Nutrition: What is it and why is it important?
Nutrition, nourishment, or aliment, is the supply of materials - food - required by organisms and cells to stay alive. In
science and human medicine, nutrition is the science or practice of consuming and utilizing foods. In hospitals, nutrition
may refer to the food requirements of patients, including nutritional solutions delivered via an IV (intravenous) or IG
(intragastric) tube.
Nutritional science studies how the body breaks food down (catabolism) and how it repairs and creates cells and tissue
(anabolism). Catabolism and anabolism combined can also be referred to as metabolism. Nutritional science also
examines how the body responds to food.
Fast facts on nutrition
The human body requires seven major types of nutrients.
Not all nutrients provide energy but are still important, such as water and fiber.
Micronutrients are important but required in smaller amounts.
Vitamins are essential organic compounds that the human body cannot synthesize.
What is nutrition?
A selection of nutritious food in bowls
As molecular biology, biochemistry, and genetics advance, nutrition has become more focused on metabolism and
metabolic pathways - biochemical steps through which substances inside us are transformed from one form to another.
Nutrition also focuses on how diseases, conditions, and problems can be prevented or reduced with a healthy diet.
Similarly, nutrition involves identifying how certain diseases and conditions may be caused by dietary factors, such as
poor diet (malnutrition), food allergies, and food intolerances.
AMDR - Macronutrient Ranges and Recommendations
A diet that is balanced in its macronutrient distribution can help reduce the risk of disease and foster lasting weight loss.
Essential nutrients are not limited to vitamins and minerals. The major macronutrients—protein, carbohydrate and fat—
are also essential to nutritional health and well-being. But who decides how much of any nutrient is needed to prevent a
deficiency, reduce disease risk or create a healthy diet?
What are recommended dietary allowances?
Since 1941, the National Academy of Sciences has periodically gathered a large group of experts to review the latest
science and make recommendations. Until the late 1990s, the recommendations were called the Recommended Dietary
Allowances (RDAs). With the latest update of these recommendations, the term Dietary Reference Intakes (DRIs) has
been used.
The DRIs are a set of nutrient-based values that can be used to evaluate how "nutritious" a diet is.1 These include2:
Estimated Average Requirement
Recommended Dietary Allowance
Adequate Intake
Tolerable Upper Intake Level
Estimated Energy Requirement
Acceptable Macronutrient Distribution Range
AMDR (Acceptable Macronutrient Distribution Ranges)
A key component of the recommendation for macronutrients is how they are distributed in the diet; in other words, the
percent of calories coming from protein, carbohydrate and fat. The DRIs express this distribution as the Acceptable
Macronutrient Distribution Range or AMDR.
Acceptable Macronutrient Distribution Ranges for Adults (as a percentage of Calories) are as follows:
Protein: 10-35%
Fat: 20-35%
Carbohydrate: 45-65%
According to the NAS, the AMDR is the range associated with reduced risk for chronic diseases, while providing essential
nutrients like vitamins and minerals. People whose diet is outside the AMDR have the potential of increasing their risk of
developing a disease of nutritional deficiency.
A diet that is balanced in its macronutrient distribution is recommended for lasting weight loss because unbalanced
nutrient profiles may increase the risk of adverse health consequences.3
