Chapter 4 — A Healthy Diet (Biology)
What is a nutrient?
A nutrient is a chemical that the body needs to keep in good health and keep it functioning. The human body needs a large number of different
types of nutrients. The main nutrient groups are:
Carbohydrates Fats Proteins Vitamins Minerals Water Fibre
Carbohydrates
Carbohydrates are used as a store of energy in animals and plants. They are also found in food and animals use them to make energy. There are
many types of carbohydrate including starch, sucrose (table sugar) and glucose.
Starch — an energy store in plants; found in bread, potatoes, pasta, rice
Glucose — a carbohydrate used in respiration; travels easily in blood
Plants also make cellulose, another carbohydrate, which they use to make cell walls
Fibre — cellulose in food is called dietary fibre. It is found in wholemeal bread, fruit and vegetables. We cannot digest it, but it helps the body move
food along the intestines. Fibre also takes up water, making it soft and easy to release. Bacteria feed on the fibre and add bulk to food, helping muscles
push food along. Lack of fibre can cause constipation.
Fats
Fats can also be used as a store of energy in animals. Fat contains even more energy than carbohydrates — the body cannot release it as quickly as
it can the energy stored in carbohydrates. Many mammals increase body fat in autumn so they can survive the winter.
Solid fats (saturated) Liquid fats (oils / unsaturated)
Produced by animals — e.g. lard and butter. Land mammals keep these Produced by plants. Oils cannot release energy as quickly but scatter
fats in their bodies to keep warm. light — they are translucent. Used in the fat test (translucency test on
paper).
Fat test — rub food on paper. A translucent/greasy mark means the food contains fat. Do NOT use this as part of the translucency test — it can
permanently damage your eyes.
Proteins
Proteins are found in both plants and animals. They are the materials that form most of the structures in our bodies such as muscle and bone.
Proteins are also needed for:
Growth of the body
Repairing damage due to injury or accident
Proteins are made from the elements carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen. Some proteins also contain sulfur.
Good sources: meat, fish, eggs, milk, cheese, lentils, peas, soya beans.
Vitamins
Vitamins are needed by the body in much smaller amounts than carbohydrates, fats and proteins. Each vitamin has one or more specific uses
inside the body. They were first named after letters of the alphabet; later they were also given chemical names.
Vitamin Effect on body Deficiency disease Good sources
A Increased resistance to disease; helps eyes Night blindness / infections Milk, liver, cod-liver oil
to see in the dark
C Prevents the disease scurvy; keeps the Scurvy — bleeding from gums, mouth, skin, joints; Blackcurrant, orange, lemon, papaya,
circulatory system healthy can cause death guava
D Helps body take up calcium to make Rickets — bones do not develop to full strength; Egg yolk, butter, cod-liver oil,
strong bones and teeth leg bones bend (seen in X-ray) pilchard, herring, sunlight
Vitamin A — involved in allowing eyes to see in dim light and making a mucus lining for respiratory, digestive and excretory systems, protecting
against infection.
Minerals
The body needs 20 different minerals to keep it healthy. Two especially important ones are:
Calcium Iron
Needed to make strong bones and teeth. Also used to make muscles Needed by red blood cells to take up oxygen in the lungs and transport
work, and helps blood to clot when you cut yourself. it to cells where it is needed. Lack of iron = anaemia — person
becomes tired and weak. Cured by increasing iron in diet.
Water
About 70% of the human body is water.
The body can survive only a few days without water.
All substances the body needs for life dissolve in water.
Water is found in all cells — it is where all chemical reactions take place to keep us alive.
Blood is made mainly from water — it transports all other blood components around the body.
Water cools the body down through evaporation of sweat from the skin.
Energy in food
A bomb calorimeter measures how much energy is stored in food. Food is placed inside and oxygen is pumped in. The food is set on fire and the
energy it produces is measured in kilojoules (kJ).
Energy values of some foods per 100g: jam 1116 kJ, peanut 2428 kJ, lamb 1025 kJ, milk 274 kJ, cheese 1 1531 kJ, cheese 2 1066 kJ, butter 3066 kJ.
The amount of energy a person needs varies by age, sex, and level of activity. For example, a 25-year-old male needs about 12,100 kJ/day, while a
25-year-old female needs about 9,600 kJ/day.
Age/years Daily kJ — Males Daily kJ — Females
2 5500 5500
5 7000 7000
8 8800 8800
11 10000 8800
14 12900 9200
18 14200 10500
25 12100 9600
Balanced diet & food groups
A balanced diet contains all the nutrients in the right amounts to keep the body healthy. Everyone should aim for a balanced diet. Eating habits
can be unbalanced — eating too much of something or too little. Too much fat in the diet can lead to obesity.
The food pyramid shows how much of each food group you should eat. You should eat large amounts of foods shown at the base (cereals, vegetables,
fruit) and only very small amounts of foods shown at the top (fats, sweets, sugary foods).
Food group Key nutrients provided
Vegetables and fruit Carbohydrate, vitamin A, vitamin C, minerals, fibre
Cereals Carbohydrate, protein, B vitamins, minerals, fibre
Pulses Carbohydrate, protein, B vitamins, iron, fibre
Meat and eggs Protein, fat, B vitamins, iron
Milk products Protein, fat, vitamin A, B vitamins, calcium
Malnutrition & famine
MALNUTRITION
Malnutrition occurs when a diet provides too few or too many nutrients. Malnutrition affects the growth and development of the body — bodies
will grow and develop much more slowly than normal, and as time goes on they will be smaller and less well-developed than people with healthy
diets. Obesity (too much fat in the diet) is also a form of malnutrition.
FAMINE
Famine is a lack of all foods. It can be caused by crop failure, busy wars, or human actions. The lack of food affects the health of everyone during
a famine. Children are especially vulnerable — their bodies grow more slowly and are smaller and less well-developed.
Treatment — malnourished children are given F75 (powdered milk mixed with water) first to prepare their body. Then F100 to build them up. An
alternative is Plumpy'nut — made from peanut paste, powdered milk, minerals and vitamins.
Iodine deficiency
Iodine is a mineral that the body needs to repair its growth gland. If lacking in the diet, iodine deficiency disease results:
The thyroid gland in the neck swells — causes a goitre
Body changes slow down
Changes in heartbeat
Feelings of tiredness and dizziness
Iodine passes into the roots of plants from the soil. If the soil lacks iodine (e.g. after being washed by rain) plants cannot take it up. Common in
parts of Africa, Tanzania. Treated by adding Universal Salt Iodisation (USI) to food.
Science in context — Eijkman & beriberi
Christiaan Eijkman (1858–1930) was a Dutch doctor who investigated the disease beriberi at a medical school in the East Indies. Beriberi causes
nerve failure — muscles become weak, movements (especially walking) become difficult, and the heart may stop.
At the time, other scientists thought microorganisms caused beriberi.
Eijkman tested chickens for microorganisms — no success.
By chance, a new cook changed the chickens' feed from polished (white) rice to chicken feed — the chickens recovered. When fed polished
rice again, they got beriberi. On chicken feed, they recovered.
Polished rice = rice with outer skin removed. The skin contains Vitamin B1 (thiamin).
Vitamin B1 is essential for keeping nerves healthy and preventing beriberi.
Found in bread, milk, brown rice, soya beans, potatoes.
This story shows how scientific thinking changed — Eijkman moved away from the germ theory idea and found a nutritional cause instead. Chance
observation (the cook changing food) played a key role.
Chapter 17 — Light (Physics)
Light rays
Light leaves the surface of a luminous object in all directions. If light is made to pass through a hole, it can be seen to travel in straight lines.
When sunlight shines through a gap in clouds → broad sunbeams with straight edges (the path is visible because light reflects off dust).
Sunlight through curtains of a dark room → beam visible when it reflects off dust in the air.
Smaller lines of light are called rays — made by shining a lamp through slits in a piece of card.
Pinhole camera — a device used to investigate light-rays. Light passes through a circular hole and strikes a screen behind the hole. Light from the top
of an object goes through the hole and hits the bottom of the screen; light from the bottom hits the top — so the image is inverted (upside down).
Key terms in reflection
Term Definition
Incident ray A light-ray that strikes a surface
Reflected ray A light-ray that is reflected from a surface
Normal A line at right angles (90°) to the surface that the incident ray strikes
Angle of incidence The angle between the incident ray and the normal
Angle of reflection The angle between the reflected ray and the normal
Plane mirror A mirror with a flat surface
Image The appearance of an object in a smooth, shiny surface — it is produced by light from the object being reflected by the surface
Law of reflection
Angle of incidence = Angle of reflection
This law always holds for reflection at a plane surface. The incident ray, normal, and reflected ray all lie in the same plane. The back surface of a
mirror is usually shown as a line with short lines at an angle — the short lines represent the back of the mirror (the non-reflective side).
Speed of light
Light travels at different speeds in different transparent substances (media).
In a vacuum: approximately 300,000,000 m/s (3 × 10⁸ m/s)
In air: almost the same — about 299,792,460 m/s
In glass: about 200,000,000 m/s
Light is slightly slower in water and glass than in air.
Armand Fizeau (1819–1896) — a French physicist who made an instrument to measure the speed of light from a candle placed 9 km away. He made
many measurements and calculated light travels at 314,262,944 m/s. Later, more precise measurements showed the correct value.
The average time taken for light to travel from the Sun to Earth has been measured as 8 minutes and 17 seconds.
Refraction of light
Refraction occurs when a ray of light passes from one transparent substance (medium) to another. The ray bends because light travels at different
speeds in different media.
If a ray of light hits the boundary at 90° (along the normal) — it passes straight through, no bending.
If the ray is tilted (not at 90°) — it bends. This is refraction.
Light slows down when entering a denser medium (e.g. air → glass) — the ray bends towards the normal.
Light speeds up when leaving a denser medium (e.g. glass → air) — the ray bends away from the normal.
Angle of refraction — the angle that the refracted ray makes with the normal. Shown on diagrams alongside the angle of incidence at the boundary
surface.
Tricks of light (refraction effects)
Light speeds up as it leaves water's surface and enters air — the light-ray appears to come from a different direction than the path it actually
travelled.
Refraction makes the bottom of a swimming pool seem closer to the surface than it really is — also makes streams and rivers seem shallower.
Anyone thinking of wading across a river should consider this — refraction makes the water seem shallower than it actually is.
A straw in a glass of water appears to be bent — the refracted light from the straw makes the straw appear to be bent at the water surface.
White light, colours & dispersion
White light is made up of many colours. This can be shown through dispersion of white light using a prism. When white light enters a prism, the
different colours refract by different amounts — they spread out into a spectrum: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet (ROYGBIV).
Newton investigated white light with prisms and showed that white light is made of many colours.
A rainbow forms for the same reason — raindrops act like tiny prisms, dispersing sunlight into its colours.
Colours of light — adding, subtracting, absorbing, reflecting
Adding colours — mixing coloured light. Red + green + blue = white light (primary colours of light).
Subtracting / absorbing colours — a coloured surface absorbs some colours and reflects others. A red object reflects red light and absorbs all
other colours.
A white surface reflects all colours. A black surface absorbs all colours.
If a red object is placed under blue light — it appears black, because the red object can only reflect red light, and there is no red light to reflect.
Exam tips — key points to remember
Biology — diet Physics — light
Nutrient = chemical the body needs Light travels in straight lines
Carbs & fats = energy; protein = structure & repair Angle of incidence = angle of reflection (law of reflection)
Vitamins in small amounts — specific functions Speed of light in vacuum ≈ 300,000,000 m/s
Vitamin C deficiency → scurvy; Vitamin D → rickets Refraction = bending of light at a boundary between media
Iron deficiency → anaemia Light slows in glass/water → bends towards normal
Water = 70% of body; needed for all chemical reactions Light speeds in air → bends away from normal
Fibre = cellulose — aids bowel movement Pinhole camera image = inverted
Eijkman — polished rice → beriberi → Vitamin B1 White light = many colours; prism causes dispersion
Bomb calorimeter measures energy in food (kJ) Red object reflects red, absorbs other colours
Malnutrition = too much OR too little nutrients Rainbow = dispersion of sunlight by raindrops