FOOD DESCRIPTION

Food makes your body work, grow and repair itself. The kind of food you eat can affect the efficiency of these processes. Body function and the food that sustains it is infinitely complex. Food is in fact one of the most complicated sets of chemicals imaginable. Getting to know which nutrients are in which foods can help you to understand something of this complex relationship between your food and your body. Food is composed of many different chemical substances - 'macronutrients' (major nutritional components that are present in relatively large amounts, such as protein), 'micronutrients' (major nutritional components that are present in relatively small amounts, such as vitamins), water, and roughage (dietary fibre). Many other components can also be present in food.

   Food may contain colours (natural and synthetic), flavours, pharmacologically active substances (such as caffeine, steroids, and salicylates, which chemically affect the body), natural toxicants (naturally occurring poisons, such as cyanide), and various contaminants (substances resulting from a contaminated environment, such as pesticides). Even characteristic flavours such as those of oranges and passionfruit can depend on the presence of a dozen or more chemicals.

   Food is also more than just the chemicals it contains. Its physical characteristics are important. The size of food particles can affect the extent to which nutrients are digested and made ready for absorption by the body. For example, eating an intact apple has nutritional value different from drinking all the same chemicals in an apple purée. Ground rice is more rapidly digested than unground rice. Nutrients can be more easily absorbed from peanut butter (paste) than from peanuts eaten whole.