Term | Definition |
Carbohydrate | A nutrient used for energy made up of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen |
Constipation | When the intestines get blocked |
Diet | The food that you eat |
Fibre | A substance not absorbed in the body needed for peristalsis |
Peristalsis | Movement of material through the intestine |
Lipid | Fats (solids) and oils (liquids) |
Mineral (biology) | An element that is a nutrient needed in small quantities for health |
Mineral (chemistry) | A naturally occurring element or compound that can form distinct grains in rocks |
Nutrient | A substance needed in the diet to provide the raw materials for making new substances and for energy release |
Nutrition | The substances that help organisms respire and grow |
Oil | A liquid fat |
Protein | A nutrient used for growth and repair |
Raw material | A substance used to make other substances |
Starch | A type of insoluble carbohydrate found in plants (complex carbohydrate) |
Sugar | A type of soluble carbohydrate (simple carbohydrate) |
Vitamin | A nutrient needed in small quantities for health |
Fuel | A substance that is a store of energy that can be easily transferred (often chemical or nuclear) |
Kilojoule | 1kJ is 1000J |
Joule | A unit for measuring energy (J) |
Respiration | A process of releasing energy to do work
Glucose + oxygen --> energy + carbon dioxide + water |
Anaemia | A deficiency disease caused by the lack of iron |
Balanced diet | Eating a wide variety of foods to provide all the things the body needs |
Deficiency disease | A disease caused by a lack of a nutrient |
Heart disease | A disease caused by narrowing of the coronary artery causing heart muscle to die |
Kwashiorkor | A deficiency disease caused by a lack of protein |
Malnutrition | A problem caused by having too much or too little of a nutrient in the diet |
Night blindness | A deficiency disease caused by a lack of vitamin A |
Obesity | Being very overweight |
Reference Intake (RI) | The amount of a nutrient that people are advised to eat in a day |
Rickets | A deficiency disease caused by lack of calcium or vitamin D |
Scurvy | A deficiency disease caused by lack of vitamin C |
Starvation | A form of malnutrition in which people lack one or more nutrients |
Absorb | To soak up or take in |
Anus | The opening at the end of the gut |
Bacteria | A single celled microorganism with the DNA not in a nucleus (prokaryote) |
Catalyst | A substance that speeds up a chemical reaction without itself being used up |
Digestion | A process that breaks food into soluble substances in our bodies |
Digestive juice | A liquid containing enzymes that break down food |
Digestive system | An organ system that breaks down food |
Egestion | When faeces are pushed out of the anus |
Elimination | See Egestion |
Enzyme | An organic catalyst |
Faeces | Waste food material produced by the intestines |
Food pipe | See oesophagus |
Gullet | See oesophagus |
Oesophagus | The muscular tube from the mouth to the stomach |
Gut | The organs that form the tube from the mouth to the anus |
Ingestion | Taking substances into the body |
Insoluble | Cannot be dissolved in a certain liquid |
Large intestine | An organ that removes water from undigested food |
Liver | An organ used to make, destroy and store substances in your body |
Microorganism | An organism too small to be seen with the naked eye |
Rectum | An organ that stores faeces before they are egested |
Saliva | A digestive juice that contains an enzyme that breaks down starch into sugar |
Salivary gland | Gland in mouth that makes saliva |
Small intestine | An organ where most digestion occurs - molecules are made small enough to pass into the blood |
Soluble | Can dissolve in a certain liquid |
Stomach | An organ containing HCl which also mixes up food and digests proteins |
Diffusion | When particles spread from high concentration to low concentration |
Microvillus | A fold on the surface of a villus cell to increase surface area |
Plasma | The liquid part of the blood |
Villus | A small finger-like part of the small intestine to increase surface area |