Fundamentals of Food Technology

Physiological functions of food

• The first function of the food is to provide energy. The body needs energy to sustain the involuntary processes essential for continuance of life, to carry out professional, household and recreational activities, to convert food ingested into usable nutrients in the body, to grow and to keep warm. The energy needed is supplied by the oxidation of the foods consumed.


• The foods we eat become a part of us. Thus one of the most important functions of food is building the body. A newborn baby weighing 2.7-3.2 kg can grow to its potential adult size of 55-60 kg if the right kind and amounts of food are eaten from birth to adulthood. The food eaten each day helps to maintain the structure of the adult body and to replace worn out cells of the body.


• third function of food is to regulate activities of the body. It includes regulation of varied activities such as:
  
• Heart beat
• Maintenance of the body temperature.
• Control of water balance
• Clotting of blood
• Removal of waste products from the body
The fourth function of food is to improve our body’s resistance to disease.