrition in children?
Which six nutrient classes are found in human foods?
Which symptoms are associated with vitamin A deficiency and xerophthalmia?
Which symptoms are associated with vitamin C deficiency and scurvy?
Why are minerals not sources of energy for the body?
Why are some minerals absorbed more readily from animal foods than from plant foods?
Why can a diet based mainly on polished white rice lead to thiamin deficiency?
Why can iodine deficiency cause an enlarged thyroid gland?
Why can minerals be lost from food when cooking water is discarded?
Why does calcium deficiency weaken bones?
Why does digestion increase the body’s energy expenditure?
Why does persistent hunger increase a person’s susceptibility to disease?
Why does strenuous physical work require much more energy than resting?
Why does the pancreas release bicarbonate into the duodenum?
Why is vitamin D needed for calcium absorption?
Why must many food molecules be broken into smaller molecules before the body can use them?

Health & Medicine Health, Nutrition & Fitness

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External Websites

UNICEF - Nutrition
FAO Corporate Documnet Repository - Food and people - Human nutrition: Key to health and development
UNESCO - Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems - Human Nutrition

human nutrition

physiology

Written by

Kenneth Carpenter

Professor Emeritus of Nutrition, University of California, Berkeley

Kenneth CarpenterAll

Fact-checked by

Britannica Editors

Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....

Britannica Editors

History

human nutrition, process by which substances in food are transformed into body tissues and provide energy for the full range of physical and mental activities that make up human life. The study of human nutrition is interdisciplinary in character, involving not only physiology, biochemistry, and molecular biology but also fields such as psychology and anthropology, which explore the influence of attitudes, beliefs, preferences, and cultural traditions on food choices. Human nutrition further touches on economics...

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