AY Honors/Nutrition - Advanced/Answer Key

1. Have the Nutrition Honor.

For tips and instruction see Nutrition.

2. Read a book about Nutrition.

Suggested books include:

• Foods for Thought: Nutrition's Link to Mood, Memory, Learning and Behavior Bernell Baldwin, Vicki Griffin, Evelyn Kissinger, Review and Herald, 152 pages.
• An Ounce of Prevention: Your Pathway to Abundant Health, Review and Herald, 64 pages.
• Counsels on Diet and Foods Ellen G. White, Review and Herald, 512 pages.
• Dynamic Living Hans Diehl, Dr.H.Sc., Aileen Ludington, M.D., Review and Herald, 208 pages.
• Foods that Heal George D. Pamplona-Roger, M.D., Review and Herald, 94 pages.

3. Keep a food diary on yourself for one week.

This can be done with pencil and paper or with an online tool such as the one provided by the USDA at ChooseMyPlate.gov.

The Digestion Honor requires a two week food diary with analysis and completion of the basic Nutrition Honor. There is also subject matter overlap. Why not do Digestion Honor and this honor together?

4. Calculate the total nutrients of the following in your diet each day:

• a. Calories
• b. Protein
• c. Iron
• d. Calcium
• e. Vitamin A
• f. Thiamine
• g. Riboflavin
• h. Niacin
• i. Vitamin C or ascorbic acid

If you have access to the Internet, you can visit the USDA's ChooseMyPlate.gov web site. Once you register, you can enter all the foods you eat in a day, and it will analyze your nutrient intake (among other things) based on this information. ChooseMyPlate can retain the information you enter for up to a year, so tracking it for a week will be easy.

If your Pathfinders do not have access to the Internet, have them record their diets on paper. You can then use the website to extract the necessary data by entering each food individually, or you can find a cookbook that has nutrient values of various foods in an appendix. Another option would be to meet in a place that has public Internet access, such as a library or Internet cafe. Then your Pathfinders can enter the data they have collected for a week and analyze it there.

5. How do the number of nutrients in your diet compare with the Recommended Daily Allowance chart?

The USDA's ChooseMyPlate.gov web site will compare your nutrient intake with the RDA chart.

6. Explain why a high fiber diet is important, and tell how this can be obtained.

Fiber promotes the wavelike contractions that keep food moving through the intestine. Also, high-fiber foods expand the inside walls of the colon. This eases the passage of waste. Fibrous substances pass through the intestine undigested. They also absorb many times their weight in water, resulting in softer, bulkier stools. Insoluble fiber is found in wheat, rye, bran, and other grains. It is also the fiber found in most vegetables. See [1]

7. Name three diseases due to malnutrition, and describe the symptoms of each.

Scurvy

Scurvy is a disease that results from insufficient intake of vitamin C and leads to the formation of livid spots on the skin, spongy gums, and bleeding from almost all mucous membranes. The spots are most abundant on the thighs and legs, and a person with the ailment looks pale, feels depressed, and is partially immobilized. Scurvy was at one time common among sailors whose ships were out to sea longer than perishable fruits and vegetables could be stored and by soldiers who were similarly separated from these foods for extended periods.

Beriberi

Beriberi is a nervous system ailment caused by a deficiency of vitamin B1 (thiamine), the symptoms of which may include weight loss, emotional disturbances, impaired sensory perception, weakness and pain in the limbs, and periods of irregular heartbeat. Swelling of bodily tissues is common. In advanced cases, the disease may cause heart failure and death. The origin of the word is from the Sinhalese (Sri Lankan) language meaning "I cannot, I cannot".

Beriberi occurs in people whose staple diet consists mainly of polished white rice, which contains little or no thiamine. Therefore the disease has been seen traditionally in people in Asian countries (especially in the nineteenth century and before) and in chronic alcoholics with impaired liver function. If a baby is fed the milk of a mother who suffers from a deficiency in thiamine, the child may develop beriberi.

Rickets

Rickets is a disorder which most commonly relates directly to Vitamin D deficiency, which causes a lack of calcium being absorbed. It can also arise, however, from other causes such as certain types of rare tumors or any phosphate-wasting disease. Because calcium is an essential nutrient which aids bone rigidity, the lack of it being absorbed into the body causes fragile or malformed bones, which are unable to support the weight of a growing body. Rickets causes bone pain, slowed growth in children, dental problems, muscle loss and increased risk of fractures (easily broken bones).

Pellagra

Pellagra is a vitamin deficiency disease caused by dietary lack of niacin and protein, especially the essential amino acid tryptophan. Symptoms of pellagra are red skin lesions, diarrhea, dermatitis, weakness, mental confusion, and eventually dementia. This disease can be common for persons who obtain most of their food energy from corn, as corn is a poor source of tryptophan. Therefore this disease can be common amongst people who live in rural South America where — during winter — they live on corn. Usually the symptoms show during spring, and disappear over summer, to return the next spring, after another long winter.

8. What are the symptoms of vitamin B₁₂ deficiency?

Early, noticeable symptoms of Overt B₁₂ Deficiency: Unusual fatigue, faulty digestion, no appetite, nausea, loss of menstruation. Also numbness and tingling of the hands and feet, nervousness, diarrhea, mild depression,etc. See [2]

9. What advice would you give a person who decided to be a total vegetarian?

http://philipngcc.homestead.com/

http://www.dietobio.com/dossiers/en/vegetarism/index.html

http://www.giveusahome.co.uk/articles/vegetarianism.htm

Because Vitamin B₁₂ cannot be obtained through plant sources, total vegetarians (vegans) are advised to eat foods with B₁₂ added (such as fortified soy milk, fortified margarines, or many commercial breakfast cereals), certain brands of nutritional yeast, or take dietary supplements (a good multivitamin will likely include B₁₂ in sufficient quantities).

10. What is the difference between saturated and unsaturated fats? Which is the most healthful, and why?

Saturated fats and trans fatty acids are the kinds of fats most likely to cause heart disease. Saturated fats are found mainly in animal products (eggs, butter, cheese, whole milk, and whole milk products), and in coconut, palm, and palm kernel oil. Trans fatty acids appear in foods containing hydrogenated fats like margarine and crackers. To reduce the risk of heart disease, replace saturated fats with unsaturated fats like canola oil, olive oil, flax seed oil, nuts, avocado, soy products, and nut butters. Choose margarine, cookies, crackers, and snack foods that do not contain hydro-genated fats (read the label). See [3]

11. Why is it advisable to use less sugar in the diet? List several ways in which this may be accomplished.

There are a several reasons why sugar is ruining your health: Sugar can suppress the immune system; Sugar leads to cancer of the ovaries; Sugar can cause heart disease; Sugar can cause appendicitis; Sugar can cause multiple sclerosis; Sugar can increase cholesterol; Sugar can increase the systolic blood pressure; Sugar can cause drowsiness and decreased activity in children; Sugar can contribute to Alzheimer’s disease; Sugar can lead to prostrate cancer; Sugar can cause liver tumors; etc. [4]

Several ways to use less sugar: Cut down slowly; go half and half; establish rules about dessert; If you must eat sweets, eat them with meals; Choose the right breakfast cereal; Don't skip meals; Don't add sugar to foods; ot for a walk when you crave sweetness; Go fat-free if you must have sweets. [5]

12. What are amino acids? How many are needed to make all the proteins in the body? What is meant by essential amino acids? How many of them are essential? Where can you get all the essential amino acids?

Definition of Essential Amino acids

the nine a-amino acids required for protein synthesis that cannot be synthesized by humans and must be obtained in the diet: histidine, isoleucine, leucine, lysine, methionine, phenylalanine, threonine, tryptophan, and valine.

Note: http://www.google.com enter definition essential amino acids to get this and other related definitions! [6]

Of the 28 amino acids needed by humans, 9 of them cannot be manufactured by the body and are thus termed "essential."

Only some foods contain all the essential amino acids. These are: milk and dairy products, eggs, fish, meat and poultry. If you don't eat animal products, the only way you can get all the essential amino acids is by combining plant foods. For example: corn plus peas or beans, rice plus beans, lentils plus bread. [7] Google results:[8]

Another term that comes up when we talk about protein nutrition is the term essential amino acid. Our bodies can make quite a number of amino acids from other chemicals that are contained in the body and can convert some amino acids into other amino acids. However, there are some amino acids we are not able to synthesize ourselves. Those particular amino acids and they must be provided to us in our diet. Those amino acids are referred to as the essential amino acids. It's not to say that the non-essential amino acids are not necessary, it's just that it is not necessary for them to be in our diet because other things in the diet can be used to make them. [9]

13. Know the difference between water and fat soluble vitamins. What are two common vitamins that are fat soluble? What are two vitamins that are water soluble?

The fat soluble vitamins are soluble in lipids (fats). These vitamins are usually absorbed in fat globules (called chylomicrons) that travel through the lymphatic system of the small intestines and into the general blood circulation within the body. These fat soluble vitamins, especially vitamins A and E, are then stored in body tissues. Two common vitamins that are fat soluble (A, D, E, and K). Two vitamins that are water soluble (B and C). It determines how each vitamin acts within the body. [10]

14. Using the book Counsels on Diet and Foods by Ellen G. White, write a paragraph on the benefits of a lacto-ovo vegetarian diet.

Use the "search the writings" feature on http://www.egwestate.org

References

• Wikipedia article on Scurvy
• Wikipedia article on Beriberi
• Wikipedia article on Rickets
• Wikipedia article on Pellagra