A nutrient is a compound or element, usually obtained via food and absorbed from the digestive tract (but not always), that aids in the support of life and normal body functions.
 

 

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The 6 classes of nutrients are:
  • Water 
  • Carbohydrates 
  • Fats 
  • Proteins 
  • Vitamins 
  • Minerals
 

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Functions of water include:

 

 

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Losses of water from the body are mainly in:

 

 

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Requirements for water vary tremendously and are affected by many factors. For this class, we'll just note that water needs are very important, and are usually met by making good clean water available to the animal in abundant amounts at all appropriate times (which is all the time, except before and after heavy exercise).
 

 

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Carbohydrates have the general formula C6H12O6 or more generally, CnH2nOn-1

Note that the ratio of H to O is about the same as in water, 2 H to 1 O.

 

 

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NFE (nitrogen free extract) contains the sugars and soluble starches; things animals easily digest.

 
 

 

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Crude fiber contains the cellulose and lignin and other substances that are difficult or impossible to digest.

 
 

 

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Monosaccharides are simple sugars (sugars composed of one molecule only).

A few of the important monosaccharides are:

 

 

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Disaccharides are molecules composed of 2 simple sugars.

Important disaccharides to know are:

 

 

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 Polysaccharides are complex molecules consisting of many monosaccharides.

They could be very complex indeed, if they consisted of many kinds of sugars and that was important, but most polysaccharides are made up of just repeating units of glucose.

The main soluble polysaccharides are:

   

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Cellulose consists of long chains of repeating units of glucose, just like starch, but the bonds between sugars are b -bonds instead of a -bonds, and that makes all the difference in the world.

Animals do not have enzymes to digest b -bonds, so without help (from bacteria) they cannot digest cellulose at all.

 

 

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Hemicellulose is like cellulose, except it is not all glucose molecules.

 

 

 

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Lignin is a substance that is analyzed along with crude fiber. It is not really a carbohydrate though. It's significance in nutrition is that it is completely indigestible itself, and it decreases the digestibility of other nutrients.
 

 

 

 

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The function of Carbohydrates, in nutrition, is:
ENERGY

 

 

 

 

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Fats are soluble in organic solvents, like ETHER (or chloroform, carbon tetrachloride, etc).

 
 

 

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  Fats are composed of C, H, and O (carbon, hydrogen and oxygen, just like carbohydrates) but have mostly Carbon and Hydrogen and little Oxygen.

That is PART of the reason fats contain more energy, because they have more fuel. The body can get the oxygen out of the air, but not the carbon and hydrogen. The carbon and hydrogen are the actual 'fuel'.
 

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  Glycerol is a 3 carbon alcohol.

CH2OH-CHOH-CH2OH

 
  H
H-C-OH
H-C-OH
H-C-OH
  H
 

 

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  Fatty acids are chains of carbon atoms of various numbers, from 1 to 20. Example: 
  H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H  /OH
H-C-C-C-C-C-C-C-C-C-C-C-C-C-C-C-C=O
  H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H 

 
  The fatty acids of most importance are:    
  Name # of carbons # of double bonds Comment
  Acetic acid 2 0 VFA1
  Propionic acid 3 0 VFA1
  Butyric acid 4 0 VFA1
  Palmitic acid 16 0  
  Stearic acid 18 0  
  Oleic acid 18 1  
  Linoleic acid 18 2 EFA2
  Linolenic acid 18 3 EFA2
  Arachidonic acid 20 4 EFA2
1 VFA=Volatile Fatty Acid. - 2 EFA=Essential Fatty Acid

 

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  Triglycerides are made of 1 molecule of gylcerol and 3 molecules of fatty acid.

Diagramatically:

· ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

· ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

· ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 

 

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  Short chain fatty acids are the Volatile Fatty Acids, with 4 or less carbons. There are intermediate chain fatty acids (with 6,8,10,12, or 14 carbons) but they aren't very important to us. The long chain fatty acids, with 16, 18, or 20 fatty acids are the kind in storage fat.
  The Fatty Acid Table shows these fatty acids.
 

 

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  Unsaturated fats means unsaturated with respect to HYDROGEN and they contain double bonds CH=CH
  Saturated fats do not contain double bonds, and they contain all the hydrogen possible to contain. CH2-CH2
 

 

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  The primary functions for fats are:
  • Supply energy
  • Supply Essential Fatty Acids
 

 

 

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  Proteins are composed of the elements C, H, O, and N

Carbon, Hydrogen, Oxygen and Nitrogen
 

 

 

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  Proteins are very high molecular weight compounds, averaging about 36,000. They are very complex molecules, with several levels of organization
 

 

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  Proteins are made of amino acids.

All amino acids have amino groups (NH2)

 
  H
R-C-COOH
  NH2
The R stands for "anything else"
 

 

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  Crude protein is defined as N X 6.25.

Merely take the amount of Nitrogen multiplied by 6.25 and you have the amount of protein.
 

 

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Some of the amino acids must be present in the diet because they cannot be made by the animal or they cannot be made fast enough for normal performance. They are called Essential Amino Acids or Indispensable Amino Acids.

There are 10 essential amino acids for the rat (and pig). They are:
 
  Phenylalanine Methionine
  Valine Histidine
  Threonine Arginine
  Tryptophan Lysine
  Isoleucine Leucine
     
  Lysine is 1st limiting for most species in most feeds

Tryptophan is 2nd limiting for pigs (in corn)

Methionine contains sulfur, and is 2nd limiting for poultry
 

 

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  Protein quality refers to the amount and balance of the essential amino acids in a feed.
 

 

 

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  NPN is Non-Protein Nitrogen

It is just what it says: nitrogen not in the form of protein.

It will not do a nonruminant animal any good.

It can be used (with caution) to supply nitrogen to the bacteria in the rumen of rumenants, to allow the bacteria to use the nitrogen to make protein.

  
 

 

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  1. Proteins supply amino acids for the body to build proteins with.
  2. Excess protein is used for energy