Nutriment is something that increases growth or sustains life. In medical terminology it may refer to something which causes the healing of human tissue. It is a mass noun without a plural form.
While nutriment and nutrition come from the same Latin root word, they are not synonyms.
Nutrition is the act of consuming the correct variety of foods and drinks that results in health and growth. The adjective form is nutritional, and the adverb is nutritionally.
Examples
In effect, mistletoe steals nutriment from its host tree as it taps into the host’s vascular structures, much like a tick or leech purloins blood from humans. [The Roanoke Star]
Every cell in our bodies sheds tiny particles called gemmules, “which are dispersed throughout the whole system,” Darwin wrote, and “these, when supplied with proper nutriment, multiply by self-division, and are ultimately developed into units like those from which they were originally derived.” [Wired]
New research has found that nutrition education focused on reducing red meat consumption and increasing fruit and vegetable consumption may reduce the recurrence of breast cancer. [Fox News]
At the other end of the health spectrum, sports nutrition products proved nearly as popular, with sales of fitness-boosting drinks, shakes and bars posting growth of more than 40%. [The Guardian]
“The 20 tons of sweet potato aid at the end of last year were intended as nutritional assistance for babies and infants including those at an orphanage in the Sinuiju area,” the unification ministry’s spokesman Lim Byeong-cheol said at a press briefing. [Yonhap News]