The National Cancer Institute provides the following precise, yet thorough, description of nutrition: The taking in and use of food and other nourishing material by the body. Nutrition is a 3-part process. First, food or drink is consumed. Second, the body breaks down the food or drink into nutrients. Third, the nutrients travel through the bloodstream to different parts of the body where they are used as "fuel" and for many other purposes. To give the body proper nutrition, a person has to eat and drink enough of the foods that contain key nutrients. (From The Dictionary of Cancer Terms, National Cancer Institute, U.S. National Institutes of Health)

The study of Nutrition Science is multidisciplinary and easily partnered with other research areas. Specialty areas such as biomedicine, agriculture, anthropology, social services, public policy, agriculture, humanitarian assistance, food and environment, health promotion, community and public health and disease prevention are often researched within a nutrition framework.

Nutrition science concentrates on the study of metabolic (metabolism and metabolic pathways) and physiological responses of the body to diet, along with the biochemical processes through which food substances change during metabolism.


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