A Family and Consumer Sciences course that I plan to teach is Foods and Nutrition to high school students. My philosophy for the course of Foods and Nutrition is to contribute to the development of skills and values that lead to improve family life. Within this course I believe that students develop life skills specifically related to good nutrition, health, and wise consumerism. The focus is centered on healthy food and lifestyle choices. Students will study the relationships of food, nutrition and wellness to promote good health. Additionally the course will enhance student knowledge of food choices and to motivate students to actually improve their choices. We live in a rapidly changing and increasingly complex world. Our students
Michael Pollan, an American author, journalist, activist, and professor of journalism at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism (Michael Pollan), writes in his book In Defense of Food, the dangers of nutritionism and how to escape the Western diet and subsequently most of the chronic diseases the diet imparts. In the chapter “Nutritionism Defined” Pollan defines the term nutritionism. Pollan’s main assertion being how the ideology of nutritionism defines food as the sum of its nutrients, and from this viewpoint Pollan goes on to write how nutritionism divides food into two categories, with each macronutrient divided against each other as either bad or good nutrients, in a bid for focus of our food fears and enthusiasms. Finally, Pollan concludes that with the relentless focus nutritionism places on nutrients and their interplay distinctions between foods become irrelevant and abandoned.
Nutritionism and Today’s Diet Nutritionism is the ideology that the nutritional value of a food is the sum of all its individual nutrients, vitamins, and other components. In the book, “In Defense of Food” by Michael Pollan, he critiques scientists and government recommendations about their nutritional advice. Pollan presents a strong case pointing out the many flaws and problems that have risen over the years of following scientific studies and government related warnings on the proper amount of nutrients needed for a healthy diet. Pollan’s main point is introducing science into our food system has had more of a negative impact than a positive one, we should go back to eating more of a traditional diet. I believe food science has given us
Michael Pollan makes arguments concerning the eating habits of the average American. Pollan suggests, in spite of our cultural norms, we should simply “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly Plants.”
...e has a very sensitive and personable narrative throughout the book that transcends to showing how caring of a person she is. That aspect, who the writer is, is very important to me especially when discussing such important topics that needs to be coming from someone I trust and believe in. Since food and eating habits is something that every human all has in common it is a very good book that is able to affect anyone on a personal level. For me it has drawn an even further connection to the things I have learned in this course. My family has always been health conscious because my mother has been having health problems for 20 years so the importance of health and exercise is something that I have been raised with. With textual evidence the class and this book has presented to me I am very confident in my health habits and choices today and for the rest of my life.
Specifically, a food education program that includes elderly having hands on experience through cooking methods, provides an understanding of healthy food choices, while improving nutrition (Chung, Louisa Ming Yan, Chung, Joanne Wai Yee, 2014). According to Chung et al. (2014), “the implementation of a food education program provided an alternative health approach to tackle the problem of nutritional status in elderly people”. By having nutrition education combined with cooking classes with peer support is also beneficial for older adults who experience limited nutrition (Jyväkorpi,Pitkälä, Kautiainen, Puranen, Laakkonen & Suominen, 2012). For instance, peer support under the interpersonal level encourages older individuals to want to eat food with nutritional value to live longer for those peers who are supporting them through the
Proper nutrition is important in maintaining a long and healthy life. Most Americans are rushed due to their busy work schedules, and do not take the time to plan their diets properly. Like me, most Americans are unaware of the importance of eating a healthy diet and consume too many foods without the proper nutrients. Throughout my life I have been fortunate. I have not had any major health problems, and have been able to consume most foods without having to worry about gaining weight. These last two years, however, I started to gain weight and have become concerned with my diet. Changing my poor eating habits has been difficult for me, however, having this assignment has taught me that it is not as difficult as I previously imagined.
Nutrition also plays an important role in student health. Proper nutrition promotes optimal growth and development of children. Researchers generally find that a higher quality diet is associated with better performance on academic test scores and that nutritional status can directly affect mental capacity among school age children (Frisvold). Teaching students about the benefits of good nutrition will help them stay healthy throughout their growing years. “My plate” is one of the easy and interactive tools they can avail to assist them in making healthier food
Nutritionism is an ideology that believes that the nutrients in foods are the key to understanding them. Nutritionism believers are so focused on the nutrients that food contains that they forget about all other aspects of food. The problem is that consumers rely on packaging to tell them what nutrients a food provides, since nutrients cannot be obviously seen, and they rely on science to tell us what nutrients are good and which are “evil”.
Education plays a dominant role in the lives of students throughout the United States. Since most students spend roughly eight to twelve hours in school, it is important to make sure that they are provided with a healthy and nutritious breakfast, lunch and snack. Unfortunately, in today’s society, school administrators focus heavily on standardized test scores and school rankings, thus adding more pressure on students and teachers. This being said, schools have begun to focus on providing healthy foods because they help increase a person’s cognitive and critical thinking ability. It is seen that nutrition plays a great role in students’ performance on exams and physical activity due to the correlation between school provided meals and low student performance on tests.
My cultural background will be a great contribution to the Washington State University Coordinated Dietetics Program. Being raised in a Malasia, having visited different countries, and now living in the United States, I have experienced the similarities and differences among many diverse cultural groups and nutritional diets. This broad exposure to different cultures allowed me to relate to different types of people by understanding their ways and beliefs, a quality that will help me work well with other students and people. For example, many Malasians will eat something that is unhealthy in nutritional standards and has no benefits to the body. However, they will continue to consume it because it is common in their culture. I would like to teach Malasian people to look at food from a cultural and nutritional angle to be more healthful.
One of the reason’s why I felt my nutrition needed to changes is because nutrition is a huge part of a healthy lifestyle, the way that we eat and what foods we consume can have a huge impact on our everyday lives. Nutrition plays a huge role in multiple facets of a person’s life energy, health, skin, weight, confidence, and more making having a good control on your eating habits extremely important. How we eat over the years and what foods we routinely choose to eat can eventually have a lasting effect on use and what we consider to be most appealing and appetizing at any given moment. Having these craving and routine habits makes eating, diet, and nutrition both a behavior and a lifestyle choice that can be changed over time with help from the theories learned in this class.
Holistic nutrition is increasingly becoming popular in healthcare practice due to the growing detoxification culture amongst the people with the aim of improving individual health. Consumption of toxic elements toxifies the body, the consumption of processed food products is the primary cause of diseases amongst the people. There is increased use of Holistic Nutrition by both healthy people and people with health conditions with the aim of achieving optimum body function and health. The increased use of holistic nutrition in the community improves health outcomes and reduces poor health outcomes that are caused by poor lifestyle choices of using processed food products. Holistic nutrition provides a natural approach of ensuring positive health
Nutrition is an important key to learn and understand in your life while you get older. Many people do not know the proper diet and exercise to keep their body healthy and strong. Throughout this course, I have learned information on different kinds of vitamins, carbohydrates, amino acids and other helpful diets. After reading and logging my dietary log for a week it has helped me re-organize my diet and health. I have learned about how to personally manage my exercise and diet and I am seeing some good results because of what I learned from this class. I started to see what I was missing in my diet and started to know what quantity and quality was for your diet. I also took a leap into my family health history to see what I need to change
I chose to have the same meal for breakfast, lunch and dinner for three days, not in a row, of course. So day one, two and three will look the same; it is roughly what I consume on a regular basis, I really didn’t have to alter my meals much at all, only to make sure I had the same meals each day.
Proper nutrition is one of the most essential elements to being healthy and living a long life. People deal with food every day, and food has been a part of life since the beginning of civilization. What we eat becomes our diet, and our diet plays a major role in deciding how healthy we are and how well our body functions. Without proper diet, our body cannot carry out the functions it needs to perform. Most people have some common knowledge on what is good and what is bad for the human body to consume. Fruits, vegetables, nuts, and grains are some common items people think of when they think of healthy foods. However, it is not enough just to know what foods are good for your body, it is also important to understand why certain foods are good for you and what they do to help the body function.