Animal Nutrition

• The food an animal eats every day is called its diet.
• Most animals need 7 types of nutrients in their diet. These include, carbohydrates, proteins, fats, vitamins, minerals, fiber, and water.
• Correct amounts and proportion of food leads to a balanced diet.
• If you eat too much food, some will be stored as fat. If you eat too little, then you won't have enough energy.
• Vitamins are organic substances which are only needed in tiny amounts.
• Vitamin C can be found in citrus fruits and raw vegetables.
• Vitamin C is needed to make collagen, which is found in the skin and other tissues (this keeps tissues in good conditions).
• If you are deficient in Vitamin C, it can cause scurvy which causes pain in the joints and muscles and bleeding from gums and other places.
• Vitamin D can be found in butter, egg yolks, and the sunlight that falls on the skin.
• Vitamin D is needed to help calcium to be absorbed for making bones and teeth.
• If you are deficient in Vitamin D, it can cause rickets in which the bones become very soft and deformed.
• Calcium is a mineral which can be found in milk, other dairy products, and bread.
• Calcium is needed for bone and teeth; and blood clotting.
• If you don't have enough Calcium, you can have very brittle bone and teeth and poor blood clotting.
• Iron is a mineral which can be found in liver, red meats, egg yolks, and dark green vegetables.
• Iron is used for making haemoglobin.
• If you don't have enough Iron, you can have anaemia which is where there are not enough red blood cells so the tissues do not get enough oxygen delivered to them.
• Minerals are inorganic substances.
• Fiber 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.
• Soft foods do not stimulate the muscles very much. Muscles work more strongly when there are harder, less digestible food, like fiber, in the alimentary canal.
• Fiber keeps the muscles in the digestive system working and therefore helping with constipation.
• All plant foods contain fiber. This is because plant cells have cellulose and cell walls. Humans cannot digest cellulose.
• The kind of fat found in animals foods is called saturated fat. They contain cholesterol.
• People who eat a lot of cholesterol and saturated fat are more likely to get heart disease. This is because fat deposits build up on the inside of the arteries, making them stiffer and narrower.
• If the arteries get blocked, then not enough blood can get through, meaning the heart will run short of oxygen. This is called coronary heart disease.
• The deposits of saturated fats or cholesterol can also cause a blood clot, which can lead to a heart attack.
• Dairy products, red meat, and eggs contain a lot of saturated fat.
• Vegetable oil is a good substitute to animal oil which will help lower the amount of saturated fat intake.
• Fish and white meat such as chicken, will help lower the amount of saturated fat intake.
• People who take in more energy than they use get fat. This is called obesity.
• Obese people are more likely to get heart disease, strokes, and diabetes.
• Extra weight can also cause joint problems in the legs.
• Malnutrition is caused by not easting a balanced diet.
• A common form of malnutrition is called kwashiorkor.
• Kwashiorkor is the lack of protein in the diet.
• Severe shortage of energy in the diet causes marasmus, which is where someone looks very underweight.
• The alimentary canal is a tube running from one side to another end of the body.
• Before food has any use to the animal, it has to get out of the alimentary canal and into the bloodstream. This is called absorption.
• Before food molecules can be absorbed, they have to be broken down into smaller ones. This is called digestion.