Module 5 Learning Activities
15 points
Even if you're on the right track,
you'll get run over if you just sit there.
Will Rogers
Respond the the questions below. Each question is worth 1 point. Submit your responses to the Instructor. Add relevant links to your Health 1 Bookmarks/Favorites folder.
Download the Healthy Eating Pyramid. Attach it to your refrigerator.
Questions 1-10:Read this information about the Healthy Eating Pyramid (HEP) and respond to these questions:
1. The base (bottom box) of the HEP is dedicated to exercise and food portion control. What is the reasoning for exercise to be at the base of an eating pyramid?
2. What foods are placed in the "Use Sparingly" box at the top of the HEP? Explain the reasoning for this placement.
3. What foods are in the three boxes on top of the base/exercise box? A good way to be sure you consume those foods is to follow the guidelines for the Mediterranean Diet (wine is not necessary). Identify one suggestion from the Healthy Eating Pyramid or the Mediterranean Diet that you could incorporate into your regular diet, perhaps once a week.
4. Five-A-Day is a slogan to remind people to consume at least five servings of fruits and vegetables each day (F+V=5). On average, Americans consume 3.7 servings of fruits and vegetables per day. Read this information about consuming fruits and vegetables for better health. What could you do to increase BY ONE the number of servings of fruits and vegetables you consume each day?
5. High blood pressure (referred to medically as hypertension) affects 50 million American adults. Because it has no symptoms, about half of all people with high blood pressure don't know it, putting them at risk for fatal heart attack, stroke, and kidney failure. This is the reason everyone should have her or his blood pressure measured regularly. Blood pressure is given as two numbers, one on top of the other. High blood pressure occurs when the top number (systolic pressure) is consistently over 140 and/or the bottom number (diastolic pressure) is consistently over 90.
To protect against high blood pressure, nutritionists warn about consuming too much salt (also referred to as sodium). The DASH Diet ("Dietary Approach to Stop Hypertension") was developed by the U.S. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (your tax dollars at work) to educate Americans about eating healthfully, including limiting salt intake. Compare the recommendations of the DASH diet with those of the Healthy Eating Pyramid. What similarities do you see?
6. Read this information about fiber and respond to these questions...- How many grams of fiber are recommend for adults each day?
- Approximately how many grams of fiber did you consume yesterday? Think back and make a list of the foods you consumed (or choose one representative day from your Food Diary). The fiber content of common foods can be found on this list, on this list, and with this tool. Alternatively, you can consult the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Nutritional Data Lab.
- Which of these dietary fats is the healthiest: saturated fat, polyunsaturated fat, or trans-fat?
- Identify two foods that you could consume that contain healthy fats.
_____ grams of fat per day
_____ milligrams of cholesterol per day (regardless of calorie requirement)
9. Heart disease is the most prevalent fatal disease in the United States. About 80% of the risk of developing heart disease is attributable to certain habits of living, including consuming high levels of cholesterol and saturated fat in the diet. This is the reason Americans are told to limit their consumption of dietary cholesterol and saturated fat. From Question 8 (above) you know that the recommended limit of dietary cholesterol is 300 milligrams (mg) per day.
Refer to My Estimated Daily Calories (#6 in Personal Vital Statistics ). Then, use a calculator and estimate your daily limit of fat grams:
9A: Saturated fat: no more than 10% of daily calories
10% of my daily calories = ______
Divide by 9 to get fat grams = _____
9B: Total fat: no more than 30% of daily calories
30% of my daily calories = ______
Divide by 9 to get fat grams = _____
9C: Pretend that you have a fast food hamburger and fries for lunch. The burger has 12 grams of fat and the fries have 20 grams of fat. What percentage of your recommended daily allowance of fat is represented by the fat in your lunch?
10. With its emphasis on fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, what is the Healthy Eating Pyramid's recommendation for taking multi-vitamins?
Questions 11-15:
Few of us appreciate that the U.S. food production and distribution systems are highly industrialized and have significant effects on the environment, health, and food security. Farmland on which a variety of food crops were once grown has been converted into "agricultural factories" producing either soybeans, corn, wheat, or rice; more corn is grown than any other crop. Nearly all of these crops are not consumed directly by humans as food; rather, they are used as raw materials for the manufacture of both consumable products labeled and sold as food and also transportation fuel (ethanol or "biofuels"). Soy and corn are used as feed for beef, dairy cows, chickens, and hogs; corn is the basis of the industrial, man-made sugar, high fructose corn syrup; and soy is used to make cooking oils for the fast food and restaurant industries and the manufacture of store-bought pastries and snack foods.
Energy for the industrialized food system is not solar-based but fossil fuel-based. In 1940, one calorie of fossil fuel was used to produce 2.3 calories of food energy. Now 7-10 calories of fossil fuel energy are used to make ONE calorie of food energy. Next to transportation, the current food system uses the most fossil fuel energy in the economy -- about 19%.
The industrialization of the food system allows food to be produced thousands of miles from where it is consumed. Thus, food production and distribution are giant contributors to global warming and air pollution from the combustion of diesel fuels in farm equipment and long-haul trucks and the manufacture of fertilizers from natural gas, and pesticides and herbicides from petroleum.
Products shipped from outside the United States may not be inspected for bacteria and toxic chemicals, thereby increasing the risk of food borne illness. Also, when food is grown far from where it is consumed, growers and distributors hold an economic and political advantage over consumers.
Consumption of products containing high fructose corn syrup (e.g., sodas and nearly everything else -- check the food label) and large amounts of industrially-produced fats and oils (e.g., fast foods) contribute to the epidemic of overweight and obesity and increase the risks of developing diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, and some cancers.
Because animal-feed quality soy and corn are inexpensive and plentiful, agricultural animal products (beef, eggs, dairy, poultry, hogs) can be produced cheaply in giant Confined Animal Feed Operations (CAFOs). Thousands of animals are grown in close quarters and given antibiotic drugs to prevent infections that could spread easily through a crowded herd or flock. Although intended only for the animals, antibiotics enter the environment (generally via water runoff) and eventually create drug-resistant bacteria of all sorts (such as MRSA, methycillin-resistant staph aureus), which cause infections in people that cannot be cured.
The animal waste from CAFOs can contain infectious bacteria, like E coli 0H157:H7, which can wind up in meat as it is processed. Outbreaks of food-borne illness are now commonplace, as are recalls of millions of pounds of meat after infectious bacteria are discovered in it.
The animal waste from CAFOs collects in massive on-site lagoons, the effluent from which can pollute underground water supplies, streams, rivers, and lakes with infectious bacteria and other parasites. Not only can people and pets become sickened by consuming and bathing with tainted water, but also they can be sickened from industrially-raised fruits and vegetables (even organic ones) that are exposed to bacteria in soil or irrigated and washed with water tainted with pathogenic bacteria.
For Questions 11, 12, and 13, read Bryan Walsh's article Getting real about the high price of cheap food. Write at least 1-2 sentences in response to these questions:
11. What is the relationship of the food production system and the increasing prevalence of adult and child obesity and the resultant prevalence of type 2 diabetes, heart and blood vessel disease, high blood pressure, kidney and other diseases? Consider, for example, how many calories a dollar buys of potato chips compared to fresh fruit. Which is healthier?
12. What is the environmental consequence of using chemical fertilizers to produce corn, soy and other industrial crops?
13. What is the relationship of the food production system and antibiotic resistance?
For Questions 14 & 15, estimate the health and environmental impact of one item in your diet. Read Chad Heeter's article The oil in your oatmeal: a lot of fossil fuel goes into producing, packaging, and shipping our breakfast and do the following:
Question 14: Choose one item from your Food Diary. Give it a beginning health and environmental impact score of 10. Then, estimate its health and environmental impact using the scorecard below. In most instances you will not be able to find exact data to compute the item's score, so take your best guess. Think about whether the item is produced locally on a small farm or in a small manufacturing plant or whether it is made by industrial means at some distance from you. Sometimes you can learn something about an item's production history by looking at the manufacturer's or retailer's web site. Here are some examples
Scorecard:
• Subtract no points if the food is produced within a 50 mile radius of where it is sold to consumers and it is produced without petroleum-based fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, and added antibiotics and hormones.
• Subtract 1 point if the food item contains high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) because this substance is produced in factories from corn grown using high-intensity methods. Consumption of HFCS is related to the risk of overweight and obesity.
• Subtract 1 point if the food item contains or is prepared with soy oil because soy is grown using high-intensity methods.
• Subtract 2 points if the food item is a prepackaged animal product (hot dogs, supermarket beef products, chicken, pork) because the animals are raised in concentrated-animal feeding operations (COFAs).
• Subtract 1 point if the food item is transported from where it is produced more than 200 miles from to where consumers obtain it because of the use of petroleum as fuel.
• Subtract 2 points if the food item is transported from where it is produced more than 700 miles from to where consumers obtain it because of the use of petroleum as fuel
• Subtract 1 point if the food item is packaged in plastic or paper wrapping or box or carton because fossil fuels are used to make the wrapping.
Question 15: What could you do to raise the health and environmental impact score of the food item you analyzed?
