Dietary Excess: Why you are what you eat | Clevernotes.ie

1. Food Studies

1.2 Diet and Health

1.2.3 Dietary and Food Requirements

Last time, we looked at what we should be eating at the various life stages in Dietary Requirements. We have looked before at the importance of a balanced diet and energy balance. Unfortunately a lot of illness/disease prevalent in Ireland is linked to an unbalanced diet. We?ll have a look first at the most pressing diseases: obesity, diabetes, and coronary heart disease? Why are we what we eat?

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Obesity

Obesity occurs when a person is 20% over the correct weight for their height. Take a man whose correct weight is ten stone, at 11 stone he would be overweight, but at 12 stone he would be obese. It?s not exactly something that happens overnight, yet it is one of the biggest medical problems worldwide. More than a quarter of Irish children are now overweight or obese (Irish Times, May 2012), so it?s not just adults. The main cause of obesity is, quite simply, when energy input is greater than energy output.

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Causes of Obesity:

• Lack of exercise.
• Sedentary lifestyle/occupation.
• Calorie intake is greater than calorie output.
• Increased consumption of convenience and fast foods.
• Depression or boredom, leading to comfort eating.
• Hormonal imbalance and some medications such as steroids.

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Symptoms and health problems associated with obesity:

• High cholesterol.
• Stroke.
• Heart disease.
• High blood pressure.
• Diabetes.
• Gallstones.
• Infertility.
• Difficulties in childbirth/during surgery.
• Poor self-esteem.
• Varicose veins.
• Difficulty breathing.
• Reduced life expectancy.

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Overcoming Obesity and Dietary Guidelines:

• Follow a varied, balanced, low calorie diet.
• Build up to exercising most days in the week.
• Eat three well-balanced meals; snacks, if necessary, should be healthy (e.g. a banana).
• Aim for the five-a-day of fruit and vegetables.
• Choose white meat and fish as sources of protein.
• Grill and steam foods, rather than boiling them.
• Drink plenty of water, restrict alcohol.
• Switch to low-fat version of dairy products (e.g. cheese).
• Avoid refined carbohydrates such as sugar and white bread, instead choose high fibre varieties (e.g. brown bread, Weetabix, etc.).
• Keep convenience foods to a minimum and eat fresh foods as much as possible.
• Slow, regular weight loss (rather than a crash diet) will be far more beneficial in the long run, and is more likely to have long-lasting effects.

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Diabetes

Diabetes mellitus is caused when the pancreas doesn?t produce any or enough insulin, which is necessary to control the level of sugar in the blood. As a result, glucose does not get used in the muscles and body cells for energy and instead builds up in the blood causing damage to the kidneys and eyes. Diabetes is rapidly becoming a huge problem worldwide.

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Types of Diabetes:

• Type 1 ? (also known as Insulin Dependent Diabetes, juvenile or childhood onset) Deficient insulin production by the pancreas, requires daily administration of insulin by injection.
• Type 2 ? (also known as Non Insulin Dependent or adult onset) A result of the body?s ineffective use of insulin. This type comprises 90% of people with diabetes and is largely the result of excess body weight and physical inactivity. Previously associated with adults only, but now also occurring in children. It is generally treatable with diet alone or with diet and tablets.

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Symptoms of Diabetes include:

• Frequent urination.
• Thirst.
• Constant hunger.
• Weight loss.
• Vision changes.
• Fatigue.

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Specific dietary requirements that should be followed in order to manage the condition:

• Eat three regular meals a day to stabilise blood sugar levels.
• Reduce sugar intake, use artificial sweetener, and eat fruit with low sugar content.
• Eat a healthy diet of between three and five servings of fruit and vegetables a day.
• Follow a low glycaemic index (GI) diet; eat starch-based carbohydrates for slow energy release.
• Reduce saturated fat intake.
• Increase fibre foods and starch-based carbohydrate foods.
• Eliminate refined sugar products from the diet.
• Increase intake of high fibre foods.
• Reduce high salt foods.

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Coronary Heart Disease (CHD)

CHD is a massive problem in Ireland. In 2006, 12% of all deaths in those under 65 were as a result of CHD. We have the highest rate in this age bracket in the EU. Quite simply, this is not a problem we can afford to ignore.

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Atherosclerosis

The coronary arteries have the very important function of carrying blood to and from the heart. When fatty substances, including cholesterol, start to build up on the walls of the arteries they begin to narrow. This hardening of the arteries, where the blood flow is partially blocked, is known as atherosclerosis. This will develop over time, but has very serious consequences, such as angina and heart attacks.

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Cholesterol

Cholesterol is a soft, wax-like substance found in every cell. It is mainly made by the liver with some being obtained from animal foods. Cholesterol always seems to get bad press, though we do need some of it as an essential component in cell membranes, in bile, and in some hormones. In the blood, it helps to transport fats. There are two types you should remember from when we looked at Lipids? ?H? for ?Hoover? and ?L? for ?Loser?. Well, I did say at the time, whatever worked for you!

• Low-density lipoprotein (LDL) ? found in saturated fats, may cause hardening of the arteries.
• High-density lipoprotein (HDL) ? found in unsaturated fats, may help reduce the hardening effect of cholesterol.

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Risk Factors for CHD:

• Men over 45.
• Women over 55.
• Heredity.
• High cholesterol and high blood pressure.
• Obesity and a poor diet.
• Little exercise.
• Stress.
• Smoking.
• Excess alcohol consumption.

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Lifestyle changes to prevent CHD:

• Maintain a healthy weight.
• Do not smoke.
• Avoid excess alcohol.
• Exercise, as this lowers LDL and raises HDL.
• Reduce stress

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Dietary guidelines for preventing/treating CHD:

• Reduce intake of saturated animal fats.
• Avoid foods with high hidden fat content.
• Choose low-fat dairy products.
• Reduce the intake of salt in the diet.
• Use mono and polyunsaturated oils.
• Increase fibre intake, reduce refined carbohydrate intake.
• Eat lean meat or fish, rather than red meat, as a source of protein.
• Eat plenty of fruit and vegetables.
• Grill, bake, steam, or boil food.
• Avoid creamy sauces.
• Watch energy balance, remember that energy input needs to equal energy output.

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Up next time: osteoporosis, coeliac disease, vegetarianism, and bowel disorders.

Jan 24th, 2013 13 views

Source: https://www.clevernotes.ie/home-economics/hlol/leaving-cert/dietary-excess-why-you-are-what-you-eat/

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