Mineral Nutrition

Abstract

Indeed! We need more than bread to live a healthy life. A balanced diet may consist of vegetables, meats and bread, or other cereals. Bread is mostly carbohydrates, which are made of elements such as carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen ((C₆H₁₀O₅)_n). Meat is a protein source; proteins are made of elements of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen, plus a little of sulfur. Vegetables contain essential vitamins in addition to some carbohydrates and proteins. Vitamins are various organic compounds, made of carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, and oxygen (and sulfur and phosphorus in some of them). The major portion of our body itself is made of “organic” compounds: proteins and DNAs, which are produced in our body from the material ingested (food). Our diets themselves come from other organisms, because all the organisms living on the Earth are, in large measure, similar in their biochemistry. Hence, all the organisms are connected through food chain. The major biochemical processes are talked about in Chap. 3. The biologically important organic compounds are made of four chemical elements: carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, and oxygen. A few bio-organic compounds contain elements such as sulfur and/or phosphorus in addition to the four elements.