营养 (yíng yǎng) literally combines 营 (yíng), meaning 'to manage' or 'to sustain', and 养 (yǎng), meaning 'to nourish' or 'to raise'. Together, they refer to the substances in food that support growth, health, and bodily functions—what English calls 'nutrition'. It’s a formal, scientific term used in contexts like dietetics, medicine, and public health, not casual speech (e.g., you wouldn’t say ‘this snack has good nutrition’ using 营养 in everyday conversation without context).

The word appears frequently in compound terms such as 营养价值 (nutritional value), 营养不良 (malnutrition), and 均衡营养 (balanced nutrition). It can function as both a mass noun (e.g., 摄入营养 — 'intake nutrition') and, less commonly, with measure words like 份 (a portion of nutrition) or 种 (a type of nutrition). While it may occasionally appear in animal or plant contexts (e.g., pet food labels), its primary domain is human health and dietary science.