The Role of Nutrition in Human Growth and Development Lesson: E1-1

Objective 1: What is good nutrition? I. Nutrition is the process by which we consume and use food. A nutritionist or a registered dietician studies how the body uses food. A. Food fulfills three basic human needs. 1. Food provides energy. 2. Food supports new tissue growth and tissue repair. 3. Food helps regulate metabolism.

Objective 1: What is good nutrition? B. These three basic needs are met by components of foods called nutrients (ingredients that provide sustenance) that are found in six classes: 1. Carbohydrates 2. Fats 3. Proteins 4. Vitamins 5. Minerals 6. Water

Objective 1: What is good nutrition? C. Proper nutrition establishes a strong base on which a child may build a healthy lifestyle. Proper nutrition at home and school helps to ensure appropriate snack and meal choices that result in a healthy body. 1. At home, children should be involved in the preparation of snacks and meals. Food should be fun and nutritious. For example, sandwiches can be cut into shapes or healthy dips (e.g., low-fat ranch dressing on carrots or peanut butter on celery) can be added.

Objective 1: What is good nutrition? C. Proper nutrition (cont’d) 2. At school, it is important to provide a learning environment for nutrition and education. For instance, the green and red grapes can be counted out while being placed into each child’s bowl at snack time. School time is most likely when children will begin to make independent food choices. Therefore, providing a positive experience with some foods that may be new can assist the child in making healthy choices (e.g., a banana rather than a candy bar) in the long run.

Objective 1: What is good nutrition? D. Tools to use 1. My Pyramid (http://www.mypyramid.gov/) provides the food guide pyramid for young children, teens, adults, and older adults. This Web site explains the different food groups and the amounts recommended by the USDA.

Objective 1: What is good nutrition?

Objective 1: What is good nutrition? D. Tools to use 2. At home, parents and siblings can set a good example for young children by eating healthy snacks and meals. It is important to limit the high sugar, high fat, and high salt foods that children eat; this helps to provide a boundary and to educate the children about healthy foods and foods that should be eaten sparingly.

Objective 1: What is good nutrition? D. Tools to use 3. Having a selection of healthy foods in the house gives children healthy options when they are hungry. These healthy options offer a variety of flavors and provide higher quality nutrients.

Objective 2: How does poor nutrition affect young children? II. Nutritional concerns A. Weight gain or loss and a lack of food variety are two signs that children are not getting enough nutrients in their diet.

Objective 2: How does poor nutrition affect young children? B. Poor nutrition may be caused by negligence on the part of the parent or caregiver. This type of negligence is usually unintentional. Some parents or caregivers may not know what constitutes good nutrition and may depend on fast food or convenience foods for meals and snacks.

Objective 2: How does poor nutrition affect young children? B. Poor nutrition (cont’d) 1. Parents or caregivers set poor examples when they, too, have poor eating habits. The adult’s poor nutritional habits are modeled to the child and, in some cases, the food choices the adult is making may be the only ones available in the neighborhood.

Objective 2: How does poor nutrition affect young children? B. Poor nutrition (cont’d) 2. Only a doctor should diagnose a child’s weight problem because young children can appear heavy or slim and still be healthy. There is an obesity epidemic among young children today that is more pronounced than in previous generations.

Objective 2: How does poor nutrition affect young children? B. Poor nutrition (cont’d) 3. Eating habits are founded on the variety of foods available, parent or caregiver modeling, and the availability of high-sugar, high-fat, and high-salt snacks and meals. Like many other habits, eating habits are formed at a young age, and healthy eating habits are extremely important to health in later life.

Objective 2: How does poor nutrition affect young children? C. Effects of poor nutrition 1. A poor diet can lead to inadequate growth in young children and may continue to affect them as adolescents. Careful monitoring of young children’s diets helps ensure proper growth. 2. Children who have poor nutritional habits tend to have compromised immune systems, making them more susceptible to illness.

Objective 2: How does poor nutrition affect young children? C. Effects of poor nutrition 3. A poor diet can affect children’s abilities to learn. The effects of a poor diet include difficulty focusing on a task, fatigue, and illness; the effects can cause a child to pay little attention in school or to miss school.

Objective 3: How does good nutrition benefit older adults? III. Nutritional concerns A. Factors that influence proper nutrition 1. As adults age, their sense of taste decreases, making foods they once enjoyed no longer a pleasure. A decreased sense of taste may also account for the need to increase the amount of fat and/or salt in foods. However, this may lessen the nutritional contributions and lead to other health problems (e.g., high cholesterol and high blood pressure).

Objective 3: How does good nutrition benefit older adults? A. Factors that influence proper nutrition (cont’d) 2. Due to changes in lifestyle, older adults may lose their appetite (the desire to eat or a craving). This is due, in part, to a decrease in taste sensitivity. When people do not feel hungry and do not eat, they can be missing nutrients vital to a healthy diet.

Objective 3: How does good nutrition benefit older adults? A. Factors that influence proper nutrition (cont’d) 3. The loss of teeth may make eating painful and undesirable. One option is to choose softer, nutrient- dense foods (e.g., yogurt, protein smoothies, and cooked vegetables). Nutrient-dense foods have a high nutrient to calorie ratio, so they are rich in nutrients compared to calorie count.

Objective 3: How does good nutrition benefit older adults? 3. The loss of teeth (cont’d) a. For example, strawberries are considered a nutrient-dense food because one cup of strawberries contains only 150 calories. However, strawberries have 3.5 grams of fiber, a massive 86 milligrams of vitamin C, and a useful 26.9 micrograms of folate (folic acid; one of the B vitamin complex used in the treatment of nutritional anemias). b. Nutrient-dense foods are the opposite of empty-calorie foods that are low in nutrition when compared to their calorie content.

Objective 3: How does good nutrition benefit older adults? 3. The loss of teeth (cont’d) c. Whole-grain breads and cereals, rice, beans, pasta, vegetables, and fruits are considered nutrient dense because they are high in carbohydrates and supply other nutrients (e.g., vitamins, minerals, protein, and fiber). d. Sweet foods that are high in sugar (e.g., candy bars, donuts, and cookies) contain carbohydrates, but they are not considered nutrient dense because they are high in fat and contain insignificant amounts of vitamins and minerals. These foods are “empty” calories.

Objective 3: How does good nutrition benefit older adults? A. Factors that influence proper nutrition (cont’d) 4. Older adults tend to live on a fixed income and may choose to spend only a certain amount of money on necessities, such as food. In this case, food choices may be compromised because fresh foods are more expensive. Budgeting and using sales and senior discounts can help to ease the financial strain.

Objective 3: How does good nutrition benefit older adults? A. Factors that influence proper nutrition (cont’d) 5. Many older adults lose friends and family members more often than other age groups, resulting in sadness. Depression (a psychoneurotic disorder marked by feelings of sadness, inactivity, difficulty thinking and concentrating, significant increases or decreases in appetite, increased time spent sleeping, hopelessness, and sometimes thoughts of suicide) and feelings of loneliness can change a person’s eating habits because meals are social events for many people.

Objective 3: How does good nutrition benefit older adults? B. Physical problems 1. Chronic diseases or illnesses are marked by a long duration, a frequent recurrence, and an illness management plan for the foreseeable future or for the remainder of an individual’s life. High blood pressure, arthritis, diabetes, osteoporosis, certain cancers, and heart disease are examples. Chronic diseases affect the body and influence the way a person eats. Medications, lack of mobility, and other factors can change a person’s activity level and, in turn, their food choices.

Objective 3: How does good nutrition benefit older adults? B. Physical problems 2. Exercise is extremely important for all ages. Some older adults believe that exercise is of no use to them. They may consider exercise inconvenient, boring, or too difficult. Although activity levels may need to be altered for older adults, they need regular exercise for general health reasons and to increase their appetite and quality of life.

Review What are the three basic human needs that food fulfills? What are some tools that can be used to encourage good nutrition? What are three affects of poor nutrition in young children? What are some factors that influence proper nutrition in older adults?