Nutrition

When we dance, drive, walk, study and even when we eat and sleep, we are using energy. The
general requirement for energy to carry out life processes is fulfilled by food in different ways.
The process of taking in food is called Nutrition. There are two processes by which living
organisms take food.
• Autotrophic Nutrition
• Heterotrophic Nutrition
Autotrophic Nutrition: The mode of nutrition in which organisms make their food themselves
from simple substances present in the environment is called autotrophic nutrition.
Plants prepare their food themselves by using water, carbon dioxide, sunlight, and minerals
through a process called photosynthesis.

• Leaves of the plant are food factories, so all the raw materials must reach the leaves.
• Water and minerals that are needed for a plant's growth and other processes are
present in the soil. These are absorbed by roots.
• Carbon dioxide is taken through pores called stomata. These are present on the leaves.
Since some amount of water is also lost in exchange of gases through these stomata, the
plant closes the pores when it does not require carbon dioxide in the process. This
closing and opening of the stomatal pore is a function of guard cells.

The leaves have a green pigment called chlorophyll which helps the leaves to absorb the sunlight.
This energy is used to prepare food from carbon dioxide and water in the presence of sunlight

• The gaseous exchange takes place in the leaves through pores.
• The final product of photosynthesis is glucose and oxygen. The extra glucose is
converted into carbohydrates like starch and stored in the leaves.
Heterotrophic nutrition: Heterotrophic nutrition is a mode of nutrition in which organisms cannot
make their own food but depends on other organisms. All animals and fungi show this type of
nutrition.
• Holozoic nutrition: Type of nutrition in which an organism takes in whole food and
breaks it inside the body. For example, Amoeba.
• Saprophytic nutrition: Type of nutrition in which organisms feed on dead and decaying
matter. For example, fungi.
• Parasitic nutrition: Type of nutrition in which organisms feed on living hosts. For
example, Cuscuta



We eat various types of food like chocolate, pasta, burger, pizza, chapati, etc. The food that we eat
has to pass through the digestive tract or alimentary canal which includes mouth, oesophagus,
stomach and intestine. The food gets digested in the digestive tract.
The digestive tract begins this process once food is consumed in the mouth. Saliva begins the
breakdown of food, and other enzymes in the alimentary canal continue this process.
Oesophagus (Food pipe): A hollow tubular organ passing through the neck and chest that links the
mouth to the stomach. Muscles of oesophagus push food into the stomach.
Stomach: A sac-like organ that holds and digests food. The gastric glands present in the walls of
the stomach release HCl (hydrochloric acid), a digestive enzyme (pepsin) and mucus.
Liver: The organ helps filter toxins from the blood and produces bile, which assist in breakdown of
proteins, carbohydrates and fats.
Gallbladder: This sac-like organ stores bile produced by the liver.
Pancreas: This organ produces insulin, which aids in the metabolism of sugars.
Small intestine: It receives food from the stomach and begins to break down the food while
absorbing the majority of its nutrients.
Large intestine: This organ is filled with billions of harmless bacteria that turn food into
excrement while absorbing water and electrolytes for the body's use.
Rectum: At the end of the large intestine, this small space is a temporary storage area for waste or
excrement.
Anus: This is the external opening of the rectum, through which waste is egested.