Variety Of Foods From Five Food Groups example essay topic

Atherosclerosis comes from the Greek words at hero (meaning Gruel or paste) and sclerosis (hardness). It involves deposits of fatty substances, cholesterol, cellular waste products, calcium and fibrin (a clotting material in the blood) in the inner lining of an artery. Atherosclerosis can affect the arteries of the brain, heart, kidneys, other vital organs, and the arms and the legs. When atherosclerosis develops in the arteries that supply the brain (carotid arteries), a stroke may occur, when it develops in the arteries that supply the heart (coronary arteries), a heart attack may occur. Atherosclerosis is a disease in which fatty material is deposited on the wall of your arteries, which narrows your arteries and eventually restricts blood flow. To help prevent atherosclerosis, a person needs to eliminate the controllable risk factors, high blood cholesterol levels, high blood pressure, cigarette smoking, obesity, and lack of exercise.

Diet recommendations include low-fat, low cholesterol, and low salt diet. Recommendations for treatment and control of hypertension, diabetes, and other diseases need also to be implemented. Body weight needs to be reduced if this gentleman is overweight and he needs to stop smoking if a smoker. He needs to get regular exercise to improve the fitness of the heart and circulation. Atherosclerosis is a slow, progressive disease that may start in childhood. In some people this disease progresses rapidly in their third decade.

In others it doesn't become threatening until they " re in their fifties or sixties. We are presuming this man who we will refer to as NORM has just been diagnosed and by changing his diet can slow the disease and even regress parts of it by leading a healthier lifestyle: - by taking steps to lower cholesterol levels, lowering blood pressure, quitting smoking losing weight and beginning an exercise programme Fortunately taking steps to achieve some of these goals helps achieve others. For instance, starting an exercise programme helps a person lose weight, which in turn helps lower cholesterol levels and blood pressure. In people who already have a high risk of heart disease, smoking is particularly dangerous. Cigarette smoking decreases the level of good cholesterol (high-density lipoprotein cholesterol or HDL) and increases the level of bad cholesterol (LDL). Smoking also raises the level of carbon monoxide in the blood, which may increase the risk of injury to the lining of the arterial wall, and smoking restricts arteries already narrowed by atherosclerosis, further decreasing the amount of blood reaching the tissues.

Plus smoking increases the bloods " tendency to clot, so it increases the risk of artery disease and stroke. People who quit smoking have only half the risk of those who continue to smoke, regardless of how long they smoked before quitting. In most Western counties, atherosclerosis is the leading cause of illness and death. Norm having given up smoking now needs to turn his attention to his diet. Diet refers to the food we eat and choices of meals we make. What you choose for breakfast lunch and dinner comprises your daily diet.

A balanced diet is one, which contains sufficient amounts of the various nutrients- proteins, fats, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals- to ensure good health. This is a rather vague definition, easy to give but difficult to apply to everyone's individual diet. The three keys to a healthful diet are balance, variety and moderation. In general a healthful diet is simply one that provides a balanced proportion of foods from different food groups, a variety of foods from within the food groups and moderation in the consumption of any food. Such a diet should provide us with the nutrients we need to sustain life. In this regard several governmental and professional health organisations have developed guidelines to help us obtain the nutrients we need.

Although the basic guidelines are simple selecting the appropriate foods in modern society is somewhat confusing. You are what you eat is a popular phrase. Careful selection of wholesome natural foods will provide you with the proper amounts of nutrients to optimise energy sources and to build and repair tissues and to regulate body processes. Six classes of nutrients are considered necessary in human nutrition: -carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, minerals and water. Within several of these general classes (notably protein, vitamins and minerals) are a number of specific nutrients necessary for life. Humans see table 1 have an essential requirement for more than forty specific nutrients.

A number of health organisations have calculated the amount of each nutrient that individuals should consume in their diets. THE RECOMMENDED DIETARY ALLOWANCES or RDA'S represent the levels of intake of essential nutrients considered on the basis of scientific knowledge available to be adequate to meet the known nutritional needs of practically all healthy persons. RDA have been established for energy intake, protein, eleven vitamins and seven minerals. Although not technically an RDA estimated safe and adequate daily dietary intakes have been developed for two additional vitamins and five minerals. It should be noted that the RDA are based on the median heights and weights for specific age groups An individual does not necessarily have a deficient diet if the full RDA for a given nutrient is not received daily. The daily RDA should average over a five to eight day period, so that one may be deficient in iron consumption one day but compensate during the remainder of the week.

Nutritionists generally become concerned when the dietary intake of a specific nutrient is consistently below 67% or two-thirds of the RDA. The RDA are not designed to be used for the requirements of specific individuals. Only a clinical and biochemical evaluation can reveal an individual's nutritional status in regard to any specific nutrient. Nevertheless, comparison of an individual's nutrient intake to the RDA over a sufficient period will be useful in estimating that individuals risk for deficiency. Although the RDA are useful because they state approximately how much of all the essential nutrients we need, they are not designed to inform us as to which specific foods we may need to consume to obtain these nutrients. Other dietary guidelines have been developed to help us select foods that will provide us with the RDA for all essential nutrients.

The Department of Health issues guidelines on the daily dietary requirements of nutrients our bodies require. They include the following. 1. Choose a nutritious diet from a variety of foods 2. Control your weight 3. Avoid eating too much fat 4.

Avoid eating too much sugar 5. Eat more breads and cereals and vegetables and fruits 6. Use less salt 7. Promote breastfeeding 8. Limit alcohol consumption.

These guidelines have been endorsed by the National Health and Medical Research Council and the Better Health commission. In Australia, a varied and abundant food supply is available from which to choose foods that not only look appetizing and taste good but provide energy and all the dietary essentials to support life-carbohydrate, fat, protein, vitamins and minerals, dietary fibre and water. To make the nine guidelines easier to use in everyday life, nutritionists have developed food groups, in which foods of similar nutritional value can be substituted. It helps people to choose a good diet by selecting a variety of foods from five food groups. Foods are divided into these five food groups on the basis of similarity in nutritional value.

The five food groups are (1) bread -cereals; (2) vegetables and fruits; (3) meat and its alternatives (4) milk and milk products (5) butter and table margarine. Each day Norm should select a wide variety of foods from the groups in the recommended number of servings as given below.