Back
Keentune
Nutrition curriculum 26 chapters
·
195 concepts
·
free
Everything the adaptive question bank can teach and test in Nutrition, from foundations through advanced practice. Work through it in order, or start practising and let the questions find your level.
Start practising Nutrition
New here? Read the Nutrition guide
A free 18-minute primer — the mental model, the mistakes beginners make, and what to practise first.
A. Foundations of nutrition science
•
A nutrient is a substance the body needs from food; essential vs nonessential turns on whether we can synthesize enough.
•
Carbohydrate, protein, fat, vitamins, minerals, water — and which three carry energy.
•
What must be shown to call a compound essential: deficiency signs that resolve only on resupply.
•
4/4/9 kcal per gram (and 7 for alcohol) and why the numbers are averages, not constants.
•
Mechanistic study → observational cohort → randomized trial → systematic review, and what each can and cannot establish.
•
Why nutrition leans on cohorts, and what a cohort can never rule out.
•
People who take the "healthy" option differ in a hundred other ways; the healthy-user effect explains many reversed findings.
•
Food-frequency questionnaires and recalls under-report systematically, and not at random.
•
A 50% relative increase on a 2-in-10,000 baseline is a different headline than it sounds.
B. Energy balance and expenditure
•
Total expenditure = basal metabolism + thermic effect of food + activity; their rough proportions.
•
What BMR is, what drives it (fat-free mass most of all), and why "slow metabolism" is usually a small effect.
•
The energy cost of digesting and storing a meal, and why protein's is highest.
•
Non-exercise activity thermogenesis: fidgeting, standing, walking — the most variable term in the equation.
•
Expenditure falls more than mass loss predicts during a deficit; the mechanism behind the plateau.
•
Indirect calorimetry and doubly labeled water: what each actually measures.
•
Calories per gram of food, and why water and fiber content dominate it.
•
Glucose/fructose/galactose, sucrose/lactose/maltose, starch and glycogen — the structural ladder.
•
The definitional split, and why a label can show high total sugar with zero added.
•
Index measures a fixed carbohydrate dose; load scales it by the real portion.
•
Insulin and glucagon as opposing signals; what "spike" language does and does not mean.
•
Hepatic-first metabolism of fructose and why the dose and food matrix matter.
•
Lactase decline vs milk allergy — an enzyme problem, not an immune one.
•
Nutritive vs non-nutritive sweeteners; why sugar alcohols cause GI symptoms.
D. Fiber, the gut and the microbiome
•
Solubility predicts behavior: viscosity and fermentation vs bulk and transit.
•
Viscous fibers trap bile acids, forcing hepatic cholesterol draw-down.
•
Colonic bacteria ferment fiber to short-chain fatty acids; what the colonocyte does with butyrate.
•
Starch that escapes small-intestinal digestion, including the cooling effect on cooked starch.
•
A prebiotic is a substrate, not an organism — the distinction people collapse.
•
Effects are strain- and dose-specific; "probiotic" on a label claims nothing by itself.
E. Protein and amino acids
•
Which amino acids the body cannot make, and what "conditionally essential" adds.
•
Quality = digestibility × essential-amino-acid pattern; what DIAAS and PDCAAS score.
•
One short amino acid caps synthesis the way the shortest stave caps a barrel.
•
Combining plant sources across the day, and why same-meal pairing is not required.
•
Intake minus loss as the classic status measure, and where it misleads.
•
Continuous breakdown and resynthesis; there is no long-term storage form of protein.
•
How a protein requirement is derived per kilogram of body mass, and why needs shift with age and training.
•
Marasmus vs kwashiorkor as the classic energy-vs-protein contrast.
•
Glycerol plus three fatty acids; chain length and saturation as the two axes.
•
Double bonds change melting point, oxidation risk and physiological effect.
•
Industrial partial hydrogenation vs ruminant trans fat, and why the industrial form was removed.
•
Linoleic and alpha-linolenic acid: the two we must eat.
•
ALA → EPA → DHA conversion is inefficient; why the source matters.
•
Endogenous synthesis dominates; why the two numbers move differently.
•
Chylomicron, VLDL, LDL, HDL — cargo carriers, not "kinds of cholesterol."
•
Membrane lipids and plant sterols; the emulsifier role of lecithin.
•
Smoke point, oxidative stability and why polyunsaturated oils fare worst under heat.
G. Digestion and absorption
•
Mouth to anus with the accessory organs; what each segment contributes.
•
Amylase and lingual lipase start early; acid and pepsin denature and cleave protein.
•
Villi, microvilli and the transporters that move each class of nutrient.
•
Water and electrolyte reclamation plus microbial fermentation.
•
Amylase, lipase, proteases and bicarbonate delivered to the duodenum.
•
Bile emulsifies fat rather than digesting it; the micelle as the delivery vehicle.
•
Long-chain fats leave via lymph, not the portal vein — the reason the two routes exist.
•
CCK, GLP-1, ghrelin and PYY as the appetite and secretion signal set.
H. Metabolism and fuel use
•
Glucose to pyruvate, with or without oxygen; the ATP ledger.
•
Acetyl-CoA oxidation and the electron carriers it loads.
•
The electron transport chain and where most ATP is actually made.
•
Liver glycogen buffers blood glucose; muscle glycogen serves only that muscle.
•
Making glucose from lactate, glycerol and amino acids — and why fatty acids cannot.
•
Fatty-acid chopping to acetyl-CoA and its oxygen dependence.
•
Ketone bodies as a brain-sparing fuel when carbohydrate is scarce.
•
Converting surplus carbohydrate to fat: real, but a minor pathway at ordinary intakes.
•
The hormonal switchboard that flips storage and mobilization.
I. Dietary Reference Intakes
•
The DRI family and the question each member answers.
•
The EAR meets half the group's need; it is the assessment workhorse.
•
RDA = EAR plus a variability margin, so it covers nearly everyone — not a target for a group mean.
•
When the evidence cannot support an EAR, an AI is observed intake, not a proven requirement.
•
The UL is the ceiling of no expected harm, and applies to total intake from all sources.
•
Acceptable Macronutrient Distribution Ranges as percentages of energy, and what falling outside implies.
•
EER is a prediction equation, not an allowance with a safety margin — the asymmetry that surprises people.
J. Water-soluble vitamins
•
Most B vitamins act as coenzymes in energy metabolism, not as fuel.
•
Water solubility means low storage, urinary loss and cooking loss — but not zero toxicity.
•
Thiamin's decarboxylation role; beriberi and Wernicke-Korsakoff as the deficiency picture.
•
FAD/FMN carriers and light sensitivity that shapes packaging.
•
NAD/NADP, tryptophan conversion, pellagra's four Ds, and the flush at pharmacologic doses.
•
Amino-acid metabolism and the neuropathy risk that gives B6 a rare water-soluble UL.
•
One-carbon transfer, neural-tube defects, and folate vs folic acid bioavailability.
•
Intrinsic factor, ileal absorption, animal-source dependence, and masking by high folate.
•
Collagen hydroxylation, antioxidant role, scurvy, and non-heme iron enhancement.
•
Requires dietary fat, bile and micelles; fat malabsorption is the classic risk state.
•
Retinoids for vision and epithelium; night blindness and the teratogenic upper end.
•
Beta-carotene converts with low, variable efficiency; carotenodermia is harmless.
•
Skin synthesis, hepatic and renal activation, calcium absorption, and why status is a blood measure.
•
Membrane antioxidant; alpha-tocopherol is the form that counts for requirements.
•
Clotting-factor carboxylation, bacterial synthesis, and the anticoagulant interaction concept.
•
Hepatic and adipose storage make chronic excess plausible in a way it rarely is for B vitamins.
•
Bone reservoir plus signaling roles; absorption efficiency falls as intake rises.
•
ATP, membranes and bone; why deficiency is rare and additives raise intake.
•
Cofactor for hundreds of reactions; food sources track whole plant foods.
•
Extracellular fluid volume control and the blood-pressure link; most intake is from processed foods, not the shaker.
•
Intracellular cation that offsets sodium's pressure effect.
•
Peak bone mass, remodeling, and the calcium-vitamin D-weight-bearing triad.
•
Heme vs non-heme absorption and the enhancer/inhibitor set that swings it.
•
Ferritin, transferrin saturation and hemoglobin measure different stages of depletion.
•
Regulated absorption with no excretion route; why unneeded supplementation is not harmless.
•
Enzyme and immune roles; phytate binding and the copper-competition mechanism.
•
Iron mobilization and connective tissue; the antagonism with high-dose zinc.
•
Shared transporters mean one supplemented mineral can induce another's deficiency.
•
Thyroid hormone synthesis, goiter, and iodization as a public-health intervention.
•
Antioxidant selenoproteins, soil-dependent food content, and a narrow safe range.
•
Enamel incorporation and the dental-fluorosis upper bound.
N. Water, hydration and electrolytes
•
Intracellular vs extracellular fluid and what moves water between them.
•
Intake and metabolic water in, urine, skin, lung and stool out.
•
Osmoreceptors, vasopressin, and why thirst lags in older adults and hard exercise.
•
Concentrated urine, weight change and function loss — with the limits of urine-color folklore.
•
Overdrinking dilutes sodium; why "more water is always better" is false.
•
Needs scale with size, heat, activity and losses, which is why fixed glass counts fail.
O. Dietary Guidelines and healthy eating patterns
•
Federal guidance for the general healthy population, and what that scope excludes.
•
Five-year statutory cycle, advisory committee, public comment — why the document has a date on it.
•
Guidance shifted from single nutrients to whole dietary patterns; the reasoning behind the shift.
•
Nutrients per calorie as the selection criterion.
•
Vegetables, fruits, grains, protein foods, dairy and oils, and what counts in each.
•
What refining removes and what enrichment does and does not restore.
•
The reference pattern's logic and how it scales across calorie levels.
•
Two alternative patterns and how they differ from the base one.
•
Why added sugars, saturated fat, sodium and alcohol carry limits stated as a share of energy.
P. DASH and cardiometabolic nutrition
•
What the DASH pattern emphasizes and what it displaces.
•
The volume and vascular mechanism, plus salt-sensitivity variation.
•
Raising potassium blunts sodium's effect through renal handling.
•
DASH's feeding-trial design is why its causal claim is stronger than a cohort's.
•
Saturated-fat replacement, viscous fiber, plant sterols and body-weight change.
Q. Food composition, labels and claims
•
What the panel must declare and what it deliberately omits.
•
Serving size reflects what people customarily eat, not a recommendation.
•
%DV is per serving against one reference adult intake; the 5%/20% rule of thumb and its limits.
•
Descending by weight, and the sugar-splitting trick that exploits it.
•
"Low," "reduced," "good source," "light" are defined terms with thresholds.
•
Authorized and qualified health claims: what evidence standard each requires.
•
"Supports immune health" needs no premarket approval — and what the disclaimer signals.
•
Major food allergens must be plainly named; advisory "may contain" is voluntary.
•
FoodData Central and why analytic values differ from label values.
R. Dietary supplements and their regulation
•
What legally counts as a dietary supplement, and how that differs from a drug or a food.
•
Supplements are regulated post-market; the manufacturer, not the agency, vouches for safety before sale.
•
Good manufacturing practice, identity testing, and undeclared drug ingredients in some categories.
•
Independent certification checks identity and contaminants, not efficacy.
•
Serious-event reporting duties and the consumer report channel.
•
Documented deficiency, life stage, restricted diet, malabsorption — the honest indication list.
•
Isolated high doses can behave differently from the same nutrient in food.
•
Vitamin K with anticoagulants, calcium and iron with certain antibiotics — the interaction concept.
•
Stacked products can cross a UL without any single label looking excessive.
S. Weight management and obesity
•
A population screening tool that misclassifies individuals with high muscle mass.
•
Waist circumference, skinfolds, bioimpedance and DXA: precision vs accessibility.
•
Every effective diet creates a deficit; the macronutrient split changes adherence more than physics.
•
Head-to-head trials converge; between-person variation dwarfs between-diet variation.
•
Hunger hormones and reduced expenditure after loss — a biology problem, not a willpower one.
•
Self-monitoring, environment design, and the food-environment lever.
•
Lean-mass loss, micronutrient shortfalls and why supervision exists.
•
Stigma worsens outcomes; language choices in nutrition communication matter.
T. Diabetes and metabolic disease
•
Reduced tissue response to insulin and the compensatory hyperinsulinemia that follows.
•
Autoimmune insulin loss vs resistance-plus-secretory-failure — different nutrition problems.
•
Matching carbohydrate to insulin as an arithmetic skill, taught as mechanism.
•
Fasting glucose, oral glucose tolerance and A1C measure different time windows.
•
A cluster definition, not a disease; why clustering matters for risk.
•
Hepatic fat accumulation and its links to energy surplus and fructose load.
•
What the classification actually claims and the absolute-risk translation people miss.
•
A dose-dependent established risk, with acetaldehyde as the mechanism.
•
Excess adiposity is one of the strongest modifiable dietary-linked risks.
•
Where the evidence is strong, where it weakened, and why trials disappointed.
•
High-dose single-nutrient trials that increased risk — the cautionary result set.
•
Heterocyclic amines, PAHs and acrylamide as formation-condition concepts.
V. Maternal, infant and child nutrition
•
Neural-tube closure happens before most pregnancies are recognized — the timing is the lesson.
•
Extra energy is modest and trimester-dependent; "eating for two" is the misconception.
•
Iron, iodine, choline and vitamin D demands and why they rise.
•
Listeria, methylmercury and the specific avoidance logic behind each.
•
Energy and fluid demands of milk production and what transfers into milk.
•
Human milk and formula composition; iron and vitamin D as the watch points.
•
Introduction timing, texture progression, and early allergen exposure reasoning.
•
Energy needs fall while most micronutrient needs do not — the density squeeze.
•
Anabolic resistance raises the per-meal protein dose needed to trigger synthesis.
•
Atrophic gastritis impairs food-bound B12 release while crystalline B12 still absorbs.
•
Blunted thirst and renal concentrating changes make dehydration easy to miss.
•
Calcium, vitamin D, protein and loading as the bone-and-fall-risk set.
•
Medication effects, dentition, isolation and cost as real intake barriers.
X. Sports and performance nutrition
•
Fat dominates at low intensity, carbohydrate at high — the crossover concept.
•
Why muscle glycogen limits prolonged high-intensity work, and how loading manipulates it.
•
Intake rates and multiple-transportable-carbohydrate logic for long events.
•
Dose, timing and total daily intake ranked by how much each actually matters.
•
Sweat rate and sweat sodium vary widely; replacement is individual, not a formula.
•
Caffeine, creatine, nitrate and bicarbonate — the short list with real trial support.
•
Under-fueling relative to training load and its endocrine and bone consequences.
•
Bacteria, viruses, parasites and toxins cause different onset times and symptom patterns.
•
The growth window between refrigeration and hot-holding, and the time limit inside it.
•
Raw-to-ready-to-eat transfer via hands, boards and cloths.
•
Why an internal temperature, not color, is the doneness test.
•
Rapid cooling, shallow containers and why a big pot in the fridge is a hazard.
•
Pregnancy, infancy, older age and immunosuppression change the risk calculus.
•
Preformed toxin illness starts fast and reheating will not fix it.
•
Immune-mediated reaction vs enzymatic or dose-dependent intolerance.
Z. Nutrition information, misinformation and counseling
•
Liver and kidneys already do this; what a "detox" product actually changes.
•
No single food carries a pattern; the marketing function of the term.
•
Botanical does not mean benign; dose and interaction still govern.
•
One trial against a body of evidence, and how headlines invert the weight.
•
Registered dietitian vs self-styled nutritionist vs influencer — what each is accountable to.
•
Industry funding, affiliate links and how to weigh a source without dismissing it.
•
Microbiome and genetic tests marketed ahead of their evidence.
•
Rigidity, moralized food language and restriction as red flags in nutrition content.
Keentune is not affiliated with or endorsed by the organizations whose documentation informs these maps.
Start practising Nutrition
All about Nutrition practice
All exam, test, and product names and trademarks are the property of their respective owners and are used here for identification and reference only. Keentune is independent study practice — not affiliated with, authorized, or endorsed by any of these organizations.
© 2026 SportaApp LLC