All the living organisms need food to get energy to carry out their activities, growth and repair. Plants make their food by utilizing the solar energy by the process of photosynthesis. But, animals depend on plants directly or indirectly for their food.
The process of taking food and utilizing it for growth, providing energy to the living cells to carry out their activities and repair is called nutrition.
We know that food contains many different useful substances, such as proteins, carbohydrates, fats, vitamins and minerals. All these components of food are called nutrients. Actually, the term nutrition is derived from the word nutrient. A nutrient can be defined as a substance which provides nutrition.
Test Your Understanding and Answer These Questions:
- What is nutrition? Why is nutrition necessary for an organism?
- What are nutrients? Give the names of four nutrients present in food.