NUTRITIONAL TERMS – Your body depends on the
food you eat to provide nutrients. Nutrients are chemi-
cal substances found in foods that are essential for
life processes like breathing, thinking, and digestion.
The nutrients found in food are vitamins, minerals, wa-
ter, fat, protein, and carbohydrates. All foods contain
some combination of these nutrients. Only three nutri-
ents supply calories: protein, fat, and carbohydrates.
Vitamins, minerals, and water do not supply calories.
The following defines the nutrients whose values are
calculated by the scale, as well as other terms the
user may not be familiar with. The definitions will be
found in alphabetical order.
Calorie
– A calorie is a basic unit used to measure the
energy contained in food.
Carbohydrate
– Carbohydrates are the body’s prima-
ry source of readily available energy. The main forms
of carbohydrate are sugars and starches. Sources
of simple carbohydrates include table sugar, candy,
and refined flour products. Complex carbohydrates
include starches like oatmeal, high fiber cereals and
whole wheat flour products.
Cholesterol
– A wax-like substance that is not sol-
uble in water. There are two different types of cho-
lesterol: a blood (serum) form and a dietary (food)
form. It is important to know that cholesterol is not
only consumed in the diet, but also produced in the
body. Studies show that lowering the amount of high
cholesterol food in your diet is not nearly as effective
in lowering blood cholesterol as eating less saturated
fat, because some foods which are “cholesterol free”
can still be high in fat.
Dietary cholesterol is found in foods of animal ori-
gin such as egg yolks, organ meats and higher fat
diary products. Saturated fat may increase the level
of blood cholesterol. A high level of cholesterol in the
blood has been shown in studies to be a major risk
factor for heart disease. Plant-based foods such as
fruits, vegetables, grains, legumes (beans, peas, and
lentils) do not contain cholesterol.
GLOSSARY
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GLOSSARY
