Adopting Healthy Food Choices Essay

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Introduction

Without good nutrition, one cannot lead a quality and healthy lifestyle. Quite a number of diseases and health conditions in America and in the rest of the world are caused by poor nutrition. These diseases are known as lifestyle diseases. Of course other factors such as hypertension, obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and reduced physical activity can also contribute to one acquiring a lifestyle disease, but the main cause is usually poor nutrition. Besides causing lifestyle diseases, a poor diet can also affect daily life in more ways than one. For example, poor nutrition can result in lower school performance, reduced productivity, and lower concentration. For young children, poor nutrition can also stunt growth and development. Unfortunately, it is the poor who are most affected by poor nutrition. It is they that have to bear the burden of lifestyle and chronic diseases brought about by poor nutrition. Besides the poor, research shows that even members of other socioeconomic classes are also affected albeit to a lesser extent. Some studies have pointed to rising insurance and health costs as evidence of this (Pothukuchi, 2004).

Nutrition has a close relationship with behavior. The relationship is often bi-directional. Evidence suggests that consuming certain foods/ nutrients can affect or trigger certain specific behaviors. Conversely, certain habits/ behaviors can influence what one decides to eat or reject. Furthermore, according to Hawkes (2013), several contextual factors often affect how, what, and when we eat.

Community thinking or behavior is also one of the most important factors in determining what people eat. Therefore, for any kind of significant change to diet to happen, there may be a need for community-wide engagement. There may be a need to talk to the rest of the community and involve them in helping people taking poor nutrition to get back on track and start accessing and consuming healthy food. Some of the discussions that should be had at the community-wide level include the evaluation of the local area food system to determine what is needed to bring about sustainable/ permanent change in the area. The discussions should result in resolutions and programs to bring about programs that are just the perfect size for easy and sustainable management and are good enough to bring about meaningful change in the local food system (Hawkes, 2013).

Misconceptions on Nutrition

People often adapt food related behaviors and attitudes from a very young age because of socioeconomic, psychosocial, and cultural factors. Moreover, many important elements of food selection, preparation, and style of consumption often have a cultural background and most people often participate subconsciously in the propagation of such cultural objects to maintain their cultural identity. Beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors about food cannot be accurately determined solely through the use of a survey. Therefore, it is important to design focus groups and other similar qualitative methods to paint the real picture and get valuable data to explain the observed phenomenon. The purpose of focus groups is often not just to get the big picture but to understand and engage the participants to find out their attitudes, opinions, experiences, explanations, and critiques regarding certain phenomena. Focus groups also allows respondents to clarify, qualify, and add to other respondents’ comments and responses so as to provide more expensive and in-depth data (James, 2004).

Nutrition scholars are nowadays utilizing theoretical frameworks and models to develop nutritional programs. However, even though nutritional and health theories and models can help to develop, execute, and assess nutritional programs, not many of them focus on culture and community as the principal reasons for nutritional choices and health behaviours (James, 2004). Another limitation in researching how nutrition and culture relate is optimistic bias. It has been suggested that most people have an optimistic bias because of their overwhelming lack of want to make nutritional changes since they think their risk of suffering the effects of poor nutrition is minimal compared to others. This sort of bias has been shown in many studies that have revealed how many persons believe that they are less likely to have a high fat diet compared to other persons, and in studies that show that individuals with low vegetable and fruit intake think they consume high amounts of the same (Pothukuchi, 2004).

Nutrition and Behaviour Concerns

The National Diet and Nutrition Survey of Young People between the ages of four and eighteen years revealed that school children were consuming more than the recommended daily intakes of sugars and saturated fat. Multiple studies have proven that high sugar intake in the form of sugary drinks between meals can result in dental carries and diabetes.

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The recommended alternatives are milk and water. These are the healthiest meals to take between meals yet studies show that children between eleven and fourteen years old and those between fifteen and eighteen years old take lower than the recommended daily intake levels of milk and water. This means that children in these age groups are missing out on iron and calcium. Low calcium levels are especially dangerous since the micronutrient is needed for bone development; meaning that those whose calcium levels is low risk developing osteoporosis at a later stage in their lives (Scott, 2007). High intake of saturated fat, on the other hand, increases the risk of young people developing heart diseases and related complications later in their lives. In conclusion, this study shows that many young people are not taking a balanced diet and their poor nutrition is exposing them to the possibility of developing lifestyle diseases later in life.

Undernutrition and Food Insufficiency

Statistics from WHO (the World Health Organization) have revealed that of the 57,000,000 people who lost their lives in the year 2008, 63 percent of the deaths were caused by NCDs (Non-communicable diseases). The NCDs that caused the most deaths are chronic respiratory illnesses, cancers, diabetes, and cardiovascular conditions. About 80 percent of the deaths occurred in poor countries and middle income countries. The health organization estimates that the…

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…been implemented in community/ public health settings that have been proven to increase vegetable and fruit consumption (Valdez et al., 2016).

Another obvious intervention setting is schools given that they can reach the school personnel, students and their parents. The intake of vegetables and fruits has been increased via the use of canteens, the internet and children partaking in the cultivation, preparation and cooking of the food they consume. Additionally, hidden alterations to dishes to reduce sodium, energy and fat content significantly enhanced the dietary profile of school dinners whilst maintain student involvement in the school lunch program (Valdez et al., 2016).

Media could be used as a crucial element to promote nutritional awareness. Individuals can get to learn more about healthy habits, portion size awareness, nutrition-poor dishes, and weight control. Radio advertising, high-frequency TV and signage might encourage attitude improvements towards a healthy diet. Media approaches might even cause communities to change their nutrition habits. Based on the campaign objectives and available resources, adoption of both national and local message campaigns might be helpful. With regards to the focus of the report on changes that can be made by the local governments to enhance the nutrition as well as physical activity of kids, it is necessary to emphasize that social marketing and media campaigns are capable of improving these local surroundings. This can be achieved through emphasising the reasons for enhancing kids’ nutrition and physical activity surroundings, and involving the community in making use of the new resources in their surroundings such as grocery stores and farmer’s markets (Valdez et al., 2016).

The local governments have a part to play in minimizing accessing to foods considered unhealthy and increasing access to healthier options. Currently, and is shown in this reports, there exists more access-improving schemes compared to those that may minimize access to these unhealthy dishes. Local governments need to concentrate on tactics that minimize access to the unhealthy foods, as such approaches might be quite effective in dealing with obesity (National Research Council, 2010).

Limiting access to sugar-sweetened drinks in community programs and colleges might, for instance, be more effective in reducing weight gain among the youth through the intake of excess calories than starting a community garden. Lastly, even though some interventions might have a direct or immediate influence on healthy eating habits, they might reinforce ties amongst important different community stakeholders. Organizational strengths or broad-based coalitions created via such activities might encourage effective funding for ensuing initiatives that bare more influence but are more challenging to execute (National Research Council, 2010).

Conclusion

Quality of life can be described as a general improving parameter of a patient’s comfort level. It is simply a multi-factor notion created by the individual’s view of psychological, social, and physical functioning, and its measurement is becoming more and more valuable in most fields of health research (Basin et al., 2018). Health issues that are nutrition-related, such as obesity, greatly affect the quality of life both directly and….....

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