Overnutrition and Undernutrition

• What is meant by the term ‘fad diet’?

Fad diets are eating programs that are genuinely unbalanced, unhealthy and do not provide enough nutrition for the body. The people that follow fad diets will eventually become malnourished under nutrition. Fad diets are created usually for weight losing purposes

• Identify 3 fad diets and outline the features of each.

Cabbage Soup Diet: The cabbage soup diet is about consuming a low calorie cabbage soup over seven days. It is considered as fad diet because it is designed for short-term weight-loss that requires no long-term physical activities. The diet contains a soup in which the ingredients are mostly vegetarian. It is claimed to lose about 4. 5 kg in a week but base on diet experts, most of the weight loss are water.

Three Day Diet: The three day diet is now one of the most popular short-term diets. The diet contains a guide for three days with low fat, salt and calorie meals for breakfast, lunch and dinner. It is very unhealthy as its lack of carbohydrates and protein. Therefore it is not recommended to be used anymore than three days.

Grapefruit Diet: The grapefruit diet, also known as the Hollywood Diet is a short-term fad diet that has existed in the United States since 1930s. It involves eating half a grapefruit or drinking grapefruit juice with each meal and significantly reduce the calorie intake, often under 800 calories per day. Like all others fad diets, it is not recommended for regular use.

• Celebrities have access to additional resources, to aid them in achieving weight loss, that are not generally available to average person. What are they?

Most celebrities are very rich. They can have access to many different resources that help them achieving weight loss. A common example is personal trainer. The trainers are dietary and weight loss professional that knows many efficient ways and helpful tips that will help training, exercising and having a diet more effective than normal. Another source that will aid them is expensive exercising machinery. With these machines, the exercises will become more complicated and therefore, burnt more calories.

• Explain why fad diets particularly the low carbohydrate diets, are damaging for children.

Fad diets usually contain low or even non-carbohydrate diets which are very bad and can even cause fatal disease if it is used over a long period of time. As a child grow up, carbohydrate is the most essential and important mineral needed for the body to fully function. Consuming a fad diet for a long time not only will not give the body enough energy for activities but also can slow down the growing process and might cause the child to become abnormal compare to other child in both height and strength.

• Explain why carbohydrates are so important in our diet.

Carbohydrates are very important. They serve as the main source of ‘fuel’ to the body. Without them, all the organs in our body may not function properly. For example, our nervous system cannot sustain unless is given an energy source to work, and that is of course carbohydrates. Also, our muscles and other important organs such as eye need carbohydrates to keep working. If there are not enough carbohydrates then it may cause to us tiredness and will affect our daily life.

• What long term effects could a low carbohydrate diet have on people’s health?

A low carbohydrate diet could cause some serious illness to our body over a period of time. Some of those illnesses are deadly such as heart disease or a higher risk of cancer. Lack of carbohydrate will also cause your organs to malfunction. Examples are reduced eye sight or lung diseases.

• Identify 2 food allergies from which Australian commonly suffer.

One of the most publicised food allergies is intolerance to peanuts, which affects about one in 200 Australian children. Peanut intolerance can become so severe that it triggers anaphylaxis, a severe allergic reaction that can be fatal. Lactose intolerance is a common food sensitivity that occurs in people who react to lactose found in milk and dairy products. Some food addictives, MSG flavour enhancer and strawberries can also cause allergies.

• Investigate and evaluate one fad diet, examining the features and possible implications to health. You need to:

• Identify one fad diet.
• Outline the features of this diet i. e. which foods are included and which foods are prohibited.

Discuss possible implication to health.

Fad diet: Three Day Diet

The Three Day Diet is one of the most common fad diets around the world. It claims to reduce your weight up to 4. 5 kg after 3 days. The diet contains a plan of meals (breakfast, lunch and dinner) for over 3 days with low calorie and fat foods.

Features:

• Inclusion of many different meals (mainly low energy snacks) like boiled eggs or crackers.
• Most meals include a vegetable and fruit serve
• Coffee is included a lot.
• Non-sugar appetiser is also in the diet.
• Milk must be drunk after breakfast and dinner.

Prohibited food:

• Sugar is not allowed along side with oil or fat.
• Carbohydrates since it have a lot of energy.

Possible implication: The consequence of this low carbohydrate diet is obvious. It may reduce your weight you will eventually end up gaining as the weight loss is mostly water. Using this diet will make you become tired due to not enough energy is provided caused be the lacking of carbohydrates. Repeating this diet will severely damage your nervous, muscular and respiratory system of your body since they need the energy from carbohydrate. Diseases will therefore become created and sometimes can be fatal. Factors That Influence Food Selection ‘School canteens forced to improve nutrition content of snacks on offer’ Sunday Telegraph 13. 2. 05

• List some popular foods sold in school canteens during the 1980’s and 1990’s. Some popular foods sold in school canteens during the 1980’s and 1990’s are potato chips, fizzy drinks, meat pies and lollies. What advisory body was established to assist school canteens in implementing healthier food choices? The New South Wales School Canteen Association was established to assist school canteen in implementing healthier food choices. Identify and explain the strategy that was implemented by the State Government in May 2004.

The Healthy School Canteen Strategy, launched in May 2004 has prohibited schools in NSW selling high-fat, high-sugar foods more than twice each term. A menu guide was established, which divides foods into three colour groupings aimed at encouraging canteens to serve more wholesome foods and less of the ‘takeaway’ style meals. Question 4: Outline the menu guide that was established to aid the school canteens in categorising various foods. The menu that was established has three categories: green, amber and red. Each colour represents a different group of food base of their nutritional values and healthiness. Green: foods in the ‘green’ category should be offered abundantly, including items like bread, pasta, fruit, lean meat, chicken, fish and dairy products. -Amber: foods in the ‘amber’ group includes pizza, low-fat muffins, pies and ice blocks that should be chosen carefully and served in smaller quantities. -Red: the foods in this group are considered unhealthy, filled with sugary and fatty products. They include deep-fried food, soft drinks, lollies and cream buns. Food from this group is allowed to be served twice a term at special events, such as that last day of school.

Question 5: Outline the main reasons for developing this strategy. Provide statistical evidence. The main reason behind the development of this strategy is because of the obesity of many children over the entire Australia. More than 25 percent of children in Australia are overweight or obese, which is one of the highest rates of childhood obesity in the development world. This is due to the fast-food-eating habits that have been developed along side with the growth of many large fast food restaurants.

• Design a new canteen menu for our school based on the above strategy.

You need to:

• Include green, amber and red foods in the correct proportions
• Include a variety of fresh and semi-processed
• Include drinks, meals and snack.

Canteen Menu

The foods will be classified into category of healthiness: green, amber and red. Example: Food name – type of food (fresh, hot food, snacks or drinks) – Colour classification.

Menu:

• Meat pie (available with chicken, beef and vegetable) – Hot food – Amber
• Sausage roll (medium or large) – Hot food – Amber
• Instant noodles – Hot food – Amber
• Potato chips – Hot food – Red Bread roll and vegetable soup – Hot food – Green
• Pasta – Fresh – Green
• Spaghetti – Hot food – Amber
• Hot dog – Hot food – Green
• Fruit (apple, orange, banana, mandarins) – Fresh – Green
• Fish and rice – Hot food – Green
• Potato chips snacks – Snacks – Amber
• Burgers (available with chicken and beef) – Hot food – Amber
• Juices (available with orange, apple and grape) – Drink – Green
• Chocolate bars (Mars, Boost and Snickers) – Snacks – Amber
• Lasagna – Hot food – Amber
• Water – Drink – Green

Breakfast only:

• Hash browns – Hot food – Amber
• Egg and bacon – Hot food – Amber