Energy-Yielding Nutrients in the Diet - Essay Example

Question Fat is considered one of the energy-yielding nutrients. In addition, fat contains the highest amount of calories by nine calories as compared to CHO and protein, which contain four calories each. Even though fat provides energy to the body, a diet that has high fat content can increase a person’s weight and lead to diseases such as obesity, heart attacks, cholesterol, and diabetes. As a personal opinion, I believe that in order to prevent myself from getting any the diseases that are linked to food diet, changing my diet would be the best solution. A healthy diet should contain less sugar and fat content. According to research in the textbook, diets that contain saturated fats and trans fats can affect a person’s health negatively since they lead to increase in the level of cholesterol in the blood, which can in turn lead to heart disease and other acute health conditions. Additionally, the textbook indicated that a study was conducted between seven countries in order to understand the link between heart disease and fat diets. The study showed the two populations, which is the Island of Crete and Finland, suffered from heart disease. Indeed, the study found that the food diet in Crete contained less saturated fat as compared to Finland, where death rates linked to heart disease were much higher than Crete. Furthermore, according to Omega article, consuming more fish and food elements that contain omega-3 helps in reducing the risk of getting heart disease. In addition, omega-3 also helps in reducing the effect of some risk factors such as stress that can lead to heart disease and strokes. According to the article “Omega-3 Fatty Acids and Mood Disorders”, Omega-3 is an important mineral in maintaining ones moods. This is why people with depressive disorders are likely to have mood swings if omega-3 is absent in their diet. Moreover, research shows that the tremendous increase in depression and neurological disorders is being fueled by the increasing consumption of vegetable oils that are rich in the omega-6 fatty acids (Parker et al. 969). However, consumption of foods such as fish, which is rich on omega-3, helps in preventing depression. Dietary changes from traditional foods that include fish eating to western fast food diets have led to increased rates of anxiety, depression, seasonal affective disorder, and suicide (Parker et al. 969-970). Some of the changes that I would like to make when it comes to changing my food diet include consuming more fish and less fast food. Additionally, I will include vegetables and fruits to my food diet and ensure that they comprise the highest portion in my food. In fact, I will replace eating cakes and sweets for dessert with fruits since they contain many benefits and have a sweet taste as well. An important change will include advising my family to change from the perspective of reducing the use of butter when cooking and use liquid oil instead. To support this idea, I will base my argument on the video “oils and butter”, where the speaker indicated that using liquid oil is healthier than using butter. Question 2 It is not necessarily true that people in the U.S are becoming vegetarians because it is healthier than a diet containing meat. Being vegetarian is linked to several reasons such as a person’s culture, religion, political, beliefs, health concerns, weight control, among other reasons. In addition, controversy 6 indicated that some people decide to become vegetarians so as to hide their appetite disorders. Even though vegetarians are protected from major diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, cancer, high blood pressure, and obesity where some of these diseases are ranked among the top causes of deaths in the United States and many other nations. However, vegetarian diet can lead to other risks as vegetarians might lack protein in their diet, which is important in building the body’s muscles and tissues or might consume more protein than the DRI recommend. To illustrate this, vegetarians receive their protein from plants due to their diet that depends on vegetables and fruits. However, since vegetarians consume many plants on a daily basis, the amount of protein they consume may be higher than what the body needs. In addition, vegetarians may fail to supply their bodies with nutrients such as zinc, vitamin B12, and vitamin D. Besides that, due to the less amount of food that a vegetarian may consume, they might feel full before they eat the required amount of food that would supply their bodies with sufficient energy. Furthermore, due to the lack of certain minerals that include calcium in some vegetarian diets, these individuals may experience bone loss. In addition, consuming less iron can lead to nerve damage. On the other hand, when a person is injured or undergoes surgical repair, eating meat helps in speeding up the repair of damaged cells and tissues in the body, which vegetarian diets may lack. A story that I would like to share is the story of my friend Nouf who decided to become a vegetarian when she saw a video demonstrating how cows are being inappropriately killed in some countries such as Egypt. Nouf’s diets not only lack meats but also seafood and fish as she only depends on vegetables, fruits, egg, and milk. Even though Nouf looks healthy and has healthy weight, she suffers from severe anemia and her body lacks iron. This made her doctor to prescribe a supplement pill to increase the iron in her body. When it comes to me, I do not think that she made the right choice in becoming a vegetarian because she is not able to determine a rich and healthy vegetarian diet for herself. In addition, avoiding meat is causing many health related issues that a girl in her age should not be suffering from such as losing hair. After reading this chapter, I believe that a vegetarian diet is not a good choice without application of certain directions that are essential in establishment of a balanced diet. When becoming a vegetarian, it is important to learn how to create meals that would supply the body with all nutrients without favoring some nutrients over others. In effect, balance and variety are important components in creating and maintaining a healthy diet. In addition, I believe that having a diet that contains both meat and vegetables is much beneficial if it was balanced and if meat would be consumed in less amounts. Some of the things that a person should consider when adopting a vegetarian diet is to eat plants that would supply the body with protein. According to the American Heart Association, some plants and soy protein supplies the body with energy. In addition, a vegetarian should choose food that contains Iron, Vitamin B-12, Vitamin D, calcium, and Zinc. Additionally, the American Heart Association recommends drinking milk or dairy products that are low in fat content. Work cited Parker, G., Gibson, N. A., Brotchie, H., Heruc, G., Rees, A., and Hadzi-Pavlovic, D.” Omega-3 Fatty Acids and Mood Disorders.” American Journal of Psychiatry, 163.6 (2006): 969-978. Print. Read More