ABSTRACT
Previous chapters have been concerned with fats and carbohydrates, substances containing almost exclusively the major elements carbon, hydrogen and oxygen, and it has been shown that these elements combined in the form of fats and carbohydrates are of fundamental importance in food science and nutrition. In addition to these major elements there is a fourth, namely nitrogen, which also plays a vital role in human life and which, when combined in the form of amino acids and proteins, constitutes a third group of ‘macronutrient’ compounds which are of basic importance in food and nutrition.
