What is the process by which the body converts food into energy and promotes growth?

The process by which the body converts food into energy and promotes growth is best defined as nutrition. Nutrition encompasses all the biochemical processes that involve the intake of food, the breakdown of nutrients, and the utilization of these nutrients for energy production, growth, and maintenance of bodily functions. This holistic view of nutrition incorporates digestion, absorption, and metabolism, where digestion breaks food down into smaller molecules, absorption allows these molecules to enter the bloodstream, and metabolism refers to the biochemical processes that convert these nutrients into energy or use them for growth and repair. This makes nutrition the more comprehensive term compared to the other choices, which focus on specific aspects of the overall process.