1. DEPARTMENT OF BIOLOGY
FACULTY OF SCIENCE AND MATHEMATIC
UNIVERSITI PENDIDIKAN SULTAN IDRIS
Food Science and Nutrition
SBK3023
Title: Factors Influence the Nutrient Intake for Human
Lecturer: Dr. Hasimah binti Alimon
Group Members:
Name Matrix Number
Hairieyl Azieyman Bin Azmi D20101037426
Heng Tiger D20101037446
Muhammad Shamim Bin Zulkefli D20101037460
Ng Seng Wei D20091035105
Mohamad Arif Bin Nasaruddin D20091035123

2. FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE NUTRITION INTAKE IN HUMAN
There are a lot of factors that can affect the nutrition intake in human. Here are some
factors that we want to highlight.
The quality and quantity of food that human take.
The quality of food can be determine based on the external factor such as appearance (size,
shape, colour, gloss, and consistency), flavor; texture and internal factors such as chemical,
physical and microbial of food. Chemicals added to the crops and livestock can influence the
quality of food that we usually take. Excessive use of pesticides for vegetable plantation can
decrease the quality of vegetable and lead to decrease the nutrition value in human if we
consumed it as food. The examples of pesticides that can be used in agriculture are
dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT)-used to kill insects-, acetylcholinesterase inhibitor –used
to kill snails-, 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D) –used to kill unwanted plants- and many
more. The excessive use of these pesticides can contaminate the agricultural based food product.
When this contaminate food enter our body system, it can lead the formation of the free radical
particles. Free radicals are unstable atoms or groups of atoms that contain at least one unpaired
electron. Free radicals can attack healthy cells because another atom or molecule can bond to it
easily since it contains unpaired electron. A chemical reaction will take place and may damages
that healthy cell. This can lead to cancer and initiate other serious disease. So, it is clear that the
low quality of food that we consumed can decrease our nutrition intake.
In the other hand, quantity of food may be referring to the source of food. Malaysia is a
country which has equatorial climate, being hot and humid throughout the year which is good for
agriculture activities. But, Malaysia still cannot produce enough rice and other food products to
supply the country since Malaysia is populated with hills and does not have strong temperature
climate. But, we still manage to settle this problem by importing food from other countries.
Besides that, Malaysia is bounded by water, including the South China, Sulu, and Celebes seas,
and the Strait of Malacca. So, these enable fishery activities can take place effectively and
provide us with mass food resources. Thus, Malaysians can have a perfect nutrient content if we
take a balance diet. Compare to Somalia, which currently suffer from great drought that limited
their food source. That is why most of Somalia’s people do not a perfect nutrient needed by body
and lead to malnutrition.

3. Age
As we human grow, the nutrition that we take daily will eventually change to suit our
condition and growing process. This is due to the aging factor that the person is experiencing
where the needs for the nutrients are changing from time to time. As for infant that was born,
they only feed on milk and lactation. This is because they acquired most their nutrients from
breastfeeding. The mother’s milk is the best nutrition for baby because they don’t have any teeth
yet to chew solid food and mother’s milk contains the nutrients baby needed and it also enriched
with antibodies that supplied from the mother. While for children and adolescents, they need
more nutrients to supply adequate essential energy because at this phase they are having rapid
change in body size due to the rapid development of muscle and formation of bone. Puberty also
contribute to the increase on nutrients intake to complete maturation process and grow. While for
the adults, they are having slower growth rate and this to repair any tissues and thus they
maintaining their nutrients intake. As for the old people, they are mostly focusing in a healthy
diet and focus on intake of vitamin and other nutrients due to the loss of lean body mass.
Environment’s Weather
Environment factor is one of factors that affecting people’s nutritional intake is. We
are focusing more on the weather itself. People are more likely to consume more food during the
cold rather than hot weather. So, we will tend to eat more during the cold season, for us in
Malaysia probably in raining season. This is because of the body need to maintain the body’s
temperature to let the body’s to function well. In order the body to achieve that, the body need
more energy from food and more likely carbohydrate-rich food like rice, bread and else to keep
the body’s core at the optimum temperature. However, when it’s come to hot weather, our body
needs to be cooled and maintain. Therefore, more liquids must be taken in order to keep our
body sweat to cool it down.
Occupation and Physical Activities
Nutrients give the energy that need to perform the daily activities of living. Food may
contain a few or many nutrients and each nutrient has specific uses in the body. The amount of
energy used by the body is the energy expenditure and this varies widely from individual to
individual. In this case the factors that influence the nutrition taken by human are according to

4. occupation and physical activities. This is because when we do more work than our body
requires more energy to keep our bodies still in healthy condition. Workers like coal miners,
steel workers, forestry workers, army recruits, builder’s laborers’ and athletics’ need more food
that contains more nutrients such as carbohydrates, protein and fats. Those classes of food
important to give energy that required to sustain the function of the body such as physical work,
maintenance, respiration and circulation. Energy comes from the food eaten and released in the
body to yield the chemical energy needed to sustain metabolism, nerve transmissions and
circulation. In addition, occupations are classified according to how active they are workers.
Sedentary work like office workers, clerical tasks, pilots, lawyer and teachers need less of energy
requirement and different types of nutrition they need to take. This is because their job does not
require a lot of energy to do work. It is important that meals for very active jobs to provide
sufficient energy, and it is advisable to supply about one third of third of the energy in the form
of fat as carbohydrates food tend to be bulky and would therefore be difficult to digest while
working actively. Extra water and sodium chloride should be taken if work is carried out in a hot
atmosphere.
EMOTIONAL FACTORS
The very young infant will generally cry until fed but by four or five months of age may
stop crying when he hears his mother’s footsteps or sees that the formula is being prepared,
presumably having learned to anticipate and to wait for the relief of hunger pain. In later life, the
period of tantalizing anticipation before a meal may actually be considered pleasurable, The
repetitive cycle of nutritional and emotional gratification during infancy becomes further
associated with the person giving the food, usually the mother, so that being loved and fed come
to be associated in the mind of infant. Research has proved that the rate of secretion of
hydrochloric acid in the stomach of a 15-month-old girl with gastric fistula was shown to
increase during period of social contact with a loved person and to decrease when approached by
a stranger.
As a conclusion, these factors are vital for your nutrient intake. Choose a good diet
because you are what you eat.

5. References
Anita Tull, 1987. Food and Nutrition.Oxford University Press.
Jeannette Brakhane Endres, Robert E. Rockwell, Cynthia Gurdian Mense, 2004. Food, Nutrition
and The Young Child. Ohio:Pearson Prentice Hall
Volpe S.L, Sabelawski S.B, Mohr C.R, (2007). Fitness Nutrition for Special Dietary Needs .
Human Kinetics : United States of America
Child Carolyn (2001) Food and Nutrition in The Early Years. Hodder & Stoughton : Britain
Mead, M: Dietary patterns and food habits.J.Amer.Diet, Ass, 19:1, 1943.
Stewart Hare(2005). Factors that affect the nutritional requirements of an individual. Obtain on
September 21, 2010 from http://stehar.searchwarp.com/swa21903.htm.
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