In your junior classes, you have read about various bases on which we differentiate between living and non-living things. You may recall that living beings show movement, respiration, nutrition, growth, etc. These processes are not present in non-living things. But we are unable to see movement or nutrition or growth or breathing in many living beings. How do we say that such organisms are living beings. Various movements, which may not be apparent from outside take place inside a living being. These movements can be on the scale of molecules or on the scale of cells. Living beings need certain processes to replace worn out parts. They need some raw materials for doing that. These raw materials come through food. Food is further converted into energy so that various movement can take place. So, it can be said that there are certain processes in a living being which are necessary to maintain life. These processes are called life processes
Various functions carried out by living beings, which are necessary to maintain and continue life are called life process. Following are the life processes in living beings:
In this section, you will read about different types of nutrition. Depending on the complexity of molecules in food, different living beings follow different modes of nutrition.
| Autotrophic Nutrition | Organism makes its own food. |
|---|---|
| Heterotrophic Nutrition | Organism depends on other organisms for food. |
| Saprotrophic Nutrition | Organism feeds on dead remains, and digestion happens before ingestion of food. |
| Holozoic Nutrition | Digestion happens after ingestion of food, i.e. inside the body of the predator. |
The process by which an organism takes food and utilizes it is called nutrition.
Need of nutrition: Organisms need energy to perform various activities. The energy is supplied by the nutrients. Organisms need various raw materials for growth and repair. These raw materials are provided by nutrients. Since the body of all organisms are made of carbon-based molecules, hence all organisms need food which contain carbon-based molecules. The food is always taken from outside. However, some organisms make food by utilising raw materials which are taken from outside.
Nutrients: Materials which provide nutrition to organisms are called nutrients. Carbohydrates, proteins and fats are the main nutrients and are called macronutrients. Minerals and vitamins are required in small amounts and hence are called micronutrients. Carbohydrate is required for generating energy and hence is often consumed in largest proportion. Protein is building block of cells, so protein is necessary for all living beings. Lipid is also an important building block of cell. Minerals and vitamins are required for facilitating various biochemical functions.
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