Nutrition
Since we have been learning about nutrition in class, our task was to record a food log. Nutrition requires a well-balanced diet containing nutrient and vitamins like amino acids and fatty acids.
Over the past seven days I have been recording and have been looking very carefully at my intake of nutrients, minerals, vitamins, and fats. In our task, the objective was to record the basic foods we ate during the period of seven, but it did not require recording every single detail or our intake of food. Doing this food log as a pain and it was disturbing because I never wrote about what I ate like breakfast, lunch, dinner, or additional meals. I found this food log useful because it helped me learn what I can change in my intake of foods to make my diet healthy and to see what about my diet is affecting me from being healthy because I could affect me in the future.
The purpose of recording this food log was to see what in my diet healthy or unhealthy. The purpose of this food log was also to view our eating habits because the basic average man eats many saturated fats, sugars, and red meat and this usually explains why some of them are usually obese and have diabetes. Diabetes is a problem when you eat too many foods with sugar or you eat too many sweets. In our task we were supposed to compare our eating habits to the new food pyramid. The new food pyramid describes what is healthy and the average amount of servings that should be taken daily.
The food pyramids are basically an outline of what you should eat during the day that is healthy.
Knowing what you eat is important because nutrition requires a well-balanced diet containing nutrients and vitamins and if you don't eat healthy then you can acquire diseases and dietary disorders. The new food pyramid tells you that you should include whole grains and plant oils in most meals because if you include plant oils and whole grains in most meals it reduces the rate of heart diseases ; whole grains contain Vitamin B and Vitamin B is essential for growth, the functioning of the stomach and intestines, and they are also essential for the nervous system. Vegetables should be eaten abundantly because vegetables contain the mineral magnesium which relaxes your nerves and muscles, builds and strengthens bones, and keeps you blood circulating at a constant pace. You should take 2-3 servings a day of fruits because fruits contain Vitamin C and it is essential for growth, the development of teeth, and the health of gums. The intake of nuts and legumes are good because they have fatty acids and proteins and proteins are a type of nutrient.
Proteins help the body to grow and to repair tissues. They new food pyramid says that you should take in 0-2 servings of fish, poultry ,and eggs because all of these contain all the essential amino acids. Since amino acid is the monomer of proteins, this relates to protein. The body uses about 20kmds of amino acids to construct the protein it needs. Amino acids are essential for growth.
Fish, poultry and eggs also contain Vitamin B so they are also essential for growth and the functioning of the eyes. The new food pyramid says that you should eat about 1-2 servings of daily products or calcium supplements. Since dairy products contain calcium and a little bit of phosphorus they are essential for the deposition in bones, the formation of ATP and nucleic acids and for the functioning of the heart muscles and nerves. You should limit your intake of red meat, butter, white rice, white bread, potatoes, pasta, and sweets to a ver low amount because if you take too much you can get diseases and disorders. But it is good to take some of these food because they also contain a little bit of Vitamin B which are essential for growth and the functioning of the nervous system. These food also can serve as fats which serve as a cushion for the food or a reserve energy supply.
Due to the old food pyramid suggested many years ago, it led to an increased fat and high sugar foods. Diseases like diabetes have occurred because the old food pyramid suggested high sugar foods and a lot of sugar isn't healthy especially fat that was suggested by the old food pyramid to be included in most meals. Because of these a new food pyramid was constructed and this new food pyramid served as a better or advanced guideline for keeping healthy and having a better balanced diet. The new food pyramid was much more detailed than the old food pyramid because exercise was not included in the old food pyramid and the new food pyramid had more layers separated by specific amounts and qualities. In the old food pyramid there were too many servings of milk, cheese and yogurt which consisted of two many sweets and it was then decreased to about 1-2 servings a day because the new food pyramid suggested that a daily intake of dairy products should be limited. In the new food pyramid it shows that plant oils and whole grains should be included in most meals but before in the old food pyramid it wasn't considered to be healthy so before you would have to eat these foods sparingly.
Only until recently, many have learned that some oils like plant oils are healthy. Because people were getting obese pasta, bread, and cereals were decreased from 6-11 servings a day to eating the foods sparingly because too many of these foods can get you pellagra and pellagra is where your tongue has smoothness and you have mental disorders.
Over the past seven days, I have noticed that my health may be at risk but not as much because I am following the food pyramid by eating 1-2 servings of fish, poultry, and eggs. I also don't eat a lot of red meat, butter, white rice, white bread, potatoes, pastas or sweets everyday but I do eat these during the week so it kind of helps me. But I should be eating sweets about everyday because sweets contain sugar which is glucose and glucose provides you with quick energy. I drank milk about every weekday because I eat school lunch & the lunch comes with milk.
Milk is good because it consist of calcium which helps for the functioning of the heart, muscles, and nerves. I have noticed that I don't eat vegetables a lot but I know I need to. I can improve my intake of foods by beginning to eat vegetables because if I don't the body will take the magnesium that vegetables contain out of my bones for the bloodstream which gives me weakened bones. If I don't get enough magnesium then my tissues will be affected in my heart and kidneys.
Some symptoms are that you get tremors or spasms, when your heart rate increases, when you muscle softens and weakens, or when you have headaches. You usually get these if you drink too much alcohol, have diabetes, have kidney disease, or use drugs. In the end I was able to realize the mistakes I am making in my eating habits and diet because it could be affecting my health and this is not good for a well-balanced diet. In the end, I was able to see what how I can improve in my health because increasing my intake of specific foods. Basically, since I exercised a lot I was not sure of how many calories I was consuming or how many calories I was burning due to exercise.
