"LP5 Assignment: Energy and Balance."
For this assignment, I am to use the websites, learning materials and lab from this week and complete an internet search of my own on food energy. I will write a two-page essay that explains how energy values of foods are determined. I will include a definition of nitrogen balance and energy balance. I will also include a definition of nutrition, nutrients and essential nutrients and will provide an example of each.
Nutrients, Nutrition and Essential Nutrients
Our bodies need fuel to develop, grow and heal. Nutrients from food gives are body these requirements. Nutrients are chemicals supplied from the environment that an organism requires for survival. Nutrients that our cells cant synthesize…show more content… Daily calorie intake is 2,500. 1000 calories equal one kilocalorie. The amount of potential energy food contains is expressed as calories that are units of heat. Calories are defined in the amount of heat that is required to raise the temperature of a gram of water by 1 degree Celsius. Large calorie equals the amount of heat that is required to raise the temperature of a kilogram of water by 1 degree Celsius and is equal to 4.184 joules. International unit of heat and energy is a joule. A kilocalorie is also called a large calorie. A device that is used to measure the caloric contents of food is called bomb calorimeter. It consists of a metal chamber submerged in a known volume of water. A sample of food is dried, weighed and placed in a nonreactive dish inside a chamber. Oxygen is filled in the chamber and submerged in water. Food then is ignited and allowed to completely oxidize. Heat is then released from the food and the temperature of the water that is around it changes the temperature and measured. Since the volume of the water is known the amount of heat that is released from the food is calculated in…show more content… This happens in different tissues and different rates and the overall gain of proteins in the body equals the loss by producing a state of dynamic equilibrium. Since proteins have a high percentage of nitrogen and dynamic equilibrium this brings nitrogen balance, which is the amount of nitrogen taken in equal amounts that are excreted. For example a person that is starving has negative nitrogen balances. This is due from the amount of nitrogen excreted and the amino acids oxidation exceeds the amount the diet replaces. A pregnant woman and a growing child or athlete in training is most likely to have positive nitrogen balances because more protein is built into newer tissues and less is being used for