Nutrition

• Nutrition is the process of taking food by an organism and utilization of food for energy.
• Parasitic nutrition is a process where the parasite obtains nutrients by living on or in the body of the host, such as dodder, fleas, lice and tapeworms.
• Nutrition is a vital process which helps living things to obtain their energy from various sources.
• Nutrients are the substances which provide nutrition and consists of carbohydrates, proteins, fats, vitamins and minerals.
• These essential components of food are called nutrients.
• Mode of nutrition varies from one species to another for their important life processes.
• There are two types of nutrition, autotrophic and heterotrophic nutritions.
• In autotrophic nutrition, the organisms make or synthesize their own food from the simple inorganic materials.
• Plants are autophytes and they have an autotrophic mode of nutrition.
• There are two types of autotrophic nutritions.
• Photosynthetic plants use energy from the sun to make their own food, for example, all green plants.
• Heterotrophic nutrition is a mode of nutrition in which an organism cannot make or synthesize its own food from simple inorganic materials.
• There are three main types of heterotrophic nutrition: Holozoic nutrition, Saprophytic nutrition, and Mixotrophic nutrition.
• Examples of organisms with Saprophytic nutrition include bacteria and fungi which digest the food externally before the nutrients are absorbed.
• Animals depend on other organisms for their food, hence they have a heterotrophic mode of nutrition.
• Chemosynthetic organisms consume simple nonliving chemical nutrients such as hydrogen sulphide (H₂S), sulphur (S) and iron (Fe) to make their own food.
• Holozoic nutrition is a mode of nutrition where organisms feed by ingesting solid organic matter which is then digested and absorbed into their bodies.
• Saprophytic nutrition is a mode of nutrition where organisms feed on dead and decaying matter.
• Autotrophic bacteria are an example of chemosynthetic organisms.
• Examples of organisms with Holozoic nutrition include humans, animals, and insectivorous plants.