Nutritional Recommendations Across the Lifespan

Pregnancy:

Good nutrition during pregnancy, is very important not only for you but for your baby as well.  Proper nutrition helps the baby to develop and grow. You should consume about 300 additional calories per day than you were consuming before you were pregnant.  Try to eat a well-balanced diet and take prenatal vitamins, even if you are feeling a little nausea.

Goals for Healthy Eating When Pregnant:

·         Eat a wide range of foods to ensure you receive all the nutrients you need. The recommended daily servings are “6-11 servings of breads and grains, two to four servings of fruit, four or more servings of vegetables, four servings of dairy products, and three servings of protein sources (meat, poultry, fish, eggs or nuts). Use fats and sweets sparingly” (WebMD, 2012).

·         You should choose foods that are high in fiber such as whole-grain breads, cereals, pasta, rice, fruits, and vegetables.

·         Ensure that you get enough vitamins and minerals.  It is recommended that you take a pre-natal vitamin to supplement any vitamins and/or minerals that you may be missing in your diet. 

·         “Make sure you drink at least four servings of dairy products and calcium-rich foods a day to help ensure that you are getting 1000-1300 mg of calcium in your daily diet during pregnancy” (WebMD, 2012).

·         Eat plenty of iron rich foods as you and your baby will be using a lot of blood.  Vitamin C is also important and pregnant women should get about 70mg a day.

Infancy:

“Infants’ rapid growth and development depend on adequate nutrient supplies, including water from breast milk or formula” (Sizer & Whitney). It is extremely important that early nutrition is taken seriously because it has a major affect on their later development. These early habits also help to establish good eating habits later down the road. “Because they are small, babies need smaller total amounts of these nutrients than adults do, but as a percentage of body weight, babies need more than twice as much of most nutrients” (Sizer & Whitney). They generally require approximately 100 calories per kg of body weight per day plus the most important nutrient…water!

Childhood:

During the second year, a child’s diet changes rapidly. Between 12 to 24 months, a child’s diet goes from mainly breast milk and cereals to mainly adult foods that have been modified. Therefore, it is important for a toddler to have plenty of milk and nutrients because they are starting to expend more energy, develop new muscles, and they start to fine-tune their neuromuscular coordination.

Adolescence:

It is very important for parents to have developed good eating habits for the children especially as they come into adolescence. They need vitamins, minerals, and energy-yielding nutrients now more than ever!  “Arrange for teens to find out about nutrition for themselves by providing teen-oriented magazines or books with food articles and by encouraging them and supporting their interest in health, cooking, or nutrition. Take their suggestions, when possible, regarding foods to prepare at home” (Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford).  Teenagers must really pay attention to what they put in their mouths because weight gain can have a psychological affect on a child, set aside from other major complications such as diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, etc.

Adulthood:

As we get older, we start our diets start to become more individualized. Many of us know what works for our bodies and what doesn’t. As we get older, the less active we are, the less energy we have and vice versa, more exercise equals more energy.  Lean proteins are important to maintain lean muscle, calcium is super important for strengthening our bones, and fiber helps with constipation. Water is also very important in any diet as it helps to avoid dehydration.

Reference:

Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford (2012). Adolescent Nutrition . Retrieved August 13, 2012, from http://www.lpch.org/diseaseHealthInfo/HealthLibrary/growth/ado.html

Sizer, F., & Whitney, E. (2011). Nutrition Concepts and Controversies (12th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.

WebMD (2012). Eating Right When Pregnant. Retrieved August 13, 2012, from http://www.webmd.com/baby/guide/eating-right-when-pregnant



Prevention of Underweight, Overweight, and Obesity

Today in America, the number of overweight and obese is astronomical.  People are eating out of convenience and often do not even take into consideration what they are putting in their mouths.  Parents are not monitoring their children's diets because they probably are not even monitoring their own.

" Did you know:

• Obesity is the #2 cause of preventable death in the United States
• 60 million Americans, 20 years and older are obese
• 9 million children and teens ages 6-19 are overweight
• Being overweight or obese increases the risk of health conditions and diseases including: Breast cancer, Coronary heart disease, Type II diabetes, Sleep apnea, Gallbladder disease, Osteoarthritis, Colon cancer, Hypertension and Stroke" (Get Fit Foundation, 2012).

The role of diet plays a huge part in overweight and obese people's day to day lives.  Hunger is a physiologic reply to the absence of food in our digestive tract.  Ghrelin adds feelings of hunger to our stomachs hormones.  Appetite can take place with our without hungers and there are many factors that can affect it such as hormones, environment, social interactions, etc.  Hunger can overshadow satiety in the appetite controls system.  Satiation can end our meal because it is a hormonal response that goes to our brain, telling our brain that we have had enough to eat.  Food for overweight and obese children and adults can be a source of pleasure but can also be a coping mechanism for some.  Often times people overeat because they are maybe lonely, have a particular craving, or might have an addiction.  People that face this problem might also not get any physical exercise.  They choose to eat their food in the comfort of their home and do not get out much.  That does not mean that all people who are overweight do this.  What I am trying to say is that people who are overweight are clearly consuming too many calories and not expending enough energy.  It's all about calories in versus calories out.  You cannot consume more food than you physically expending. 

Now, people who are underweight have a different problem.  People who are underweight can struggle to stay alive if they get sick.  They do not have enough nutrients in their bodies and can easily deteriorate if they have to go without food for days at a time do to having to have surgery or have tests run.  Diet for an underweight person should include a minimum of 3 meals a day.  It also would not hurt to eat 3 to 4 healthy snacks in between meals.  When someone is underweight and needs to put back on healthy weight, they should eat foods that are high in calories such as nuts, starchy vegetables, plant oils, seeds, and dried fruits.  It is important to eat the RIGHT foods in order to put on weight and stay away from junk foods that are high in sugar and have no nutritional value. 

Whatever category you fall into, it is important to take a hard look at what you are putting into your body.  Often times, nutritionists and personal trainers (like myself) ask for a person to write down everything they put into their mouth for one week.  Once you do this, you start to become more responsible for your choices.  Life is all about choices...make the right one by eating healthy and exercising regularly.  The rule of thumb is calories in versus calories out - don't consume more food than the energy that you are expending!

Reference:

Get America Fit Foundation (2012). Obesity Related Statistics in America. Retrieved August 13, 2012, from http://www.getamericafit.org/statistics-obesity-in-america.html

Fats, Proteins, and Carbohydrates

There are both good fats and bad fats that we should consume. According to the Harvard School of Public Health (2012), “"Good" fats—monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats—lower disease risk. "Bad" fats—saturated and, especially, trans fats—increase disease risk. Foods high in good fats include vegetable oils (such as olive, canola, sunflower, soy, and corn), nuts, seeds, and fish. Foods high in bad fats include red meat, butter, cheese, and ice cream, as well as processed foods made with trans fat from partially hydrogenated oil.”  The best way to maintain a healthy diet is to always select foods that have more good fats than bad fats. We always are seeing products in the grocery store which are “low-fat” or “fat-free” and these are not necessarily healthy choices either. When they take something out such as fat, then manufacturers like to replace the fat with other things such as refined carbohydratess and starches. Our bodies digest these refined carbs and starches, which cause us to have insulin spikes. When we have these types of spikes, we can become tired quickly, which the spikes can also cause things like hunger, overeating, and even weight gain.

According to MayoClinic (2012) "The two main types of potentially harmful dietary fat:
Saturated fat -This is a type of fat that comes mainly from animal sources of food. Saturated fat raises total blood cholesterol levels and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol levels, which can increase your risk of cardiovascular disease. Saturated fat may also increase your risk of type 2 diabetes.
Trans fat - This is a type of fat that occurs naturally in some foods, especially foods from animals. But most trans fats are made during food processing through partial hydrogenation of unsaturated fats. This process creates fats that are easier to cook with and less likely to spoil than are naturally occurring oils. These trans fats are called industrial or synthetic trans fats. Research studies show that synthetic trans fat can increase unhealthy LDL cholesterol and lower healthy high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol. This can increase your risk of cardiovascular disease."  Trans-fats can clog your arteries with plaque and lead to high blood pressure, as well as, heart problems and risk for strokes. 

Protein is important to any healthy diet.  The digestion process of protein starts in your stomach.  Protein is responsible for feeding our muscles and is essential for children’s growth as it produces hormones that help them grow. For adults who workout regularly, it is important to feed our muscles, particularly after a hard workout. Our muscles need protein in order to rebuild. “If you are looking for a potential rule of thumb, the 30 g rule might work. It says that at any given meal, you can absorb about 30 g of protein. This calculation could come from the daily protein intake recommendations, which are about 0.4 g of protein per pound of your body weight. If you weighed 150 lbs., this would be about 60 g of protein per day” (Livestrong.com, 2012). Essential amino acids are the building blocks of protein.  When we can’t get enough lean meats, we can supplement with things like protein shakes which just so happen to be a tasty alternative.  You have to be careful though; if you don't read the food label correctly, you could wind up adding too many calories to your diet which is not good!

Carbohydrates are important to our bodies, even though many people try to avoid them.  When we consume carbs they give us energy and are broken down immediately starting the digestion process.  The digestive enzymes break down into complex carbs, like starch.  The food then continues to the stomach and breaks down any carbs that are left.  Next the food goes into our small intestines where enzymes finally complete the carb digestion process. 

Fiber is essential in our diet because it is mainly responsible for keeping things moving...no one likes to be constipated!  Fiber is mainly found in fruits, whole grains, and legumes and also has special benefits which can lower your risk of heart diesease and diabetes!
Reference:

Harvard Health Publications, & Skerrett, P. J. (2011, September 14). Harvard to USDA: Check out the Healthy Eating Plate [Web log message]. Retrieved from http://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/harvard-to-usda-check-out-the-healthy-eating-plate-201109143344

Livestrong, & Moon, U. (2011, June 14). Vegetables High In Iron & Vitamin C. Retrieved August 13, 2012, from http://www.livestrong.com/article/253048-vegetables-high-in-iron-vitamin-c/

Mayo Clinic (2012). Nutrition and Healthy Eating.

Dietary Guidelines for Americans

Dietary Recommendations for Americans



The 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans are just what they say they are - guidelines which are set for individuals and if they would actually follow them, then most people's nutrient needs would easily fall into place.  These guidelines are a great way to promote health and help with choosing nutritious foods.  According to a press release by the USDA (2011),
"2010 Dietary Guidelines are being released at a time when the majority of adults and one in three children is overweight or obese and this is a crisis that we can no longer ignore," said Secretary Vilsack. "These new and improved dietary recommendations give individuals the information to make thoughtful choices of healthier foods in the right portions and to complement those choices with physical activity. The bottom line is that most Americans need to trim our waistlines to reduce the risk of developing diet-related chronic disease. Improving our eating habits is not only good for every individual and family, but also for our country."

Dietary recommendations included the following:

• Adequate nutrients within energy needs
• Consume a variety of foods that are rich in nutrients
• Limit intakes of saturated and trans fats
• Adopt a balanced eating pattern such as the recommendation from ChooseMyPlate.gov
• Weight management
• Balance calories so that you can maintain a healthy weight
• Make sure that the calories you consume are less than the physical energy you burn
• Physical activity
• Exercise regularly and reduce your sedentary activities to promote overall health and wellness
• Make sure your physical activity includes cardiovascular conditioning, weights/resistance training, and stretching to increase flexibility.
• Food groups to encourage
• Ensure that you are consuming enough fruits, vegetables, milk/dairy products, and whole grains so that you can maintain your energy needs
• Add variety - make sure you consume a wide range of fruits, include vegetables - all colors.  Your whole grains should make up at least half of your grain selection.  Always choose fat-free or low-fat dairy products
• Fats
• Make sure your saturated fats, trans fats, and cholesterol consumption is low.  These should make up less than 10 percent of your calories consumed. 
• Total fat intake should be somewhere between 20-35% of calories and should mostly come from unsaturated fats such as nuts, fish, and vegetable oils.
• Carbohydrates
• You should choose fruits, vegetables, and whole grains that are high in fiber.
• Try to add as little sugar as possible.
• Sodium and Potassium
• Always try and prepare foods with less salt (less than 2300mg).
• Consume potassium-rich foods like fruits and vegetables.
• Alcoholic Beverages
• Always be sensible and drink in moderation.
• Food Safety
• To avoid things like food poisoning, keep foods safe: always wash your hands, clean surfaces that come into contact with food, always cook foods to their safe internal temperature.

The best way to ensure that you meet these guidelines are met are to make sure you eat more vegetables (particularly the dark green leafy vegetables, orange vegetables, and legumes), eat plenty of fruit, wholes grains and fat-free or low-fat dairy products.  Once you get into this habit, it will become easier.  Start replacing your sodas for water or sparkling water; you can even add lime or lemon to it to give it some flavor.  If you do these things, and keep eating in moderation, then you should start working towards a healthier, happier life!

Reference:

USDA (2011, January 31). USDA and HHS Announce New Dietary Guidelines to Help Americans Make Healthier Food Choices and Confront Obesity Epidemic. Retrieved August 13, 2012, from http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/usda/usdahome?contentidonly=true&contentid=2011/01/0040.xml

Factors That Drive Our Food Choices

Everyday we have to make a choice.  Should be go to the gym or stay home and sit on the couch watching t.v.?  Do you cook tonight or go out to eat?  There are health and wellness programs out there that are designed to help you make the right choices.  "These seven dimension of wellness show us how the concept of wellness can go beyond the absence of disease.  Wellness incorporates factors such as adequate fitness, proper nutrition, stress management, disease prevention, spirituality, not smoking or abusing drugs, personal safety regular physical examinations, health education, and environmental support" (Hoeger,W. & Hoeger,S., 2012).  These dimensions include: physical, emotional, mental, social, environmental, occupational, and spiritual wellness.  All of these dimensions can drive our food choices.  Let me give you an example: Let us say that you choose to hang around friends that never get off the couch and just sit around and play video games.  By choosing to sit on your butt and play video games, you are choosing to not workout.  When you do not get physical exercise then you will not be in very good shape.  This affects not only your physical well-being but it also affects your emotional well-being because when people are overweight, then they have a tendency to not feel good about themselves.  When you do not feel good about yourself, then you might start to stay home more and start avoiding your friends and family.  This affects your social, mental, and spiritual wellness.  Avoiding others and making unhealthy lifestyle choices is not good because you can start to go in a downward spiral.  Your environment begins to change because maybe when you were once outgoing, now you are just sitting at home, alone, playing video games.  When our dimensions of wellness are not in tune with each other, we can start to make really poor food choices and start to make ourselves think that we do not care about the way we look or feel. 

Reference:

Hoeger, W. K., & Hoeger, S. A. (2012). Principles and Labs for Fitness & Wellness (11th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.



Characteristics of a Healthy Diet

A nutritious diet is made of five defining features:

1. Adequacy - The foods must give us sufficient nutrients, fiber, and energy.  Iron is a great example, as I myself am borderline anemic.  We all lose iron everyday, women during their menstrual periods can obviously loose more.  According to Ursula Moon (2011), "Iron is important in the delivery of oxygen, promotion of a healthy immune system, strong muscles and adequate maintenance, and growth and development for all the cells, organs and muscles of the body. A lack of iron causes your body to function below standard and can cause a condition known as anemia, which is essentially iron-poor blood."  If you do not have enough iron, you can become weak and tired.  That is why it is important to eat foods that are high in iron such as green vegetables, meat, fish, and chicken. 
2. Balance - The choices that we make must not overpower one food group or nutrient by sacrificing another.  Let us look at Calcium.  Calcium is important in developing strong bones.  We have heard that since we were little kids.  Where the balancing comes into play is getting enough calcium but also getting enough iron, which we talked about above.  Unfortunately, not all iron rich food are high in calcium and vice versa.  Milk and other dairy products, such as yogurt, are the richest forms of calcium.  Finding the balance just between these two nutrients, and not even taking the other 40+ nutrients into consideration, can be a difficult task.  There are specific amounts of each food group that you should be getting each day.                            Check out this link: http://www.cdc.gov/nutrition/everyone/basics/foodgroups.html            From this link you can also click the ChooseMyPlate.gov link where you can input your data and it will give you an idea of how much nutrients you should be consuming.                         
3. Calorie Control - It's all about the calories in versus calories out.  We must eat foods that provide us with enough energy to maintain a healthy weight.  If we choose to eat the wrong balance and too many calories then we will gain weight.  There has to be a happy medium.
4. Moderation - Everything should always be eaten in moderation.  We should not have too much fat, salt, sugar, or other unnecessary ingredients.  "A major guideline for healthy people is to keep fat intake below 35% of total calories" (Sizer & Whitney, 2011).  Some people take this information to the complete extreme and do not allow themselves to indulge in any of their possible favorites such as ice cream or pizza.  I personally think that it is okay to let yourself 'cheat' if you will.  It allows our bodies and our mind to not feel deprived.  Sometimes people who deprive themselves, particularly while they are on diets, can actually jump off the deep end and find themselves binge eating once they do decide to get off their diets or let themselves cheat for a day.  Moderation is key and that goes for every aspect of your life!
5. Variety - We must have variety in our diets; always keep your body guessing.  If we choose the same foods all day every day, then we could be depriving our bodies of other important nutrients plus we could actually be doing our body more harm than good.  When we add variety to our diets it allows the break down and dilution of unwanted contaminants.  Also, we want to make sure that we try and eat around the same time everyday so that our bodies do not go into starvation mode and begin to wonder when it is going to get its next meal. 

The bottom line is that we need to really think about what we are eating.  When we have a game plan, then we can ensure that we are getting sufficient nutrients, our foods are balanced yet varied, and that the food energy that we are in taking matches the energy that we are expending. 

The challenges that we face regarding choosing the right foods are money, time, and social environment.  Some people have a hard time choosing the right foods because they feel that healthy food is too expensive.  I would agree that some health foods are overpriced and even out of my day-to-day budget, however, if you take the time and do some research, then actually you can get healthy foods at an affordable price.  Time is the other factor.  Often times, many Americans live a fast paced life and do not make the time to actually cook a home cooked meal due to running the kids around from activity to activity, or working late, etc.  The final challenge, social environment, deals with the fact that we choose to meet our friends for dinner, usually at a restaurant, or during the holidays we all gather around yummy comfort foods.  We can still have these types of gatherings but we just have to be aware of what we are putting on our plates, eat slower, and take time to actually chew our food!

References:

Livestrong, & Moon, U. (2011, June 14). Vegetables High In Iron & Vitamin C. Retrieved August 13, 2012, from http://www.livestrong.com/article/253048-vegetables-high-in-iron-vitamin-c/

Sizer, F., & Whitney, E. (2011). Nutrition Concepts and Controversies (12th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.

Nutrition and Diseases

Nutrition plays an important role in everyone's day-to-day health.  It is important that we choose the right foods and exercise regularly in order to maintain an overall healthy lifestyle.  Chronic diseases just do not happen from a simple cause like infection.  They actually happen from a combination of factors in 3 areas: genetic inheritance, diseases that you have had or currently have such as high blood pressure or obesity, and the lifestyle choices you choose to make.  The first two areas, passing of diseases genetically and disease states, are out of a person's control.  That being said, what a person does have control over is the way they choose to feed and nurture their body.  As children, we eat what our parents make us eat, however, as we start to become young adults, we have the choice of whether to smoke, drink to much, exercise regularly, and these are the choices that are strong determinants of high risks of disease down the road.  The best way we can control the factors we can control is to eat right and exercise regularly.  Doing this keeps our immune system strong so that we can fight off microorganisms and cancer cells.  When your immune system becomes weak, then disease can follow. 

According to Sizer & Whitney (2011), a well-nourished  immune system provides the best overall protection for these four simple reasons:

• "Deficient intakes of many vitamins and minerals are associated with impaired disease resistance, as are some excessive intakes.
• Immune tissues are among the first to be impaired in the course of a nutrient deficiency or toxicity.
• Some deficiencies are more immediately harmful to immunity than others.
• Once a person becomes malnourished, malnutrition often worsens disease, which, in turn, worsens malnutrition.  A destructive cycle often begins when impaired immunity opens the way for disease; then disease impairs food assimilation, and nutrition status suffers further."

A well-balanced diet is the foundation that provides defenses to your immune system.  Having a weak immune system has so many side affects to your body.  People who have low immune systems often loose their appetite and start to restrict their food intakes because of not feeling hungry.  This can cause them to go into a downward spiral of malnutrition which will undoubtedly weaken their immune system even more.  Malnutrition does not always mean that people are getting enough to eat but as I mentioned earlier, can come from diseases like cancer, leukemia, AIDS, etc.  These diseases make a person not hungry and also speed up their metabolism which causes a wasting away of the tissues in the body and is similar to starvation.  Proper nutrition is important because while it cannot cure the disease, it can improve the response to the drugs that one is taking.  It can also possibly make a person's hospital stay shorter, which encourages independence, and can improve their quality and outlook on life.  It is important to remember that proper nutrition is an essential component in keeping up a healthy immune system in order to defend the body from infectious diseases. 

Having too little or too many nutrients in the body can have a major affect on your body.  When we overeat or eat poorly, we put ourselves at a higher risk of cancers, hypertension, Type 2 diabetes, atherosclerosis, obesity, and strokes.  "For most people, maintaining a healthy body weight, engaging in regular physical activity, minimizing salt and sodium intakes, limiting alcohol intake, and eating a diet high in fruits, vegetables, fish, and low-fat dairy products work together to keep blood pressure normal" (Sizer & Whitney).  Not only does doing these things work for lowering your blood pressure but it also helps fight of some of the other risks that are mentioned above.  Varying your diet of whole foods, as part of an overall healthy lifestyle, will provide the best chance for having a long and healthy life.

Reference:

Sizer, F., & Whitney, E. (2011). Nutrition Concepts and Controversies (12th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.