Read the following passage carefully and give answers to the questions.

There are three main kinds of food. Sugar and starch are grouped together as carbohydrates. They are found in bread, potatoes and rice. These are mainly energy-giving foods which the muscles and other tissues use. Fats are also energy-giving foods but do not give them up as quickly as the sugar and starches as they have to be broken up in the liver and made into sugar before they can be burnt by the body.

Proteins from the other class. These are the main solid parts in all living cells. They are found in milk, meat and fish and are necessary to the body to enable it to build new cells and repair old ones. For this reason, growing children need more proteins than adults. As children are much more active than adults and use more energy in comparison to their size they need a lot of energy-giving foods, the carbohydrates.

Children cannot get much of their energy from fat because it makes them unwell if they eat too much of it. A specially fine thing about the body is that it uses the things you like better than the things you do not like, so giving truth to the old saying ‘A little of what you fancy does you good’.

In addition to these foods, the body also needs small quantities of protective substances called vitamins. Vitamins A and D are found in fat. If a child does not receive enough Vitamin D, his bones do not harden so that he begins to walk late and when he does so, his bones bend so that he may get low legs. Vitamin B is available in the husks of wheat and rice but not in the remainder of the seed. Vitamin C is found in fresh fruit and vegetables.

In the days of sailing ships when sailors used to go short of Vitamin C on long voyages, they developed scurvy, which is due to a weakness of the capillary blood vessels. In this disease, the slightest knock causes bleeding under the skin which shows itself as big painful bruises.

Q:

What is the main function of proteins in the body?

• 1
  to build new cells and repair old ones
• 2
  to provide energy
• 3
  to support muscle growth
• 4
  to provide vitamins