Proximate
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220669871
2008-06-21T00:10:11Z
Eubot
231599
Hatnote formatting, see [[User:Eubot/Hatnote formatting]]
:''For the linguistic sense, see [[Grammatical person#Additional persons|Grammatical person]].''
{{for|proximate causation|Proximate and ultimate causation}}
{{for|proximate cause in law|Proximate cause}}
'''Proximates''' are used in the analysis of biological materials as a decomposition of a human-consumable good into its major constituents.
What people consider proximates may vary, but usually includes:
* Water
* [[Carbohydrate]]s
* [[Protein]]s
* [[Dietary fibre]]s
* [[Fatty acid]]s
* [[Ash (analytical chemistry)|Ash]]
* [[Vitamin]]s
* [[Dietary mineral]]s
* [[Alcohol]]
What makes proximates particular is that the total of their presence in the food must always sum up to 100%. The nutritional information on food containers usually specifies the nutrients in terms of proximates, but these seldom add up to 100%, indicating that the manufacturer left out some of the insignificant ones such as water.
{{health-stub}}