Balanced Diet: A diet containing proper proportions of carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, minerals, and

water to maintain good health and metabolism.

Diet-related to age/gender/lifestyle:
1. Children Below 12: Require more calcium
2. Teenagers: Highest calorie intake
3. Adults: Balanced meal with fewer calories
4. Pregnant Women: more iron, calcium
5. Males: Generally, require more energy
Deficiencies:
Vitamin C: Scurvy; loss of teeth, pale skin & sunken eyes
Calcium/Vitamin D: Rickets, Osteoporosis; weak bones and teeth
Process of Digestion

1. Ingestion: taking substances (e.g. food, drink) into the body through the mouth.
2. Physical Digestion: breakdown of food into smaller pieces without chemical change. It
increases the surface area of food for the action of enzymes in chemical digestion.
3. Chemical Digestion: breakdown of large, insoluble food molecules into small, soluble
molecules.
4. Absorption: the movement of nutrients from the intestines into the blood
5. Assimilation: uptake and use of nutrients by cells
6. Egestion: the removal of undigested food from the body as faeces body’s water levels
 Chemical Digestion

Chemical Digestion: Enzymes are used to break down large insoluble substances, such as
proteins, into smaller soluble substances, like amino acids so that they can be absorbed.
Amylase: breaks down starch into maltose; it is produced in the pancreas (but also in the
salivary gland)

Maltase: breaks down into glucose in the membrane of the epithelium lining in small
intestines.

Protease: breaks down proteins into peptides (done by pepsin-acidic) and then into amino
acids (done by trypsin).

Pepsin comes from the stomach and trypsin comes from the pancreas (alkali).

Lipase: breaks down lipids into fatty acids and glycerol, produced by the pancreas.

Hydrochloric acid in gastric juice: Denaturing enzymes in harmful microorganisms. Giving

the optimum pH for pepsin activity Kills pathogens

Bile: an alkaline mixture that neutralises the acid mixture of food and gastric juices entering
the duodenum from the stomach to provide a suitable pH for enzyme action.
Absorption & Villus