Nutrition and Diet Assignment: Dietary Choices and Health Impact

This assignment delves into various aspects of nutrition and diet, starting with factors influencing food choices, such as economic, cultural, and health considerations. It then explores the digestive process, detailing the roles of different organs and muscle groups in breaking down food into usable nutrients like protein, glucose, and carbohydrates. The assignment also analyzes the nutritional content of various food items, including turkey breast, potato, cornbread, and spinach, and explains how these nutrients are processed and utilized by the body. Furthermore, it examines the impact of dietary choices on health, such as the relationship between fat intake and vision, and the role of calorie labeling in promoting healthier eating habits. The assignment also addresses the high sugar consumption trends in the U.S., the health of sumo wrestlers, and the benefits of choosing healthy food options. It concludes with a case study on cardiovascular disease, outlining the factors contributing to the condition, and the importance of lifestyle changes, such as quitting smoking and following a DASH diet, to improve overall health.

Running head: NUTRITION AND DIET
NUTRITION AND DIET
Name of Student:
Name of University:
Author’s Note:

1NUTRITION AND DIET
Answer number 1.
In the choice of food, the taste is of prime importance. However, there are other factors
which pose an impact on the food choice, which includes the following:
 Economic factors: People with less income tends to prefer cheaper foods and consume
unbalanced diet (De Cosmi, Scaglioni and Agostoni 2017).
 Cultural factor: People of different culture have different choice of food. Eg. Some like
pizza or some other like freshly baked foods.
 Advertisers: People chose attractive and good looking food, although of different taste.
 Health: People who prefer good health have healthy food choice only
 Hunger: Hunger leads to choice of food irrespective of taste and health.
Answer number 2.
Digestion of food moves through GI tract, which being with mouth and end at rectum.
The muscle of the GI tract aid in digestion and absorption of food. The muscle of oesophagus
and ring-like muscle at the junction of oesophagus and stomach allow involuntary passage of
food and controls the passage (Boland 2016). The inner lining of stomach, liver and pancreas
secrete acid and digestive juices which breakdown the food particle into protein, glucose and
carbohydrate. The muscle of intestine has hair like projection known as villi, which provide large
surface area for complete digestion of food particles.
Answer number 3.
a) Major nutrient of the following food items:

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 Turkey breast (57gm) –protein (10.3g), carbohydrate (1.2 g), fats (4g) (Bower
2016).
 Potato (238g) - Fats (13g), carbohydrate (21g), protein (2.9g) (Zaheer and Akhtar
2016).
 Cornbread (28.35g) - carbohydrate (12.3g), protein (1.9g) fats (2g) (Fontenot et
al. 2019).
 Spinach (100g)-carbohydrate (3.8g), protein (3g), fat (0.3g) (Xu and Leskovar
2015).
The carbohydrates, proteins and fats are digested by the action of digestive juices
secreted by stomach, liver and pancreas (Guo et al., 2017). They breakdown each of the nutrient
into simplest form i.e. glucose, amino acids and triacylglycerol. The small intestine absorbs them
and circulated in the bloodstream to provide ATP.
Answer number 4.
Taking strict diet, which avoided fats and oil entirely, tends to show symptom night
vision impairment. The diet and symptom are related because it is evident that due to low
consumption of fats in the diet, people unable to get an adequate amount of DHA and omega
fatty acids due to which they suffer from visual issue and degradation of the retina (Ginneken et
al. 2017).
The primary role of fats is to provide an important element for proper development of
vision and functioning of vision. They secrete omega 3 Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and
Eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and omega 6, which is essential for retinal functioning.

3NUTRITION AND DIET
Answer number 5.
a) Total calories in bacon cheese burger with fries and drink are 820+1200= 2020.
Therefore, percentage of calorie by it in 2000 calorie diet will be 101%.
b) Calories in Crispy chicken salad and chocolate shake is 350+530=880. Therefore, total
percentage of calorie by it in 2000 calorie diet will be 44%.
c) Calorie labelling is an effective strategy for Americans to make healthy choice of food. It
will make the people aware of their total calorie intake. As by calorie labelling, they will
know about the amount of calorie in food so that they can adjust their preference
according to their healthy diet plan.
Answer number 6.
The high trend in U.S sugar consumption is related to the reason that there is more
amount of sugar added to the everyday food. It is evident from the study that sugar syrups are
mixed with foods and drinks while processing (Rodríguez et al. 2016). It should be noted that
apart from sweet food, it is also added in pasta sauce, ketchup and other food items.
Therefore, a high amount of sugar item is added in the diet of U.S people, which is the
primary reason for its high trends.
Answer number 7.
Sumo wrestler has low level of visceral fats despite the facts that he has high BMI, large
waist and consumes a huge amount of food. The major reason is that they perform wrestling and
intense exercise for many hours each day due to which the fats consumed by eating does not get
accumulated in the body. Sumo wrestler has subcutaneous fats in their body.

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For sumo wrestler who gets retired and stops exercising but maintain their diet plan, face
problem of cardiovascular disease. It is seen from the study of Midorikawa, Sakamoto and
Kondo (2019) that due to lack of exercise, there is accumulation of harmful fats in the body
which leads to high cholesterol level and cardiac arrest.
Answer number 8.
a) The benefit of cheap food is that it is readily available in the market, and people can
purchase it within their limit. However, such food is low in quality and unhealthy
(Moore 2015).
b) I will be willing to pay more for the food that is raised healthily because such food
will be rich in nutrient and beneficial for the health of peoples. It will help us to be
healthy and wealthy. Hence paying more for healthy food is of great worth (Tolaini
et al. 2016).
c) Yes, I have purchased food that is produced organically at a higher cost than the food
that is produced through commercial farming method. The major reason is that it is
evident that organically produced food is chemical and pesticide free, which is good
for health (Reganold and Wachter 2016). However, commercial farming involves the
use of chemical fertilizer, which poses a negative effect on health.
Answer number 9.
Earth grains: Double fibre whole wheat 100% stone ground bread is a better nutritional
choice for the following reasons:
 The serving size of bread is 63g, which is required to get proper nutrient.
 The calorie of bread is 150, which is required for proper health.

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 It has high amount of protein (8g) than other bread.
 It is rich in many healthy ingredients like vitamins and amino acids
 It is rich in iron and carbohydrate, which amounts to 9% and 10% respectively to daily
value.
Answer number 10.
a) The list of factor which contributes to developing cardiovascular disease in Steven are:
 High blood pressure which is 145/80
 High amount of total cholesterol (210mg) than the normal range of 125-200mg
 Steven is physically inactive person.
 He is potent smoker
 He had family history of heart disease (Kayama et al. 2015).
b) Doctor advises him to quit smoking to improve his overall health because smoking tends
to damage the inner lining of arteries of heart and are known to build fats which causes
narrowing of the artery leading to cardiovascular complication. Hence, quitting to smoke
is the best option to lessen the chance of heart illness (Barth et al., 2015).
c) Hypertension is known as the silent killer because elevated blood pressure does not show
any obvious symptom for any serious complication. However, it leads to serious issue
like stroke, heart attack and failure and kidney failure (Ntentie et al. 2019). Therefore
there is not alert sign posted by hypertension that people can take step to improve their
health condition.
d) DASH diet is given to prevent hypertension issue, which involves intake of food rich in
calcium, magnesium and potassium. Sodium level is cut down in the diet to 1500mg per
day. It includes whole grain, low-fat product, vegetables and fruits (Rai et al. 2017).

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e) DASH diet includes following plan:
 Consume more vegetables and fruits.
 Consume low-fat foods.
 Consume more whole grain foods, nuts, legumes, seeds and fishes.
 Limit the consumption of sodium, red meats, sweet and sugary drinks (Steinberg,
Bennet and Svetkey 2017).

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