Major nutrient and chemical compound in fruit juice

Fruit juice is important in human nutrition for beyond its use as a refreshing source of liquid. Many fruits contain a variety of minor ingredients, particularly vitamins and minerals, as well as carbohydrates which are the predominant solid component.

Although fruit contains small amounts of protein and fat, these are not important ingredients of juices.

Nutrients frequently consumed in sub-optimal concentrations by humans are protein, calcium, iron, vitamin A, thiamin (vitamin B1), riboflavin (vitamin B2) an ascorbic acid (vitamin C). Some of these nutrients occur in higher concentrations in fruit juices than in other foods. There is experimental evidence that indicates that ascorbic acid of natural origin is apparently superior to that of synthetic origin.

It has been established that the above phenomenon is caused by the presence of certain flavonoids compounds in fruit juice that influence blood circulation, increasing the permeability and elasticity of capillaries.

This action is known as vitamin P activity, but the flavonoids showing this property are not classified as vitamins, because there several substances with is activity and no serious deficiency diseases occur if they are not consumed.

There are indications that these flavonoids have a useful protective action, in particular against some respiratory diseases, but they are readily decomposed in the body, and it is impossible to maintain an effective concentration.

Apart from the more obvious benefits of fruit juice, such as being a source of potassium, it contains other substances that have or are claimed to have useful pharmacological activity. Sorbitol, which occurs in many fruit juices, has a laxative effect.

Several components with antioxidant activity are found in fruit juices. These are including ascorbic acid, tocopherols (vitamin E), beta carotene and flavonoids. Beta carotene has antioxidant activity that can quench the singlet oxygen that can induce precancerous cellular changes.

Whatever the nutritional interest, it should be noted that changes occur during storage, particularly to the minor components of juices and particularly under adverse conditions (e.g., light, increasing temperature, time)
Major nutrient and chemical compound in fruit juice

Triglycerides

The major components of fats and oils are triglycerides, which are formed by etherification of glycerol (a trihydroxy alcohol) and fatty acids.

Triglycerides are the most energy-rich nutrients; they provide nine calories per gram, more than twice the amount in protein and carbohydrate. The triglycerides make up the majority (95%) of lipids in food. The structure of these molecules, with its high number of carbon-carbon bonds, makes them an excellent source of energy for aerobic respiration.

Naturally occurring fats are always mixtures of different triglycerides. Triglycerides are classified as lipids, because they are insoluble in water.

In some triglycerides, all three fatty acids are the same. These are known as simple triglycerides; tributyrin, which contains three molecules of butyric acids, is an example.

Other triglycerides contain two different fatty acids and some contain three different fatty acids. These are known as mixed glycerides.

Triglycerides are digested in the intestine by lipases, enzymes that’s specifically degrade fat. Triglycerides digestion and absorption requires bile to free fatty acids and monoglycerides.

The liver also produces and secretes triglycerides, and packages them into lipoproteins. Chylomicrons are synthesized in the intestine, and VLDLs are synthesized in the liver.

Triglycerides are measured in alb test of serum lipids. High levels of blood triglycerides increase the likelihood of blood clots and may indirectly contribute to process leading to clogged arteries.
Triglycerides

Digestion and absorption at infant age

The mechanisms for digesting and absorbing major nutrients are not fully mature in the premature and term infant.

The complex process of digestion/absorption can be optimally effective only when the GI tract and accessory organs are totally develop and fully functioning. The primary function of the GI tract is the digestion and absorption of nutrients.

Not only must the muscular tube (alimentary canal) with it a mucosal lining and endocrine cells be operating efficiently in conjunction with the nervous system, but the accessory organs (pancreas, liver, and gallbladder) with their important digestive secretions also must be physiologically mature.

Normally, the initial breakdown or hydrolysis of carbohydrates depends on both salivary and pancreatic amylase. However, in the infant, carbohydrate hydrolysis is limited by the fact that although salivary amylase is present by 34 weeks’ gestation, secretion of pancreatic amylase does not begin until age 4 to 6 months.

The feeding of infants is based on primarily in degree of maturation of the GI tract and accessory organs. Good examples of the emphasis on GI tract maturity are the care given to the fat in infant formula and the time and sequence of the introduction of various foods into the infant’s diet.

Only those fats possessing an ease used in commercial formulas and the introduction of solid food, beginning with baby cereal usually occurs no earlier than 4 months of age. The absorption coefficient of fats is 90 to 95% during the first week of life and at least 96% at 1.5 months of age.

The infant pancreas, although structurally mature at term, is usable for several months to produce enzymes sufficient for effective digestion.
Digestion and absorption at infant age

The properties of vitamin C

Vitamin C is a small molecule, a white crystalline substance similar in structure to glucose. It is a highly polar, it is therefore soluble in aqueous conditions.

Vitamin C consists of a single molecule, called ascorbic acid or ascorbate, composed of six carbon atoms, six oxygen atoms, and eight hydrogen atoms, all linked to greater by chemical bonds.

Vitamin C is a water-soluble nutrient essential for life and is used by the human body for many purposes. The term vitamin C is generally used to describe all compounds that qualitatively exhibit the biological activity of ascorbate, including ascorbate and DHA.

All animals and plants synthesize their own vitamin C, except for a small number of animals, including guinea pigs, humans, apes, the red-vented bulbul, a fruit eating bat and a species of trout, that cannot.

Vitamin C is heat labile, and is destroyed by alkali solutions but stabilized by acid solution. It absorbs light whereupon it is destroyed.

The active part of the substance is the ascorbate ion, which can express itself as either an acid or a salt of ascorbate, that is neutral or slightly basic.

Commercial vitamin C is often a mix of ascorbic acid, sodium ascorbate and/or other ascorbates. Absence of vitamin C causes scurvy, leading to spongy gums, loosed teeth, bruising, and bleeding into the mucous membranes.

The properties of vitamin C

Balance diet during pregnancy

Pregnancy is a period of increasing nutritional demands associated with the growth of fetus and placenta; growth of maternal tissues, notably uterus and breasts; and increase in the volume of circulating blood and fat stores.

During pregnancy, the fetus’ cells and physiological capacities are developing. Therefore, women need to eat a well balance diet that has sufficient calories and represents a variety of food groups. They need to be encouraged to maintain a healthy diet and sufficient exercise throughout pregnancy.

A pregnant woman directly influences the nutritional status of her baby, and she must be sure her diet contains adequate nutrients for herself and for her baby.

Some women experience pica (persistent eating of foods that have not nutrient value). Pica behavior may lessen the nutritional level of the mother and her fetus since the mother may not eat nutritious foods in sufficient quantity, which can lead to poor weight gain, low birth weight and intrauterine growth retardation.

Also, the substance that the woman is eating may have harmful effects to the maternal fetal unit.

Pregnant women should increase their intake of essential nutrients and calories. For example to satisfy the protein demand of pregnancy, WHO recommends a total diet daily intake of .52-.57 g/kg.

Fat is more energy dense than carbohydrate or protein. Recent evident suggest that omega-3 fatty acids consumed during pregnancy are beneficial to cognitive development in infancy and childhood.

Pregnant women should consume 25-30% of their daily energy as fatty acids and they requiring 2500 kcal/day would need to consume 69-83 total grams fats daily.

They will need extra iron and may require additional vitamin and mineral supplementation.   A pregnant woman needs iron to satisfy the demand created by the growth of fetus, placenta and red cell mass during pregnancy and also the blood loss expected at the time of parturition.
Balance diet during pregnancy

Human body composition

Human body is composed of various tissues and numerous body cavities filled with body fluid.

Around 1850s, Justus von Liebig found that the human body contains many substances present in food and that body fluids contain more sodium and less potassium than tissues.

The average human body contains about 20 % of fat, 15% protein, much smaller amounts of carbohydrate (perhaps I %) and large amounts of water.

Although fat is found primarily in adipose tissue, intracellular triglyceride pools are also observed in liver, skeletal muscle and other organs, particularly in pathological conditions such as hepatic steatosis and various forms of lipidosis.

Human body also contains substantial amounts of the “major minerals,” from calcium and phosphorus down to sulfur and magnesium as well as trace quantities of most elements.

The water content of the human body is never higher than at birth – about 70% of a term newborn infant’s weight may be water.

By adulthood, body water content is generally 56 to 64%. As the water content of the extracellular fluid is by and large controlled hormonally, the greatest influence upon tissue water content remains the ration of skeletal muscle to adipose tissue.

The human diet reflects this compositional need, and consists of large quantities of water containing, proteinaceous, fatty, and carbohydrate foods, as well as others rich in the minerals.
Human body composition 

Vitamins in Fruits

Fruits and vegetables provide excellent sources of nutrients, such as protein, vitamins, minerals and fiber as well as non-nutrient phytochemical such as sulfur-containing compounds.

Vitamins are organic nutrients that are usually required in small quantities. They play various roles in biochemical reactions in cells within the body.

Fresh fruits and vegetables contribute about 91% of vitamin C, 48% of vitamin A, 27% of vitamin B6, 17% of thiamin and 15% of niacin to Americans diet.

The following fruits are important contributors (based on their vitamin content and the amount consumed) to the supply of indicated vitamins in the U.S diets:

Vitamin A: apricot, peach, cherry orange, mango, papaya, persimmon, pineapple, cantaloupe, watermelon

Folate: strawberries, oranges, grapefruits

Pantothenic acid: plums

Vitamin C: strawberry, orange, grapefruit, kiwifruit, pineapple, banana, apple, cantaloupe, blackcurrant

Niacin: peach, banana, orange, apricot, plum

Riboflavin: banana, peach, orange, apple, avocado

Thiamin: orange, banana, grapefruit, apple

People who consume diets high in fruits have a lower risk for cardiovascular disease, most cancer types, diabetes and all-cause mortality. It is often assumed that vitamin in fruits are responsible for the protective effects of these foods.
Vitamins in Fruits

What does polysaccharide mean?

Polysaccharides are a class of biopolymers constituted with simple sugar monomers. It represents most of the structural and energy reserve carbohydrates found in nature.

Unlike protein, polysaccharides generally do not have definite molecular weight.

Many polysaccharides exist in the plant and animal kingdoms. However, only a few of these are known to be significant in mammalian nutrition, either as dietary constituents or as human cell metabolites.

The most common digestible polysaccharides in plant is starch, a polymer of glucose. It is composed of amylose and amylopectin. Starch is the energy compound stored predominantly in seeds and tubers. Glycogen is the animal counterpart of starch, but with shorter, more numerous branches.

The composition of starches also differs somewhat, but all types contain both amylase, a straight chain polymer of glucoses, and amylopectin, a branch chain polymer.

The average chain contains 20 to 25 glucose units with approximately 5 to 8 glucose molecules between branching points within the chain. On hydrolysis in the intestinal tract, starch yields dextrin and maltose and, eventually glucose.

Cellulose, the most abundant polysaccharide, is the structural component of plant tissues. It is the structural component of plant cell was, which consist of long chain of glucose residues.

Cellulose is not attacked by digestive enzymes of the human and although it provides bulk to the diet it does not contribute significantly to the nutrition of body cells.

It is fully permeable to water and solutes and therefore does not affect exchange of materials between the cells and the environment. Cellulose tends to be affected little by usual acid hydrolysis and requires the action of strong mineral acids.

Plants also contain indigestible hemicellulose, which are unrelated chemically to cellulose and are homopolysaccharides containing D-xylose. Homopolysaccharides are defined as polysaccharides formed from only one type of monosaccharide.

Pectin, present in fruit, is an indigestible heteropolymer and contains arabinose, galactose, and galacturonic acid. In general, heteropolysaccharides contain two or more different monosaccharides.
What does polysaccharide mean?

Why is vitamin E important?

Vitamin E was discovered and characterized as a fat soluble nutritional factor during reproductive studies with rats. This observation was published in1922 by Herbert McLean Evans and Katharine Scott Bishop. 

That supplement, vitamin E (alpha-tocopherol), was eventually isolated from wheat germ oil in 1936. There are four different forms of tocopherol. The tocopherols have the same name except with the prefix alpha-, beta-, gamma-, and delta- (the first four letters of the Greek alphabet).

The four compounds are closely related, with some difference in the molecular weight and in the position and number of certain molecular constituents.

Vegetable oils and lipid rich plants products (e.g. nuts, seeds, grains) are the main dietary sources of vitamin E.

In Western diets, vitamin E intakes derives mainly from fats and oils contained in margarine, mayonnaise, salad dressing and desserts and also from fortified food such as breakfast cereals, milk and fruit juices. 

Function of Vitamin E
The vitamin is an antioxidant that serves to prevent the oxidation of some body components, such as unsaturated fatty acids, and is necessary for reproduction. This vitamin involved in several biological processes such as immunity, protection against tissue damage such as heart and nerve, reproduction, growth and development.

Vitamin E also slows the aging process, probably delaying the onset of such conditions as cataracts and wrinkles. And it helps heal or alleviated many minor health complaints – including everything from burns to menopausal hot flashes.

Vitamin E deficiency 
A primary deficiency of vitamin E is rare; deficiency is usually associated with diseases of fat malabsorption such as cystic fibrosis.

Without vitamin E, the red blood cells break open and spill their contents, probably due to oxidation of the polyunsaturated fatty acids in their membranes.

Muscular dystrophy is another equally important consequence of vitamin E deficiency. Skeletal, cardiac and smooth muscles and peripheral vascular system need vitamin E for their functioning.
Why is vitamin E important?

Monosaccharides: the basic unit of carbohydrates

Carbohydrates are the most abundant organic compounds in the plant world. The simpler members of the carbohydrate family are often referred to as saccharides because of their sweet taste. Saccharum in Latin mean ‘sugar’.

Monosaccharides are, as the name implies, the simplest of the carbohydrate and cannot be broken into smaller molecules of other carbohydrates.

Monosaccharides have a general formula Cx(H2O)y with one of the carbons being the carbonyl group of either an aldehyde or a ketone. Therefore, monosaccharides can be a polyhydroxy aldehyde or a polyhydroxy ketone.

The most common monosaccharides have three to nine carbon atoms. The three most common monosaccharides are glucose, fructose and galactose.

Glucose 
Glucose is a natural sugar found in food and also produced in the body form other simple and complex carbohydrates. Glucose containing six carbons that is present in the blood, also known as dextrose or blood sugar.

Fructose
Fructose or fruit sugar occurs naturally in fruits and honey and is converted to glucose in the body. It is often added to foods in the forms of high-fructose corn syrup. It is also called levulose or fruit sugar.

Galactose
Galactose is produced from milk sugar in the mammary glands of lactating animals and is converted to glucose in the body.

All other carbohydrates are made up of monosaccharides linked together. For instance, disaccharides are composed of two monosaccharides linked together.

A molecule of lactose, the sugar found in milk is made of two monosaccharides, galactose and glucose. Both sucrose and lactose are disaccharides.

When a large number of monosaccharides are linked together as in a molecule of starch, the result is called polysaccharide.
Monosaccharides: the basic unit of carbohydrates

Carbohydrate group of food

Carbohydrates are polyhydroxy aldehydes, ketones, alcohols, acids, their simple derivatives and their polymers having linkages of the acetal type. Most carbohydrates conform to the general formula (CH2O)n, but the classification of carbohydrates includes compounds that are not true hydrates as the names implies. 

For example, deoxyribose contains 5 carbon atoms, 10 hydrogen, but only 4 oxygen rather than 5 as is customary for pentose. Moreover, some compounds that are properly classified as carbohydrates in terms of chemical properties contain nitrogen or sulfur addition to carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen.

Carbohydrate biosynthesis in plants starting from carbon disaccharide and water with the help of light energy i.e. photosynthesis is the basis for the existence of all other organisms which depend on the intake of organic substance with food.

The major carbohydrate containing foods in the human diet are: cereal, sweeteners, root crops, pulses, vegetables, fruit, and milk products. Carbohydrates play a major role in human diets, comprising some 40-75% of energy intake. Their nutritional energy value amounts to 17 kJ/g or kcal/g. Their most important nutritional property is digestibility in the small intestine.

Carbohydrates can be classified based on their chemical structure and/or based on their physiological effects. There are three main groups, monosaccharide, or simple sugars; oligosaccharides, of which the most prevalent in nature are the disaccharides; and polysaccharides the most complex of the carbohydrates. 

Defining carbohydrates by chemical structure, does not take into account their physiological differing response, such as differences in satiety value, gastric emptying times and effects on glucose and insulin levels.

Starch is by far the most important source of carbohydrates in the human diet amounting to approximately 50% of total carbohydrate in the United States, but often as much as 75% total carbohydrates in some of the developing countries.

Many starches do not have the functional properties needed to impart or maintain desired qualities on food products. As a result, some starches have been modified to obtain the functional properties required. These type modified starches, also known as derivates.

Sucrose ranks next in important comprising about 25% of carbohydrates intake. In the last 70 years the intake of complex carbohydrates in the diet of United States has decreased, and the intake of sucrose has markedly increased.
Carbohydrate group of food

Nutrient in raw food

Raw food contains enzymes. Enzymes are keys that are very importance for human body’s energy supplies. 

Raw foods also contain phytonutrients, a class of extremely beneficial compounds found only in plants.

When eaten, phytonutrients boost the immune system and provide anti-inflammatory, antiviral, antibacterial, and cellular repair benefits.

A 2006 Louisiana State University study examined the diets of more than 10,000 men and women, and found that those who consumed the most raw materials and salads had significantly high blood serum levels of vitamins C and E, folic acid and carotenoids.

Vegetables are important sources of carotenoids the B vitamins folate, vitamin C and vitamin K. They’re also primary sources of magnesium, potassium, wealth of other minerals, fiber and a host of phytochemicals. 

As soon as fruit or vegetable is picked, it begins losing nutrients, so food should be eaten as close to the time of picking as possible.

Consuming raw food meaning consuming all of the vitamins, minerals, enzymes, and phytonutrients contained therein.

Heating foods can result in the loss of many these important factors. Cooking destroys 50 to 80 percent of vitamins and minerals in foods and half of the antioxidants and carotenoids, thereby reducing the nutritional value of your meals.
Nutrient in raw food

The role of protein as a color

The role of protein in color of foods is not clear cut. In most instances it may either play a role through its interaction or as part of a complex molecules.

The brown color produced during the heating of many different foods comes, in part, from the Maillard reaction.

Maillard Reaction is a browning reaction between an amino group and a reducing group of a carbohydrate.

This reaction contributes to the golden crust of baked products, the browning of meats and the dark color of roasted coffee.

Proteins are directly involved in the color of the protein happens to be a pigment. Selected color pigments, such as chlorophyll are bound in the chloroplasts in a protein lipid matrix.

The meat turn grayish brown during cooking when protein holding the pigment becomes denatured. While milk appears white as light reflects odd the colloidal dispersion of milk protein.

The color of raw salmon flesh is a translucent deep pink red, which on smoking turns a more opaque light pink, as the conformation of the protein changes during processing light scattering within the fish increases.

The visible light range is only a small portion of the electromagnetic energy spectrum which ranges from wavelengths of 60 m for radio waves to 0.0001 nm for gamma waves.

The role of protein as a color

Ascorbic Acid in general

Ascorbic acid was recognized as early as 1734 as the factor in fresh fruit and vegetables that prevent the development of scurvy.

Vitamin C has been implicated in the hydroxylation of proline to form the hydroxyproline required in the formation of collagen.

It helps in the healing of wounds fractures, bruises and bleeding, gums and recues liability the infection.

Excellence sources of vitamin C are citrus fruits, berries, guava, capsicum and green leafy vegetables. Tomato juice, if it has been processed properly, is a fair source of this vitamin. Green peppers, cabbage, broccoli, and sprout are excellent to good sources of vitamin C.

Deficiency of vitamin C causes scurvy (spongy gums, loose teeth, swollen joints, hemorrhages in various tissue, etc) and impaired healing of wounds. Orange juice is an excellent source of vitamin C.
Ascorbic Acid

Nutrient in vegetable

Vegetables are packed with all types of healthy nutrients.

The presence of many vitamins and other chemicals such as minerals, fiber and phytochemicals in vegetables supply the body with nutrients necessary to boost energy production within the muscle cells.

Daily requirements for several vitamins including vitamin C, folic acid and beta carotene, the precursor for vitamin A can be met exclusively from fresh vegetables and fruits.

Vegetables rich in color generally indicate that they are higher in vital nutrients than their pale counterparts.

Leafy green vegetables supply a large amount of vitamin A. The dark green vegetables deliver the B vitamin folate; legumes supply iron and protein; the starchy vegetables contribute carbohydrate energy and other vegetables fill in the gaps and add more of these same nutrients.

Vegetables are also low in sodium and this help to reduce water gain.

Vegetables contain phytochemicals that may provide additional health benefits, such as using for repair and build healthy cells, organs and tissues which will increasing body immunity to disease and illness.

Nutrient in vegetable