Nutrients

Food for Health

Food Choices

Choices are highly personal Social or behavioral motives

Personal preference Taste

Sweet and saltyGenetics

Habit Ethnic heritage or tradition

Food Choices

Social interactions Availability, convenience, and

economy Benefits of home-cooked meals

Positive and negative associations Emotions

Boredom, depression, anxiety Stress

Food Choices

Values Religious beliefs, political views,

environmental concerns Body weight and image Nutrition and health benefits

Functional foodsExamples

How Healthy is the Typical American Diet?

Processed and convenience foods are easily obtainable but may not provide necessary nutrients.

Processed and convenience foods contain elevated levels of calories, sodium and fat.

50% of the population does not consume sufficient amounts of foods that provide necessary nutrients.

Nutrition-Related Deaths

The Nutrients Macronutrients:

Carbohydrates Proteins Lipids (fats) Water

Micronutrients: Minerals Vitamins

Nutrient Composition of the Body

Energy-Yielding Nutrients

Provide kcalories Carbohydrate = 4 kcal/g Protein = 4 kcal/g Fat = 9 kcal/g

Alcohol Not a nutrient Yields energy ~ 7 kcal/g

Why do we need food? Energy

Amount in a food depends on macronutrient composition

How do we get the energy from food? Breaking of chemical bonds Excess energy is stored

Metabolism Food provides materials for building body

tissues Nutrients involved in regulation of bodily

activities

Vitamins Thirteen vitamins

Water-soluble vitamins Fat-soluble vitamins

Facilitate energy release from macronutrients Almost every bodily action requires

assistance from vitamins Many are vulnerable to destruction

Vitamin C, thiamine, folate

Minerals & Water Minerals

At least 16 essential minerals Macrominerals and microminerals

Structural and regulatory roles Indestructible

Causes of mineral losses from foods Water

Medium for nearly all body activities Most immediately important for survival

Nutrient Intake and Health

Malnutrition can be eating too little or too much of one or more nutrients.

Undernutrition is malnutrition caused by eating insufficient amounts of energy-providing foods.

Overnutrition is malnutrition caused by eating an excess of energy-providing foods.

Nutrient Density

Nutrient density is a measure of the nutrient a food provides compared to its energy content.

A nutrient-dense diet is a healthy diet. Broccoli is more nutrient-dense than

French fries.

Nutrient Density

Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.

Everything in Moderation

Moderation means all types of foods and beverages are okay, as long as they are taken in moderation.

Moderation means not consuming too much energy, fat, sugar, sodium or alcohol.

Eat a Variety of Foods

No one food provides all necessary nutrients.

Selecting a variety of foods helps the body to obtain all necessary nutrients.

Balance Your Choices

There is no good food or bad food. Balancing foods allow all foods to fit in a

healthy diet. Balance calories in with calories out.

What is Normal Eating?Normal eating is going to the table hungry and eating until you are satisfied. It is being able to choose food you like and eat it and truly get enough of it—not just stop eating because you think you should. Normal eating is being able to give some thought to your food selection so you get nutritious food, but not being so wary and restrictive that you miss out on enjoyable food. Normal eating is giving yourself permission to eat sometimes because you are happy, sad or bored, or just because it feels good. Normal eating is mostly three meals a day, or four or five, or it can be choosing to munch along the way. It is leaving some cookies on the plate because you know you can have some again tomorrow, or it is eating more now because they taste so wonderful. Normal eating is overeating at times, feeling stuffed and uncomfortable. And it can be undereating at times and wishing you had more. Normal eating is trusting your body to make up for your mistakes in eating. Normal eating takes up some of your time and attention, but keeps its place as only one important area of your life.

In short, normal eating is flexible. It varies in response to your hunger, your schedule, your proximity to food and your feelings.

 

Copyright © 2012 by Ellyn Satter. Published at www.EllynSatter.com.

Understanding Science

Nutrition is a science. Developing an understanding of the

processes in nutritional science will help us to understand the relationship between nutrition and health.

Understanding nutritional processes will help us to make wise nutrition decisions.

The Scientific Method

Advances in nutrition are made using the scientific method.

The scientific method uses an unbiased approach to examine the interaction of food, nutrients and health.

The steps in the scientific method are:– Observation– Hypothesis– Theory

What Makes a Good Experiment?

A well-conducted experiment requires:

– Quantifiable Data• Can we measure the information in a scientific

manner?

– Appropriate Experimental Population• Is the population large enough and pertinent to

the study?

– Proper Controls• Can we ensure that the population ate or drank

what we said they did?

Types of Nutrition Research Studies Observational studies can include

epidemiology, the study of diet, health and disease patterns, and correlation.

Human intervention studies are also known as clinical trials.

Laboratory studies are conducted in research facilities such as hospitals or universities.

Identifying Reliable Nutrition Information

Does the information make sense?– For example, can you really lose forty

pounds in one week? Where did the information come from?

– Information from personal testimony or from one health care professional is probably not reliable.

Identifying Reliable Nutrition Information Is the information based on well-designed,

accurately-interpreted research studies? Is the sale of a product linked to the

information? Who will benefit when you purchase this

product? Has this product stood the test of time?

Food and Health Food plays vital role in supporting

health Chronic disease – epidemic levels

Multiple factors over multiple years Leading causes of death in US

Risk factors related to food Overweight and obesity Inflammation Clustering effect

Is it the genes or the lifestyle?

Nutrigenomics: The study of how diet affects genes and how genetic variation can affect the impact of nutrients on health