Ageing brings significant physiological changes in the body and these changes influence appreciably in the nutritional requirements. Therefore geriatric nutrition deals with the nutritional requirements of the old people. Some physiological changes in ageing are discussed briefly.
Reduced cellular metabolism: Studies have shown that there is a noteworthy decrease in the metabolism tissues as a result [...]
Metabolism is the sum total of all the chemical changes that nutrients undergo from the time they are absorbed until they become part of the body or are excreted from the body. The first phase of metabolism is Anabolism which involves the chemical reaction that nutrients undergo for the construction or building up of materials, [...]
‘Digestion’ is the term used for the process by which the complex food factors are broken up into small, simple and soluble units. These units can be easily absorbed in the digestive tract and diffused through the living of the digestive tract into the blood, lymph, spinal fluids, organs and tissues. The constituents of foods [...]
Nearly all foodstuffs, with the exception of fruits and some leafy vegetables used either as salads or in chutneys, are consumed in the cooked state. Strictly speaking, the assessment of the nutritive value of any foodstuff should be made on the cooked material, the state in which it is consumed and not in its raw [...]
There are a large number of mineral elements that are present in the human body. Bone and teeth contain the large part of calcium, magnesium and phosphorus, blood contain iron. It is estimated that an average men excretes daily about 20 to 30 grams of mineral salts, consisting most of chlorides, sulphates and phosphates of [...]
Vitamin ‘C’ or ascorbic acid is the vitamin that prevents scurvy. It is usually found in fresh fruits and vegetables. In all the vitamins, vitamin ‘C’ is the one vitamin that is most susceptible to destruction by atmospheric oxidation. That is the tendency to rapidly oxidize in air. It is for this reason that when [...]
