Nutritional science
Nutritional science studies how food, nutrients, and dietary patterns affect health, growth, metabolism, and disease.
Macronutrient: A nutrient needed in relatively large amounts, principally carbohydrates, fats, and proteins. These nutrient classes provide most dietary energy and much of the body’s structural material.
Nutrient metabolism: The chemical processes by which the body transforms nutrients to produce energy and build or maintain tissues. It explains how absorbed nutrients are used, stored, and converted.
Medical nutrition therapy: The use of individualized nutrition care to manage or treat a medical condition. Clinical nutrition applies evidence about food and metabolism to patient care.
Dietary assessment: The measurement of foods and nutrients consumed by individuals or populations. Imperfect recall and recording make actual dietary exposure difficult to measure.
Nutritional pseudoscience: Dietary claims presented as scientific despite lacking reliable evidence or sound methods. It contrasts evidence-based nutrition with unsupported claims about foods and health.
Micronutrient: A vitamin or mineral needed in small amounts for normal growth, metabolism, and health. Deficiencies and excesses of vitamins and minerals are central subjects of nutritional research.
Insulin: A hormone that helps regulate blood glucose and the storage and use of nutrients. Insulin links meals, glucose handling, and metabolic regulation.
Dietary guideline: A public recommendation describing dietary patterns associated with health and disease prevention. Guidelines turn research findings into advice for populations.
Randomized controlled trial: A study that assigns participants by chance to interventions or comparison groups. Trials can test dietary interventions, though long-term diet studies are difficult to conduct.
Reductionism: An approach that explains complex phenomena by focusing on their component parts. Nutrient-focused studies can miss effects of whole foods and dietary patterns.