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Nutrients and Nutritionology.

In addition to treating diseases, medicine has always been concerned with the prevention of various diseases. It was noticed that not only pathogens, hereditary gene mutations, harmful environment affect the health and smooth functioning of the body. Nutrition is one of the main regulators of health, and in modern medicine the quality of food is under close scrutiny. But until some time nutritional issues were a field of nutritional science, which was not fully engaged in scientific research in the field of metabolic processes. In this regard, a separate branch of medical science was created - "nutritiology", which deals with the effectiveness and usefulness of substances that make up the basis of food.

Substances contained in foods and having biological significance for the vital activity of the body are called "nutrients". Macronutrients form the basis of nutrition and are needed by the body in large quantities every day - these are proteins, fats, carbohydrates and water. Micronutrients (vitamins and trace elements) should be supplied in micro doses regularly as a supplement as participants in biochemical reactions.

Not all food components are involved in metabolic processes and replenish the body with missing structural elements. Some of the food components are not involved in metabolism, but takes part in stimulating intestinal motility (fiber). The rest of the non-assimilated substances are removed from the body in practically unprocessed form. Such components are called food waste. The presence of a high percentage of food waste in food indicates irrational and ill-considered eating behavior. But food waste is not so harmless: it can cause various kinds of digestive disorders, be deposited in tissues and provoke the development of various kinds of pathology, be the culprit of carcinogenic processes.

If earlier attention was paid to the energy value of food, then in the modern world of hypodynamic human existence (a sedentary lifestyle) due to the automation of many domestic and industrial processes, nutritional science focuses on the usefulness and harmfulness of food components, and not on the energy potential of food.

Nutritionology considers all aspects of the need for nutrients (macronutrients and micronutrients), examines the chemical composition of foods in terms of their usefulness and rationality of consumption, and ultimately, together with dietetics, develops programs for healthy daily nutrition and therapeutic nutrition.