Question

During a nutrition lab, students compared these items:

Protein bar: 18 g protein, 12 g carbohydrate, 6 g fat, plus calcium and vitamin C.
Bottle of water: 0 g protein, carbohydrate, or fat; contains dissolved minerals.
Diet soda: 0 g protein, carbohydrate, or fat; has artificial sweetener.
Potato chips: 3 g protein, 24 g carbohydrate, 9 g fat, trace sodium.
They also reviewed macromolecule diagrams and learned that all carbohydrates, fats, and proteins contain C, H, O atoms, while proteins also contain N atoms.

Some students argued that water and diet soda should count as food because we consume them. Others thought minerals should count as food because they’re needed for survival.



Scientists define food as any substance that provides energy and/or molecular building blocks.


Which of the following items count as food under this definition?
(Select ALL that apply.) 2 items

Responses

A. The protein bar — it contains carbohydrates, fats, and proteins that can be broken down for energy and matter.
A. The protein bar — it contains carbohydrates, fats, and proteins that can be broken down for energy and matter.

E. The potato chips — they have macronutrients (C, H, O-based) that provide energy and matter.
E. The potato chips — they have macronutrients (C, H, O-based) that provide energy and matter.

B. The calcium in the protein bar — it provides energy because it’s on the nutrition label.
B. The calcium in the protein bar — it provides energy because it’s on the nutrition label.

C. The bottle of water — it hydrates cells but supplies no usable energy or building blocks.
C. The bottle of water — it hydrates cells but supplies no usable energy or building blocks.

D. The diet soda — it contains artificial sweetener so it can provide some molecular building blocks.

Answer 1

Correct answers: A and E.

Why:
- A (protein bar) — Yes. It contains proteins, carbohydrates, and fats that can be metabolized for energy and used as molecular building blocks (carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen).
- E (potato chips) — Yes. They contain macronutrients (carbs, fats, some protein) that provide energy and material for building molecules.

Why the others don’t count under the given definition:
- B (calcium) — Minerals are essential nutrients but do not provide metabolic energy; they aren’t a source of caloric building blocks.
- C (bottle of water) — Water is essential (hydrates, supplies H and O) but does not provide usable chemical energy or the organic building blocks (carbon skeletons) meant by “food” here.
- D (diet soda) — Artificial sweeteners and most diet-soda components provide negligible or no metabolizable fuel or carbon-building blocks, so they don’t meet the “energy and/or molecular building blocks” criterion.