Water distribution in the body

Water distribution in the body
Water accounts for approximately 60% of the total body mass in a normal adult, making it the most abundant constituent of the human body. In terms of volume, the total body water in a man of average weight (79kg) is roughly 40L. Water provides the medium for the solubilization and passage if a multitude of nutrients, both organic and inorganic, from the blood to the cells and the return of metabolic products to the blood. It also serves as the medium in which the vast number of intracellular metabolic reactions takes place.

Total body water can theoretically be compartmentalized into two major reservoirs, the intracellular compartment, which includes all water enclosed within cell membranes. Of the 40L of total body water, the intracellular and extracellular compartments account for about 25L and 15L respectively. The anatomic extracellular water is functionally subdivided into plasma, which is cell free, intravascular water compartment, and the interstitial fluid (ISF), which directly bathes the extravascular cells provides the medium for the passages of nutrients and metabolic products reciprocally form the blood to those cells.

The fraction of total body weight that is water and the percentage of total body water that is extracellular or intracellular do not remain constant during growth. When express as percentage of body weight, total body water decreases during gestation and early childhood, reaching adult values by about three years of age. During this time the extracellular water (expressed as a percentage of body weight) decreases while the intracellular water increases.
Water distribution in the body

Dietary Fiber

Dietary Fiber
Recognition of dietary fiber as an important food component was reawakened in the mid 1970s. Since the simple notion that “roughage” relieves constipation has been replaces by the concept of an active dietary fiber with its many possible implications for general health. Result from the extensive research devoted to the dietary fiber during the last 15 or so years have suggested this food component may be quiet important in the prevention and management of a wide variety of disease states. Not surprisingly, fiber has been implicated as important in various aspect of bowel function. The metabolic diseases, diabetes and obesity, are believed by some researches s to be more easily regulated with high fiber and fiber supplemented diets. Fiber has also has been implicated in the control or prevention of variety of carcinomas as well as certain diseases affecting the cardiovascular system.

The varying aspects of the fiber observed by researches are related to the fact that dietary fiber is made up of different compositions, each with its own distinctive characteristics. Delineation of these many components plus their various, distinctive characteristics emphasizes fact that dietary fiber cannot be considered a single entity.

Food components figures of fiber traditionally have referred to crude fiber, primarily cellulose, rather than being inclusive for the various component making up dietary fiber.
Dietary Fiber