Previous posts in this blog have noted that there is only
incomplete information about the utility of various nutrients in the body. Specifically, while many functions are known,
there are many that are not, especially for the rarer nutrients. Also, it is not known how the requirements
for nutrients vary with the condition of the flora in our intestine, with our
age and condition, with our activity level and type, for the repair of damage and
the support of growth, in infected or otherwise diseased states, and so
on. In short, instead of a
well-researched model of how food components are used in the body, we have some
sketchy information, despite the huge budget of the FDA and sister agencies
around the world and the importance of the food industry to the world
economy.
So, it would only be fair to come up with a template that we
might ask to have researched and completed.
Once that is done, we can use the information in the database to plan
excellent meals in different situations.
Without it, we are stuck with guesses and pushed in the direction of
using our taste sensor suite as a guide, which it is not. So, to give the customer of our food
preparation what he or she needs, here is the information we want.
For each nutrient, broken down as fine as necessary to
provide comprehensive answers, we want to have this list of data:
- Where in the body is it used and what does it do there? Where does not mean, ‘in the liver’ or ‘in the marrow’, and what does not mean ‘growth’ or ‘energy’. Where means in what cells of the liver, marrow or wherever, and what means what cellular components are built from it, repaired using it, powered from it, replicated from it, or whatever. By going down to the cellular level, we reach the end of the line in asking about functionality.
- How does it travel from the intestinal wall to the interior of the cell, and what changes happen to it along the way? Does it simply dissolve in the blood stream and wind up in a capillary near the target cell, and then ooze between cells until it gets to the final destination, and how does it work the cellular wall interfaces to get in? Does it get methylated, oxidized, combined with something else, split into pieces or shortened, or wha
- Where are there reservoirs in the human body for the nutrient? If there are any, other than the implicit one of the transport channel, where are they, down to the cellular level if stored in cells, or if in some liquid like the secretions of a gland, exactly where, and also, how much can be stored? Is the capacity a function of condition, age, status or other variables?
- What is the interaction of the nutrient with the intestinal flora, assuming they do interact, and which ones interact with it, and what do they do? If there is only one microbe that reacts with it, which is it, and is the microbe’s interactions necessary for the transport or adaptation of the nutrient to its final form in which it is used?
- What is the attrition rate in passing through the parts of the human digestive system, e.g., what does stomach acid do to it? Is there some change caused before it reaches the intestine and the flora there?
- What is the usage rate and how is it determined? Not how was the measurement done, but actually how is it consumed and what factors change that usage rate, like exercise, infection, aging, status changes like puberty, or whatever?
- What happens if too much is ingested, and how is ‘too much’ determined? What cells or other things in the body are damaged, if any, or is excretion the only result? Is an increase in demand for some other nutrient created by a surplus of the nutrient in question? What are the visible signs of over-ingestion, and what tests can determine it? The answer to this would depend, for those nutrients that have reservoirs, what is the capacity of the reservoir. Obviously, if it is empty, ‘too much’ doesn’t start until it is filled.
- What happens if too little is ingested, and how is ‘too little’ determined? Do cells die, cease some classes of activity, slow down some reactions, expend resources modifying themselves to withstand the shortage, create chemical signals that indicate shortage, or what? Similar comments on the play of a nutrient reservoir apply here
- What is the domain of the nutrient, in other words, what are the various forms of the nutrient and are they interchangeable? Do the different forms react differently in any of the cells that they are targeted to and the same in the rest? Do the different forms produce the same function, but require different amounts to accomplish the same bodily function to the same degree?
To summarize, we want to know what it does in the body, in
any amount, and how it moves through the body.
Liquids as well as solids are considered nutrients. It is not really germane to ask about what
passes through the lungs, except to note that the oxygen absorbed there is used
in some of the chemical reactions of the body, and lung damage, reducing the
available oxygen, might change nutritional requirements.
The form of the data should be statistical, and any
correlations with observables or measurable noted. For example, if the reservoir of a particular
nutrient has a strong correlation with weight, or bone mass, or something else,
that should be included in the data set.
The residual variation between individuals which remains unexplained
should be given by a standard deviation, unless the requirements have a
non-Gaussian shape. In this case, some
distributional information would be useful.
