Nutrition And Health Concept Analysis

Nutrition and Health can be a bit overwhelming when looking at all the different components at once, but amongst all the processes, dietary recommendations, and data graphs there are a few key points that may seem obsolete, but are in fact the fundamentals of building a healthy lifestyle. The three most important concepts in this course are calorie control, understanding food composition, and the importance of the replication of studies. With these three ideas in mind one can escape the modern façade of what is considered good health, and one can gain the proper knowledge to drive their lives to the fullest potential. The first and in my opinion, most important idea that was taught in this class is the idea that calories must be controlled. …show more content…
Understanding what exactly is going into your body plays a huge role in overall health. Knowledge of what types of foods to eat and how much to eat of them can lead to longer, healthier lives. It is important to understand the energy yielding nutrients, and how they contribute to the diet. Knowing that foods with protein are the most filling foods can change people’s lives. Many will just eat simply because they are not full and that is often because they are eating foods high in sugar. Sugary foods are often high in calorie, do not provide lots of nutritional value, and do not fill you up, so you are able to eat a ton of it. Knowing what will fill you up, and what wont is essential to planning out meals. Carbs have 4 calories per gram, are slow digesting, and provide a fantastic source of energy. Next is fats, which have 9 calories per gram, and the right kind of fats are wonderful for the body in the right portions. Knowing that Monounsaturated fats are better than saturated and trans fats is essential to health. Excess consumption of saturated fats and trans fats can lead to increased risk of cardiovascular disease, obesity and even certain types of cancer. Protein contains 4 calories per gram, and are essentially the building block of life. Some of these building blocks come in the form of essential nutrients, which must be obtained through certain foods. Having some basic knowledge about these …show more content…
That is the idea that findings must be replicated, and if you were to come across and article on the internet describing a study, it is important to keep in mind that no matter what the results are, it is only one study! A great example of this is the misconception that aspartame causes cancer. This idea is widely accepted by many Americans just because they read about one study online that turned out to be invalid anyways. In many studies it was found that aspartame has not been known to cause any health risks, and there is no correlation between the consumption of aspartame and cancer. This is just one example of modern day media causing a scare and blinding people from the truth with a great hype over one study. Science is a world of knowledge and facts that are applied and run through the scientific method. This ensures that there is proper hypothesis where the prediction can be falsified, and experimentation to prove the hypothesis wrong or right. Then the scientific method is repeated over and over again, and that is how theories develop. Today many people lose skepticism and are sold out by one study. Science is complex, and it will take a lot more than one study to develop a substantial idea. Hype in media such as sharing on Facebook causes people to immediately believe what they see. This erases the beauty of science in my opinion when less people are questioning