What are 7 types of nutrition?
Types of Nutrition
Nutrition encompasses the process by which living organisms obtain and utilize food to support their life processes. There are several ways to categorize types of nutrition, but commonly they are grouped based on source and method of obtaining food. Here are seven types of nutrition:
- Autotrophic Nutrition: Organisms make their own food from simple substances. Example: Plants through photosynthesis.
- Heterotrophic Nutrition: Organisms obtain food by consuming other organisms. Example: Animals, fungi, and most bacteria.
- Parasitic Nutrition: Organisms live on or inside another organism (host) and derive nutrients at the host's expense. Example: Tapeworms, mistletoe.
- Saprophytic Nutrition: Organisms feed on dead and decaying organic matter. Example: Mushrooms and other fungi.
- Holozoic Nutrition: Involves ingestion, digestion, absorption, and assimilation of solid and liquid food. Example: Humans and most animals.
- Symbiotic Nutrition: Two organisms live together and benefit each other nutritionally. Example: Lichen (algae and fungi), rhizobium bacteria in legumes.
- Mixotrophic Nutrition: Organisms use more than one method to obtain nutrition, usually both autotrophic and heterotrophic. Example: Euglena (photosynthesizes and ingests food particles).