Question

Discussion Questions (Choose Three)

1. People consume many liquids besides water: tea, soda, sports drinks, coffee. There is often debate about whether these beverages are good hydration, or if they only dehydrate? What does the book have to say on this issue? What factors must be considered when drinking non-water hydrating beverages?

2.Sodium is overabundant in the typical American diet because salt is often added in excessive quantities to processed foods. Find a food label that has an outrageous amount of sodium per serving. Then find a low sodium substitute food and post that label as well. Make sure the foods are essentially equal in calories & Serving size. What is the most shocking value of sodium we can find as a class?

3. The book states “there is no miracle food or supplement”. This is so true. Find 3 foods or supplements that are generally touted as “good”, then provide at least one nutritional, cultural, or environmental problem with that food or supplement. For example, eggs are a great source the vitamin choline, but eggs are also one of the foods most likely to cause a food allergy. (you must do this for 3 foods).

4. The book points out that less than 10% of Americans get the recommended number of fruit and vegetable servings per day. And that potato (French fries and hash browns) was the most reported veggie. Why is American vegetable intake so low? What can be done to increase veggie consumption in your diet, your family’s diet, and in those around you? (see the tools for change section in chapter 8) Many people choose to take a supplemental multi-vitamin instead of eating a healthy well-balanced diet. Can taking a multivitamin replace veggies in the diet?

5. Do veggies and multi-vitamins have the same health benefits? Are vitamin supplements and veggies equally safe? Explain your answer?

Answer 1

1) According to the old rule of thumb, you're supposed to drink eight glasses of water per day (and some experts recommend even more). That can seem like a daunting task on some days, but here's the catch: You don't have to drink all that water. Roughly 20% of our daily H2O intake comes from solid foods, especially fruits and vegetables.

It's still important to drink plenty of water -- especially in the summertime -- but you can also quench your thirst with these 15 hugely hydrating foods, all of which are at least 90% water by weight.

Sure, you can always reach for a glass of water -- but plain H20 isn't the most hydrating beverage around, according to a study from Scotland's St. Andrews University that compared the hydration responses of several different drinks.

The researchers found that while water -- both still and sparkling --does a pretty good job of quickly hydrating the body, beverages with a little bit of sugar, fat or protein do an even better job of keeping us hydrated for longer.

One factor is the volume of a given drink: The more you drink, the faster the drink empties from your stomach and gets absorbed into the bloodstream, where it can dilute the body's fluids and hydrate you.

The other factor affecting how well a beverage hydrates relates to a drink's nutrient composition. For example, milk was found to be even more hydrating than plain water because it contains the sugar lactose, some protein and some fat, all of which help to slow the emptying of fluid from the stomach and keep hydration happening over a longer period of time.

Milk also has sodium, which acts like a sponge and holds onto water in the body and results in less urine produced.

The same can be said for oral rehydration solutions that are used to treat diarrhea. Those contain small amounts of sugar, as well as sodium and potassium, which can also help promote water retention in the body.

Electrolytes -- like sodium and potassium -- contribute to better hydration, while calories in beverages result in slower gastric emptying and therefore slower release of urination.

Beverages with more concentrated sugars, such as fruit juices or colas, are not necessarily as hydrating as their lower-sugar cousins. They may spend a little more time in the stomach and empty more slowly compared to plain water, but once these beverages enter the small intestine their high concentration of sugars gets diluted during a physiological process called osmosis. This process in effect "pulls" water from the body into the small intestine to dilute the sugars these beverages contain. And technically, anything inside the intestine is outside your body.

Alcohol acts as a diuretic, which causes you to pass more urine, so when it comes to alcoholic beverages hydration will depend on a beverage's total volume. "Beer would result in less water loss than whiskey, because you are ingesting more fluid with beer," Maughan said. "Strong alcoholic drinks will dehydrate, dilute alcoholic drinks will not.

A regular coffee with about 80 milligrams of caffeine -- roughly what you would find in 12 oz. of Folgers' house blend -- would be pretty much as hydrating as water.

3) The best approach to ensure you get a variety of vitamins and minerals, and in the proper amounts, is to adopt a broad healthy diet. This involves an emphasis on fruits and vegetables, whole grains, beans and legumes, fish,low-fat protein, and dairy products.

While eating fish has nutritional benefits, it also has potential risks. Fish can take in harmful chemicals from the water and the food they eat. Chemicals like mercury and PCBs can build up in their bodies over time. High levels of mercury and PCBs can harm the brain and nervous system.

Whole grains are packed with nutrients including protein, fiber, B vitamins, antioxidants, and trace minerals (iron, zinc, copper, and magnesium). A diet rich in whole grains has been shown to reduce the risk of heart disease, type 2 diabetes, obesity, and some forms of cancer.Eating these types of foods leads to overeating, and may therefore cause weight gain and obesity. Refined grains have also been linked to numerous metabolic diseases.

Legumes are rich in plant protein, fiber, B-vitamins, iron, folate, calcium, potassium, phosphorus, and zinc. Most beans are also low in fat. Legumes are similar to meat in nutrients, but with lower iron levels and no saturated fats.Despite the known health benefits of beans and legumes, many people tend to shy away from them because of fears of excessive and embarrassing gas. The new report analyzed flatulence and stomach distress, including stool changes and bloating.

4) Your household income is low, you’re probably going for the cheapest, highest-calorie options.

People with higher levels of education — and perhaps more knowledge about health and nutrition

Junk foods also have the marketing heft of multinational corporations behind them.

potatoes and tomatoes made up half of the legumes and vegetables available in this country, according to the US Department of Agriculture. The USDA doesn’t subsidize leafy vegetable crops in the same way it supports crops like wheat, soy, and corn — two crops that make up a lot of the junk food that overwhelms the US diet. So products full of high-fructose corn syrup and soybean oil have an unfair advantage.

A) Subsidizing fruits and vegetables for the poor

B) Getting doctors to write "fruit and vegetable prescriptions"

C) Sexy marketing of fruits and vegetables

D) Growing your own produce in a garden
As we wait for more data for these other programs, there is compelling evidence that suggests growing fruits and vegetables at community or home gardens can get people eating healthier without much investment

Supplements aren't intended to replace food. They can't replicate all of the nutrients and benefits of whole foods, such as fruits and vegetables. Whole foods offer benefits over dietary supplements

5) After years of focusing on single nutrients, nutrition researchers began to focus on whole foods, finding that food is more than just a sum of its nutrient parts. So, instead of taking a handful of vitamins each day, the advice that came down the scientific pipeline was "Eating a variety of fresh fruits and vegetables every day has superior health benefits because of the ‘synergy’ of food." This means that all of the compounds in a piece of fruit or a vegetable work better together in your body to perform different jobs than taking the same individual vitamins.

This is not to say that vitamin and mineral supplements are not of value. Many people need a vitamin/mineral supplement to meet specific nutrient needs that they cannot or do not get from food. For example, people who do not eat dairy products or other rich sources of calcium need a calcium supplement, and vegetarians or other people who eat no animal foods need to take a vitamin B12 supplement. Also important, women who could become pregnant are advised to eat foods fortified with folic acid or to take a folic acid supplement in addition to consuming folate-rich foods to reduce the risk of some serious birth defects. People in northern climates or those who get little exposure to the sun, plus older adults may need a vitamin D supplement.

Physicians often prescribe vitamins or minerals for meeting nutrient needs or for therapeutic purposes. For example, doctors may advise pregnant women to take an iron supplement, and adults over age 50 to get their vitamin B12 from a supplement or from fortified foods.
In the last few years, a new player had entered the field – whole food supplements. Whole food supplements have emerged to support the shortage of fruits and vegetables we are getting in our diets. Fruit and vegetable supplements contain not only a far wider variety of naturally occurring vitamins and minerals than traditional vitamin supplements, but also the antioxidants and other phytonutrients, even the fiber, found in fresh raw fruits and vegetables.

Note- Please note that we have given solutions to four, so you can select any three , which are very usefull.