Search Repository UNIVERSITAS MH.THAMRIN

Food provides energy and building materials for countless substances
that are essential for the growth and survival of every human being.
This section opens with a brief overview of the digestion, absorption,
transportation, and excretion of nutrients. These remarkable processes
convert myriads of complex foodstuffs into individual nutrients ready
to be used in metabolism. Macronutrients (proteins, fats, and
carbohydrates) each contribute to the total energy pool, but ultimately
the energy they yield is available for the work of the muscles and
organs of the body. The way nutrients become integral parts of the
body and contribute to proper functioning depends heavily on the
physiologic and biochemical processes that govern their actions. It is
now known that these metabolic processes are altered in the presence
of acute and chronic inflammation. Understanding the biomarkers
and other indicators of inflammation are a critical component of
nutrition assessment.
For the health provider, nutrition assessment is the first step in the
nutrition care process. To implement a successful nutrition plan, the
assessment must include key elements of the patients clinical or
medical history, current situation, anthropometric measurements,
biochemical and laboratory values, information on medication and
herbal supplement use for potential food-drug interactions, plus a
thorough food and nutrition intake history. Genetic research is rapidly
clarifying how genes and nutrition are interrelated. Nutrigenomics is
the study of the effects of foods and nutrients on gene expression and
thus nutritional requirements. Thus, the chapters in Part 1 provide an
organized way to develop the skills needed to make an assessment in
the nutrition care process.