DEPARTMENT OF BIOLOGY

FACULTY OF SCIENCE AND MATHEMATIC

UNIVERSITI PENDIDIKAN SULTAN IDRIS

Food Science and Nutrition

SBK3023

Title: Factors Influence the Nutrient Intake for Human

Lecturer:  Dr. Hasimah binti Alimon

Group Members:

Name Matrix Number Hairieyl Azieyman Bin Azmi   D20101037426Heng Tiger  D20101037446Muhammad Shamim Bin Zulkefli   D20101037460Ng Seng Wei D20091035105Mohamad Arif Bin Nasaruddin D20091035123

FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE NUTRITION INTAKE IN HUMAN

There are a lot of factors that can affect the nutrition intake in human. Here are some

factors that we want to highlight.

The quality and quantity of food that human take.

The quality of food can be determine based on the external factor such as appearance (size,

shape, colour, gloss, and consistency), flavor; texture and internal factors such as chemical,

physical and microbial of food. Chemicals added to the crops and livestock can influence the

quality of food that we usually take. Excessive use of pesticides for vegetable plantation can

decrease the quality of vegetable and lead to decrease the nutrition value in human if we

consumed it as food. The examples of pesticides that can be used in agriculture are

dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT)-used to kill insects-, acetylcholinesterase inhibitor –used

to kill snails-, 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D) –used to kill unwanted plants- and many

more. The excessive use of these pesticides can contaminate the agricultural based food product.

When this contaminate food enter our body system, it can lead the formation of the free radical

particles. Free radicals are unstable atoms or groups of atoms that contain at least one unpaired

electron. Free radicals can attack healthy cells because another atom or molecule can bond to it

easily since it contains unpaired electron. A chemical reaction will take place and may damages

that healthy cell. This can lead to cancer and initiate other serious disease. So, it is clear that the

low quality of food that we consumed can decrease our nutrition intake.

In the other hand, quantity of food may be referring to the source of food. Malaysia is a

country which has equatorial climate, being hot and humid throughout the year which is good for

agriculture activities. But, Malaysia still cannot produce enough rice and other food products to

supply the country since Malaysia is populated with hills and does not have strong temperature

climate. But, we still manage to settle this problem by importing food from other countries.

Besides that, Malaysia is bounded by water, including the South China, Sulu, and Celebes seas,

and the Strait of Malacca. So, these enable fishery activities can take place effectively and

provide us with mass food resources. Thus, Malaysians can have a perfect nutrient content if we

take a balance diet. Compare to Somalia, which currently suffer from great drought that limited

their food source. That is why most of Somalia’s people do not a perfect nutrient needed by body

and lead to malnutrition.

Age

As we human grow, the nutrition that we take daily will eventually change to suit our

condition and growing process. This is due to the aging factor that the person is experiencing

where the needs for the nutrients are changing from time to time. As for infant that was born,

they only feed on milk and lactation. This is because they acquired most their nutrients from

breastfeeding. The mother’s milk is the best nutrition for baby because they don’t have any teeth

yet to chew solid food and mother’s milk contains the nutrients baby needed and it also enriched

with antibodies that supplied from the mother. While for children and adolescents, they need

more nutrients to supply adequate essential energy because at this phase they are having rapid

change in body size due to the rapid development of muscle and formation of bone. Puberty also

contribute to the increase on nutrients intake to complete maturation process and grow. While for

the adults, they are having slower growth rate and this to repair any tissues and thus they

maintaining their nutrients intake. As for the old people, they are mostly focusing in a healthy

diet and focus on intake of vitamin and other nutrients due to the loss of lean body mass.

Environment’s Weather

Environment factor is one of factors that affecting people’s nutritional intake is. We

are focusing more on the weather itself. People are more likely to consume more food during the

cold rather than hot weather. So, we will tend to eat more during the cold season, for us in

Malaysia probably in raining season. This is because of the body need to maintain the body’s

temperature to let the body’s to function well. In order the body to achieve that, the body need

more energy from food and more likely carbohydrate-rich food like rice, bread and else to keep

the body’s core at the optimum temperature. However, when it’s come to hot weather, our body

needs to be cooled and maintain. Therefore, more liquids must be taken in order to keep our

body sweat to cool it down.

Occupation and Physical Activities

Nutrients give the energy that need to perform the daily activities of living. Food may

contain a few or many nutrients and each nutrient has specific uses in the body. The amount of

energy used by the body is the energy expenditure and this varies widely from individual to

individual. In this case the factors that influence the nutrition taken by human are according to

occupation and physical activities. This is because when we do more work than our body

requires more energy to keep our bodies still in healthy condition. Workers like coal miners,

steel workers, forestry workers, army recruits, builder’s laborers’ and athletics’ need more food

that contains more nutrients such as carbohydrates, protein and fats. Those classes of food

important to give energy that required to sustain the function of the body such as physical work,

maintenance, respiration and circulation. Energy comes from the food eaten and released in the

body to yield the chemical energy needed to sustain metabolism, nerve transmissions and

circulation. In addition, occupations are classified according to how active they are workers.

Sedentary work like office workers, clerical tasks, pilots, lawyer and teachers need less of energy

requirement and different types of nutrition they need to take. This is because their job does not

require a lot of energy to do work. It is important that meals for very active jobs to provide

sufficient energy, and it is advisable to supply about one third of third of the energy in the form

of fat as carbohydrates food tend to be bulky and would therefore be difficult to digest while

working actively. Extra water and sodium chloride should be taken if work is carried out in a hot

atmosphere.

EMOTIONAL FACTORS

The very young infant will generally cry until fed but by four or five months of age may

stop crying when he hears his mother’s footsteps or sees that the formula is being prepared,

presumably having learned to anticipate and to wait for the relief of hunger pain. In later life, the

period of tantalizing anticipation before a meal may actually be considered pleasurable, The

repetitive cycle of nutritional and emotional gratification during infancy becomes further

associated with the person giving the food, usually the mother, so that being loved and fed come

to be associated in the mind of infant. Research has proved that the rate of secretion of

hydrochloric acid in the stomach of a 15-month-old girl with gastric fistula was shown to

increase during period of social contact with a loved person and to decrease when approached by

a stranger.

As a conclusion, these factors are vital for your nutrient intake. Choose a good diet

because you are what you eat.

References

Anita Tull, 1987. Food and Nutrition.Oxford University Press.

Jeannette Brakhane Endres, Robert E. Rockwell, Cynthia Gurdian Mense, 2004. Food, Nutrition

and The Young Child. Ohio:Pearson Prentice Hall

Volpe S.L, Sabelawski S.B, Mohr C.R, (2007). Fitness Nutrition for Special Dietary Needs .

Human Kinetics : United States of America

Child Carolyn (2001) Food and Nutrition in The Early Years. Hodder & Stoughton : Britain

Mead, M: Dietary patterns and food habits.J.Amer.Diet, Ass, 19:1, 1943.

Stewart Hare(2005). Factors that affect the nutritional requirements of an individual. Obtain on September 21, 2010 from http://stehar.searchwarp.com/swa21903.htm.

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