Human Nutrition II

Distance Education in Diet Planning

Healthy eating makes a healthy body & mind

This course teaches you how to develop a well balanced diet. Topics covered include how cooking and food processing affect nutrition, recommended nutrient intakes, assessing nutritional needs, planning a balanced diet, timing of meals, needs for special people/groups.

Lesson Structure

There are 8 lessons in this course:

1. Cooking and its Effect on Nutrition
2. Food Processing and its Effect on Nutrition
3. Recommended Daily Intake of Nutrients
4. Vitamins
5. Minerals
6. Planning a Balanced Diet
7. Assessing Nutritional Status and Needs
8. Diet Planning for Special Needs

Each lesson culminates in an assignment which is submitted to the school, marked by the school's tutors and returned to you with any relevant suggestions, comments, and if necessary, extra reading.

Aims

• Determine appropriate food preparation for different foods, in relation to value for human health.
• Explain the characteristics of food processing techniques and their implications for human health.
• Understand the minimum and maximum safe intake for macronutrients, vitamins and minerals.
• Manage dietary intake of more significant vitamins including fat soluble, B and C complex vitamins for good health.
• Manage dietary requirements of significant minerals including calcium & iron for good health.
• Plan in detail, an appropriate seven day diet plan, for an "average" adult.
• Determine dietary needs of different individuals and subpopulations
• Plan diets to achieve different, specific purposes and to plan diets for specific needs for people at different stages of life.

What You Will Do

• Determine the reasons for cooking food and compare different methods of cooking food in terms of their effect on both health and nutrition.
• Explain how meat can be ensured to be fit for human consumption in a raw state, such as in sushi
• Distinguish between function, effects, and chemistry of different types of food additives, in food preparation, including: Colours, Preservatives, Antioxidants, Vegetable gums, Flavourings, Thickeners, Anti caking agents, Bleaches, Emulsifiers, Humectants, Food Acids, Mineral salts
• Evaluate taste and nutritional effects of adding different specified flavourings to five different specified food dishes, including: *Salt *Sugar *Herbs *Wines
• Explain, giving examples of specific foods, how "freshness" of different specified foods, impacts upon nutrient status of those foods
• Explain how physical treatment of different specified foods (eg. cutting or crushing), may affect the food benefit of that food, including: *digestibility *keeping quality *nutrient status
• Explain different heat treatments for food preservation; in terms of the process, function and affects; including: *drying *canning *bottling *pasteurisation
• Explain freezing of food, in terms of the process, function and affects
• Define examples of each of the following types of food additives:*Colours *Preservatives *Antioxidants *Vegetable gums *Flavourings *Thickeners *Anti caking agents *Bleaches *Emulsifiers *Humectants *Food acids *Mineral salts
• Distinguish between function, effects, and chemistry of different types of food additives, in food preservation, including: *Colours *Preservatives *Antioxidants *Vegetable gums *Flavourings *Thickeners *Anti caking agents *Bleaches *Emulsifiers *Humectants *Food acids *Mineral salts
• Analyse in a report, the effects of food additives found in different supermarket food items
• Explain problems that may result from food additives including: *allergic reactions *hyperactivity in children
• Explain different dehydration processes, in terms of the process, function and affects
  • Explain use of food processing techniques applied to different common foods with respect to food quality, storage life and cost
• Compare the use of different food processing techniques on the same food, through in terms of the process, function and effect
• Demonstrate five different food processing techniques, by independently preparing samples to a commercial standard
• Compare recommended dietary intake information from different sources
• Explain how food requirements vary, in terms of components and quality, at different ages, including: *babies *children *teenagers *young adults *elderly people
• Recommend daily food intake requirements for a variety of different people who you are familiar with (e.g. elderly, young children, active young adults), listing components of a typical daily intake together with a profile of the person
• List quality food sources of C complex vitamins in order of richest to poorest source
• List quality food sources of B complex vitamins in order of richest to poorest source
• Explain nutrient disorders associated with three different significant vitamin imbalances, including vitamin B complex, vitamin C, and one other vitamin
• Evaluate different people you are familiar with, with respect to vitamin intake, lifestyle and health status, to determine if vitamin B & C needs are being satisfied
• List food sources of calcium in order of richest to poorest source
• List food sources of iron in order of richest to poorest source
• Distinguish nutrient disorders associated with calcium and iron imbalances, in terms of diagnosis and significance
• Evaluate different people you are familiar with, with respect to mineral intake, lifestyle and health status, to determine if mineral requirements including calcium and iron needs, are being met
• Develop a questionnaire to analyse the dietary requirements of a person
• Analyse the diet, lifestyle and general health of different individuals and compare the individuals analysed
• Recommend aspects of diet which could be improved for individuals analysed
• Explain discrepancies detected between different sources of dietary recommendations
• Conduct a self assessment of dietary practices, determining in a summary report, areas of deficiency

How to Eat; not just What to Eat!

Custom and social factors often dictate when meals will be eaten. It ought to be added that time frequently dictates when the first meal of the day is taken. The body is much like a machine, starting the day without food to fuel results in poor performance, and if it occurs on a regular basis deterioration and breakdown.

Muscular efficiency, concentration and alertness peak after meals, and school students fed a proper breakfast show better performance in school compared to their classmates working on empty stomachs. Many people work long hours in demanding, high pressure jobs. Meals become a coffee and a biscuit on the run, and burn out is often inevitable. In fact, our reaction and ability to cope with stress is worsened when we lack certain nutrients.

To make the most efficient use of the foods we eat it is generally advised to eat more frequent, smaller meals during the day. This, combined with the ingestion of complex carbohydrates instead of simple sugars prevents peaks in efficiency countered by severe drops. Avoiding blood sugar surges and falls can also keep appetite in control, stave off cravings and allow a person to work efficiently between meals/snacks.

In the past the traditional western main meal of meat or fish and two vegetables followed by a pudding had much in its favour from a nutritional point of view (although the traditional roasting and boiling methods could be switched for methods that don’t deplete nutrients as readily), along with the fact that people took more exercise in their normal day-to-day life. Today more snack-type meals and convenience foods are eaten, so more careful planning of the foods eaten becomes necessary. With the more general use of the car less exercise is often taken, too, and this is not always taken into account when planning diets.