I.

Basic Concepts of
Nutrition and Diet
Therapy

NUTRITION
● Is the science of food and its relationship to health.
● Involves the process of taking in and utilizing nourishment, which
includes natural and artificial feeding.

ROLE OF NUTRITION
● Nutrition can contribute to the prevention of disease:
1. PRIMARY - Implementation of practices that are likely to avert
the occurrence of disease.
- Strategy: Motivating people to change their behavior and
maintain a healthy body weight.
2. SECONDARY - The institution of monitoring techniques to
discover incipient diseases early enough to enhance the
opportunity to control their effects.
- Strategy: Risk for Diabetes in Pre-diabetes stage -
Testing blood sugar levels, noninvasive treatments such
as weight loss and diet modification.
3. TERTIARY - The use of treatment techniques aftera disease has
occurred to prevent complications or to promote maximum
adaptation.
- Strategy: Patients with swallowing disorders -
Nourishments that can avoid choking.
HEALTHCARE PROVIDERS IN NUTRITION DELIVERY
● REGISTERED NURSE - The first team member to interview the client
and communicate important nutritional information - client’s response to
food, intake, and tolerance. They also provide nutritional information to
clients.

● REGISTERED DIETITIANS - Together with the physicians, they are

responsible for meeting the client’s nutritional needs. They interpret the
physician’s diet order in terms of client’s food habits and food choices,
calculate client’s nutritional requirements, evaluate client’s response
therapeutic diets, recommend the best route for administration and
provide in-depth nutrition education and counseling to clients.

● PHYSICIANS - Are responsible for the diagnosis and treatment of

medical conditions. They manage medical care, order laboratory tests,
and prescribe medications and diets.

NUTRIENTS
● Are the chemical substances supplied by food that the body needs for
growth maintenance and repair.

CLASSES AND ESSENTIALITY

● Carbohydrates (CHO)
● Fats (Lipids)
● Proteins
● Mineral
● Vitamins
● Water
CLASSIFICATIONS OF NUTRIENTS
1. FUNCTION - Those that form tissues in the body are body-building
nutrients that furnish heat and energy which are fats, carbohydrates, and
proteins.
2. CHEMICAL PROPERTIES - Nutrients are either organic or inorganic.
3. ESSENTIALITY - Nutrients are classified based on their significant
contribution to the body’s physiological functioning.
4. CONCENTRATION - Nutrients are either in large amounts or little
amounts.

TYPES OF NUTRIENTS
● ESSENTIAL NUTRIENTS - One that the human body requires but
cannot manufacture in sufficient amounts to meet bodily needs. Must be
applied by food in the diet.
- Example: Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Calcium

● NONESSENTIAL NUTRIENT - Are not needed in the diet because the

body can make them from other substances.
- Example: Alanine

● CONDITIONALLY ESSENTIAL NUTRIENTS - Are those that a

healthy body can manufacture in sufficient quantities. The body can’t
produce optimal amounts in certain situations of physiological diseases.
- Example: Tyrosine
LIFE-SUSTAINING FUNCTIONS
1. Serve as a source of energy or heat
2. Support the growth and maintenance of tissue
3. Aid in the regulation of basic body
SOURCES OF ENERGY
● ENERGY - Capacity to do work.
- It cannot be seen, heard, or felt.
- Exists in a variety of forms: electric, thermal (heat), chemical,
mechanical, etc.
- Note: All food enters the body inc chemical energy and is
converted into other energy forms
- Energy nutrients: Carbohydrates, fats, and proteins.

● KILOCALORIES - Unit of measure of the energy in food and in the

body; kcal

MICRONUTRIENTS
1. Required in small amounts
2. Help various functions of the body, growth, and disease prevention