ANT208H1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Paleolithic Diet, James V. Neel, Anatomically Modern Human
Document Summary
Malnutrition is considered bad nutrition, being an imbalance in caloric intake. Everyone needs a different amount of vitamins and minerals, e. g. males/females. As such, establishing a single norm is highly problematic. When we think about dieting, we think about carbohydrates and fats, which are the biggest energy resources. They are fundamental to getting the energy that our bodies need to survive. We get carbs from plants, and fats from animals and plants. Protein is fundamental insofar as it provides us with the building blocks of our body (e. g. bone and muscle structure, oxygen transport, dna and rna synthesis). These come from animal and plant sources, but it is easier from animals because it is already complete in terms of what we need (viz. amino acids). These are our vitamins and our minerals, which are responsible for a whole range of physiological activities. They are required in variable quantities but generally in smaller amounts than the macronutrients.
