Author: Glossary

  • Agricultural biotechnology

    The application of molecular biology to agriculture, including but not limited to transgenic techniques, in which scientists develop plant and animal varieties that contain genes from other species.  

  • Ageusia

    Ageusia

    Loss or impairment of the sense of taste. Deficiency or absence of taste sense.  

  • Adulteration

    Adulteration

    The addition of substances to foods etc. in order to increase the bulk and reduce the cost, with intent to defraud the purchaser. Drug tampering in which inexpensive, inferior, or hazardous substances are mixed with a particular drug. The act of making something less pure by adding another substance. The addition or substitution of an…

  • Adipsia

    Adipsia

    Absence of thirst. Lack of thirst sensation. Absence of thirst; lack of desire to drink fluids.  

  • Adiposis

    Adiposis

    Presence of an abnormally large accumulation of fat in the body – also known as liposis. A state where too much fat is accumulated in the body. The presence of abnormally large accumulations of fat in the body. The condition may arise from overeating, hormone irregularities, or a metabolic disorder. In adiposis dolorosa, a condition…

  • Adequate intake

    Where there is inadequate scientific evidence to establish requirements and reference intakes for a nutrient for which deficiency is rarely, if ever, seen, the observed levels of intake are assumed to be greater than requirements, and thus provide an estimate of intakes that are (more than) adequate to meet needs. Used when an RDA cannot…

  • Apo-carotenal

    Aldehydes formed by oxidation of carotenes, other than retinaldehyde.  

  • Aphagosis

    Inability to eat.  

  • Apastia

    Refusal to take food, as an expression of a psychiatric disturbance.  

  • Antivitamins

    Substances that interfere with the normal metabolism or function of vitamins, or destroy them. A vitamin antagonist; a substance that makes a vitamin ineffective.