ABSTRACT
Introduction 105 Nutrients and their dietary sources 105 Lifespan influences on recommended daily intakes 116
of nutrients
Regulation of nutrition 118 Summary 119 References 120 Further reading 120
The biology of nutrition pays scant regard to how good food tastes but is concerned with what nutrients it supplies. Our diet has to provide all of the chemicals that are necessary for cell metabolism, for the production of cell structures, and for the body fluids within and outside cells. In recognition of this a German philosopher, Ludwig Feuerbach (1804-1872), once quipped
‘Man ist was man isst’ (‘one is what one eats’).
