Nutrients are compounds in foods essential to life and health, providing us with energy, the building blocks for repair and growth and substances necessary to regulate chemical processes.

What nutrients are important?

The six essential nutrients are vitamins, minerals, protein, fats, water, and carbohydrates.

Why is nutrients important to life?

They are necessary to the lives of people, plants, animals, and all other organisms. Nutrients help break down food to give organisms energy. They are used in every process of an organism's body. Some of the processes are growth (building cells), repair (healing a wound), and maintaining life (breathing).