Tag: nutrition and diet

• Food is one of the basic requirements of all living organisms. 
  
• The major components of our food are carbohydrates, proteins and fats. Vitamins and minerals are also required in small quantities.  
• Biomacromolecules in food cannot be utilised by our body in their original form. They have to be broken down and converted into simple substances in the digestive system. 
• This process of conversion of complex food substances to simple absorbable forms is called digestion and is carried out by our digestive system by mechanical and biochemical methods. Hence, In a general sense, digestion is simply hydrolysis of complex polymers to monomers.

The digested food present in the food vacuole of amoeba is absorbed directly into the cytoplasm of amoeba cell by diffusion. Since, amoeba consists of only one small cell, it does not require blood system to carry the digested food. The digested food just spreads out from the food vacuole into the whole of amoeba cell. After absorption of food, the food vacuole disappears.

Chromium is an essential element involved in the regulation of blood glucose levels within the body. It interacts with the low-molecular weight chromium binding substance to amplify the action of insulin. The amount of chromium in the body can be decreased as a result of a diet high in simple sugars, which increases the excretion of the metal through urine.

Grasshoppers have the typical insect body plan of head, thorax and abdomen.
 The thorax and abdomen are segmented and have a rigid cuticle made up of overlapping plates composed of chitin. Hence, Wall of a crop is muscular and its lumen is lined with cutile is wrong about the digestive system of a grasshopper.

Termites depend on protozoans which digest the cellulose ingested from the dead wood. Protozoa will die outside the termite and termite unable to digest the food without protozoans, hence they were in a symbiotic relationship.