B5: ANIMAL NUTRITION

 Animals get their food from other organisms – from plants or other animals.
 Animals cannot make their own food as plants do.
 The food an animal eats every day is called a diet.
 Most animals need seven types of nutrient in their diet. These are:
 Carbohydrates
 Proteins
 Fats
 Vitamins
 Minerals
 Water
 Fibres (roughage)
 A diet which contains all of these seven types of nutrient, in the correct amounts and
proportions, is called a balanced diet.
 Every day, a person uses up energy. The amount you use partly depends on how old you are,
which sex you are and what job you do.
 The energy you use each day comes from the food you eat.
 If you eat too much food, some of the extra will probably be stored as fat.
 If you eat too little, you may not be able to obtain as much energy as you need. This will make
you feel tired.
 All food contains some energy.
 One gram of fat contains about twice as much energy as one gram of protein and carbohydrate.
 This is why fried foods should be avoided if you are worried about putting on weight.
 A person’s diet may need to change at different times of their life.
 For example, a woman will need to eat a little more each day when she is pregnant, and make
sure that she has extra calcium and iron in her die, to help build her baby’s bones, teeth and
blood.
 Still will also need to eat more while she is breast feeding.
 Most people find that they need to eat less as they reach their 50s and 60s, because their
metabolism slows down.
 Food is needed to make sure that you eat a balanced diet you must eat food containing
carbohydrates, fat and protein.
 You also need each kind of vitamin and mineral, fibre and water. These are nutrients.
 If your diet doesn’t contain all of these nutrients, your body will not be able to work properly.
 Vitamins are organic substances which are only needed in tiny amounts. If you do not have
enough of a vitamin, you may get a deficiency disease.
 Vitamin Foods that contain it Why it is needed Deficiency disease
C Citrus fruits (such as To make the stretchy protein Scurvy, which causes pain in
oranges, limes), raw collagen, found in skin and other joints and muscles, and
vegetables tissues; keeps the tissue in good bleeding from gums and other
repair places; this used to be common
disease of sailors, who had no
fresh vegetables during long
voyages.
D Butter, egg yolk) and Helps calcium to be absorbed, for Rickets, in which the bones
can be made by the skin making bones and teeth become soft and deformed, in
when sunlight falls on this disease was common in
it) young children in industrial
areas, who rarely got out into
the sunshine.

Mineral element Food that contain it Why it is needed Deficiency disease

Calcium, Ca Milk and other dairy For bones and teeth; Brittle bones and teeth;
products, bread for blood clotting poor blood clotting
Iron, Fe Liver, red meat, egg For making Anaemia, in which
yolk, dark green haemoglobin, the red there are not enough
vegetables pigment in blood which red blood cells so the
carries oxygen tissues do not get
oxygen delivered to
them.

 minerals are inorganic substances.

 Only small amounts of them are needed in the body.
 Fibre helps to keep the alimentary canal working properly.
 Food moves through the alimentary canal because the muscles contract and relax to squeeze it
along. This is called peristalsis.
 The muscles are stimulated to this when there is food in the alimentary canal.
 Soft foods do not stimulate the muscles very much.
 The muscles work more strongly when there is harder, less digestible food, like fibre, in the
alimentary canal.
 Fibre keeps the digestive system in good working order and helps to prevent constipation.
 All plant foods, such as fruits and vegetables, contain fibre.
 This is because the plant cells have cellulose cell walls. Humans cannot digest cellulose.
 One common form of fibre is the outer husk of cereal grains, such as oats, wheat, and barley.
This is called bran.
 Some of the husk is found in wholemeal bread. Brown or unpolished rice is also a good source of
fibre.
 The kind of fat found in animal foods is called saturated fat. These foods also contain cholesterol.
 People who eat a lot of saturated fat and cholesterol are more likely to get heart disease than
people who do not. This is because fat deposits build up on the inside of the arteries, making
them stiffer and narrower which reduces blood flow.
 If this happens in the coronary arteries supplying the heart muscle with blood, then not enough
blood can get through, the heart muscle runs short on oxygen and cannot work properly. This is
called coronary heart disease.
 The deposits can also cause a blood clot, which results in a heart attack.
 Dairy products such as milk, cream, butter, and cheese contain a lot of saturated fat. So fo red
meat and eggs.
 But vegetable oils are usually unsaturated fats.
 These, and also the oils from fish, do not increase the risk of heart disease, so it is sensible to
use these instead of animal fats when possible.
 Vegetable oil can be used for frying instead of butter or lard.
 Polyunsaturated spread can be used instead of butter.
 Fish and white meat such as chicken do not contain much saturated fat, so eating more of these
and less red meat may help to cut down the risk of heart disease.
 People who take in more energy than they use up get fat.
 Being very fat is called obesity.
 Obesity is dangerous to health.
 Obese people are more likely to get heart disease, strokes, and diabetes.
 The extra weight placed on the legs can cause problems with the joints, especially knees.
 Most people can control their weight by eating normal, well – balanced meals and taking regular
exercise.
 Crash diets are not a good idea, except for someone who is very overweight.
 Although a person may manage to lose a lot of weight quickly, he or she will almost certainly put
it on again once he or she stops dieting.
 In some parts of Africa, for example, several years of drought mean that the harvests do not
provide enough food to feed all the people.
 Despite help from other countries, many people have died from starvation.
 Even if there is enough food to keep people alive, they may suffer from malnutrition.
 Malnutrition is caused by not eating a balanced diet. One common type of malnutrition is
kwashiorkor.
 Kwashiorkor is caused by lack of protein in the diet.
 It is most common in children between the ages of nine months and two years, after they have
stopped feeding on breast milk.
 Kwashiorkor is often caused by poverty, because the child’s carers do not have any high – protein
food to give to the child.
 But sometimes it is caused by lack of knowledge about the right kinds of food that should be
eaten.
 Children suffering from kwashiorkor are always underweight for their age.
 But they may often look quite fat because their diet may contain a lot of carbohydrate.
 If they are put onto a high – protein diet, they usually begin to grow normally again.
 The most severe forms of malnutrition result from a lack of both protein and energy in the diet.
  Severe shortage of energy in the diet can cause marasmus, in which a child has body weight
much lower than normal and looks emaciated.
 The alimentary canal of a mammal is a long tube running from one end of its body to the other.
 Before they can be of any use to the animal, it has to get out of the alimentary canal and into the
bloodstream. This is called absorption.
 To be absorbed, molecules of food have to get through the walls of the alimentary canal. They
need to be quite small to be able to do this.
 The food that is eaten by mammals usually contains some large molecules of protein,
carbohydrate, and fat.
 Before these molecules can be absorbed, they must be broken down into smaller ones. This is
called digestion.
 Large carbohydrate molecules, such as polysaccharides, have to be broken down to fatty acids
and glycerol.
 Simple sugars, water, vitamins, and minerals are already small molecules, and they can be
absorbed just as they are. They do not need to be digested.
 Often the food an animal eats is in quite large pieces. These pieces of food need to be broken up
by teeth, and by churning movements of the alimentary canal. This is called mechanical
digestion.

Nutrient Enzyme that breaks it down Small molecule produced

Starch Amylase Simple sugars
Protein Protease Amino acids
Fat Lipase Fatty acids and glycerol

 Once prices of food have been ground up, the large molecules present are then broken down
into small ones. This is called chemical digestion.
 It involves a chemical change from one sort of molecule to another. Enzymes are involved in this
process.
 Ingestion: taking substances (e.g., food, drink) into the body through the mouth.
 Digestion: the breakdown of large, insoluble food molecules into small, water – soluble food
molecules using mechanical and chemical processes.
 Mechanical digestion: the breakdown of food into smaller pieces without chemical change to the
food molecules.
 Chemical digestion: the breakdown of large insoluble molecules into small soluble molecules.
 Absorption: the movement of digested food molecules through the wall of the intestine into the
blood.
 Assimilation: the movement of digested food molecules into the cells of the body where they are
used, becoming part of the cell.
 Egestion: passing out of food that has not been digested, as faeces, through the anus.
 Fats  teeth breakdown large pieces of food into smaller ones  bile salts break down large
drops of fat into smaller ones  lipase breaks down fat molecules to fatty acid and glycerol
molecules.
 Proteins  teeth break down large pieces of food into smaller ones  water in digestive juices
dissolves some food  proteases break down protein molecules to polypeptide molecules 
peptidases break down polypeptides to amino acid molecules.
 Carbohydrates  teeth break down large pieces of food into smaller ones  water in digestive
juices dissolves some food  amylase breaks starch down to maltose molecules  maltase
breaks maltose down to glucose molecules.
 Teeth help with ingestion and mechanical digestion of the food we eat.
 Teeth can be used to bite off pieces of food.
 They then chop, crush, or grind them into smaller pieces.
 This gives the food a larger surface area, which makes it easier for enzymes to work on the food
in the digestive system.
 It also helps soluble parts of the food to dissolve.
 Root: the part of the tooth which is embedded in the gum
 Crown: the part which can be seen
 Enamel: the part that covers the crown and it’s the strongest part in the body.
 Enamel is the hardest substance made by animals. It is very difficult to break or chip it.
 However, it can be dissolved by acids.
 Bacteria feed on sweet foods left on the
teeth. This makes acids, which dissolves
the enamel, and decay sets in.
 Under the enamel is a layer of dentine,
which is rather like bone.
 Dentine is quite hard, but not as hard as
enamel. It has channels in it which
contain cytoplasm.
 In the middle of the tooth is the pulp
cavity. It contains nerves and blood
vessels. These supply the cytoplasm in
the dentine with food and oxygen.
 The root of the tooth is covered with
cement. This has fibres growing out of it.
These attach the tooth to the jawbone
but allow it to move slightly when biting
or chewing.
 Most mammals have four kinds of teeth.
 Incisors are the sharp -edged, chisel – shaped teeth at the front of the mouth. They are used for
biting off food.
 Canines are the more pointed teeth at either side of the incisors, used for gripping food.
 Premolars and molars are the large teeth toward the back of the mouth. They are used for
chewing food, crushing it into smaller prices to help with mechanical digestion.
 In humans, the molars right at the back are sometimes called wisdom teeth.
 They do not grow until much later in the person’s development than the others.
 Tooth decay is a common problem. It is caused by bacteria.
 You have large numbers of bacteria living in your mouth, most of which is harmless.
 However, some of the bacteria, together with substances from your saliva, form a sticky film
over your teeth, especially next to the gums and in between the teeth. This is called plaque.
 Plaque is soft and easy to remove at first, but if it is left it hardens to form tartar, which cannot
be removed by brushing.
 If the sugar is left on the teeth, bacteria in the plaque will feed on it.
 They use it in respiration, changing it into acid.
 The acid gradually dissolves the enamel covering the tooth and works its way into the
dentine.
 Dentine is dissolved away more rapidly than the enamel.
 If nothing is done about it, the tooth will eventually have to be taken out.
 There are several easy things which you can do to keep your teeth healthy and free from
pain.
1. Don’t eat too much sugar. If you never eat any sugar, you will not have tooth
decay. But nearly everyone enjoys sweet foods, and if you are careful, you can
still eat them without damaging your teeth. The rule is to eat sweet things only
once or twice a day, preferably with your meals. The worst thing you can do is to
suck or chew sweet things all day long. And don’t forget that many drinks also
contain a lot of sugar.
2. Use fluoride toothpaste regularly. Fluoride makes your teeth more resistant to
decay. Drinking water which contains fluoride, or brushing teeth with a fluoride
toothpaste, makes it much less likely that you will have to have teeth filled or
extracted. Regular and thorough brushing also helps to remove plaque, which
will prevent gum disease and reduce decay.
3. Make regular visits to a dentist. Regular dental check-ups will make sure that
any gum disease or tooth decay is stopped before it really gets a hold.
 The alimentary canal is a long tube which runs from the mouth to the anus. It is part
of the digestive system.
 The digestive system also includes the liver and the pancreas.
 Mechanical digestion = physical digestion
 Food is ingested using the teeth, lips, and tongue. The teeth then bite or grind the food into
smaller pieces, increasing its surface area. The tongue mixes the food with saliva and forms it
into bolus. The bolus is then swallowed.
 Saliva is made in the salivary glands. It is a mixture of water, mucus, and the enzyme amylase.
The water helps to dissolve substances in the food, allowing us to taste them. The mucus helps
the chewed food to bind together to form a bolus and lubricates it so that it slides down the
oesophagus when it is swallowed.
 Amylase begins to digest starch in the food to the sugar maltose. Usually, it does not take time to
finish this because the food is not kept in the mouth for very long. However, if you chew
something starchy (such as a piece of bread) for a long time, you may be able to taste the sweet
maltose that is produced.
 There are two tubes leading down from the back of the mouth. The one in the front is trachea or
windpipe, which takes air down to the lungs. Ben=hind the trachea is the oesophagus, which
takes food down to the stomach.
 When you swallow, a piece of cartilage covers the entrance to the trachea.it is called the
epiglottis, and it stops food from going down into the lungs.
 The entrance to the stomach from the oesophagus is guarded by a ring of muscle called a
sphincter. This muscle relaxes to let the food pass into the stomach.
 The stomach has strong, muscular walls. The muscles contract and relax to churn the food and
mix it with the enzymes and mucus. The mixture is called chyme.
 Like all parts of the alimentary canal, the stomach wall contains goblet cells which secrete
mucus. It also contains i=other cells which produce protease enzymes and others which make
hydrochloric acid.
 The main protease enzyme in the stomach is pepsin. It begins to digest proteins by breaking
them down into polypeptides. Pepsin works best in acid conditions. The acid also helps to kill any
bacteria in the food.
 The acid also helps you to protect you from harmful microorganisms that may be in the food, by
denaturing enzymes in them.
 The stomach can store food for quite a long time. After one or two hours, the sphincter at the
bottom of the stomach opens and lets the chyme into the duodenum.
 The small intestine is the part of the alimentary canal between the stomach and the colon. It is
about 5m long. It is called small intestine because it is quite narrow.
 Several enzymes are secreted into the small intestine. They are made in the pancreas, which is a
cream – coloured gland, lying just underneath the stomach.
 A tube called the pancreatic duct leads from the pancreas into the duodenum. Pancreatic juice,
which is fluid made by the pancreas, flowing along this tube.
 This fluid contains many enzymes, including amylase, protease, and lipase. Amylase breaks down
starch to maltose. Trypsin is a protease, which breaks down proteins to polypeptides. Lipase
breaks down fat (lipids) to fatty acids and glycerol.
 These enzymes do not work well in acid environments, but the chyme which has come from the
stomach contains hydrochloric acid. Pancreatic juice contains sodium hydrogen carbonate.
Which partially neutralises the acid.
 As well as pancreatic juice, another fluid flows into the small intestine. It is called bile. Bile is a
yellowish green, alkaline, watery liquid, which helps to neutralise the acidic mixture from the
 stomach. It is made in the liver, and then stored in the gall bladder. It flows to the small intestine
along the bile duct.
 Bile does not contain any enzymes. It does, however, help to digest fat. It does this by breaking
up the large drops of fat into very small ones, increasing their surface area and making it easier
for the lipase in the pancreatic juice to digest them into fatty acids and glycerol. This is called
emulsification, and it is done by salts in the bile called bile salts. Emulsification is a type of
mechanical digestion.
 Bile also contains sodium hydrogencarbonate, which helps to neutralise the acidic chyme from
the stomach and therefore provides a suitable pH for the activity of the enzymes in pancreatic
juice.
 As well as receiving enzymes made in the pancreas, the small intestine makes some enzymes
itself. They are made by cells in its walls.
 The inner wall of the small intestine is covered with millions of tiny projections. They are called
villi. Each villus is about 1mm long. Cells covering the villi make enzymes. The enzymes do not
come out into the lumen of the small intestine; they stay close to the cells which make them.
These enzymes complete the digestion of food.
 The carbohydrase enzyme maltase breaks down maltose to glucose. Proteases finish breaking
down any polypeptides into amino acids. Lipase completes the breakdown of fats to fatty acids
and glycerol.
By now, most carbohydrates have been broken down to simple sugars, proteins to amino acids, and fats
to fatty acids and glycerol. These molecules are small enough to pass through the wall of the small
intestine and into the blood. This is called absorption.

Feature How this helps absorption take place

It is very long – about 5m in an adult human. This gives plenty of time for digestion to be
completed, and for digested food to be absorbed
as it slowly passes through.
It has villi. Each villus covered with cells which His gives the inner surface of the small intestine a
have even smaller projections on them, called very large surface area.
microvilli. The larger the surface area, the faster the
nutrients can be absorbed.
Villi contains blood capillaries. Monosaccharides, amino acids, water, minerals,
and vitamins, and some fats, pass into the blood,
to be taken to the liver and then round the body.
Villi contains lacteals, which are part of the Fats are absorbed into lacteals.
lymphatic system.
Villi have walls only one cell thick. The digested nutrients can easily cross the wall to
reach the blood capillaries and lacteals.

 The small intestine is especially adapted to allow absorption to take place very efficiently.
 Water, mineral salts, and vitamins are absorbed in the small intestine. The small intestine
absorbs between 5 and 10 dm3 of water each day.
 The large intestine is given this name because it is a wider tube than the small intestine.
 Not all the food that is eaten can be digested, and this undigested food cannot be absorbed in
the small intestine. It travels on, through the caecum, past the appendix and into the first part of
the large intestine, the colon.
 In humans, the caecum and appendix have no function. In the colon, more water and salt are
absorbed. However, the colon absorbs much less water than the small intestine.
 By the time the food reaches the last part of the large intestine, called the rectum, most of the
substances which can be absorbed have gone into the blood. All that remains is indigestible food
(fibre, or roughage), bacteria, and some dead cells from the inside of the alimentary canal. This
mixture forms the faeces, which are passed out at intervals through the anus. This process is
called egestion.
 After they have been absorbed into the blood in the villi, the nutrients are taken to the liver. The
liver processes some of them, before they go any further. Some of these nutrients can be broken
down, some converted into other substances, some stored and the remainder left unchanged.
 The nutrients, dissolved in the blood plasma, and then taken to the other parts of the body
where they may become assimilated as part of a cell.
 The liver has an especially important role in the metabolism of glucose. If there is mire glucose
than necessary in the blood, the liver will convert some of it to the polysaccharide glycogen and
store it.