Earlier in this unit malnutrition was defined. It is important to realize that malnutrition isn’t just something “out there” effecting other people or in the poorer countries, it is very much a part of our lives and is being recognized as contributing to many of the health problems we have from tooth decay and emotional instability to high blood pressure and cancer. What guidelines should we use in the selecting, preparing and consuming of food? We will look at two approaches to this question: the specific U.S, Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) seven guidelines and an international approach presented by Dr. Rudolph Ballentine in his book
Diet and Nutrition
. Our focus is primarily on the nutritional aspects of food; we will mention, however, that there are important environmental and political aspects of the choices we make,
USDA’s Seven Guidelines.
Each of the USDA’s seven guidelines is 4-12 pages long and gives facts, suggestions and recipes to help us choose and prepare foods to meet our nutritional needs. Each of the guidelines is listed below with a summary of the main ideas in each.
Guideline 1: Eat a Variety of Foods.
Since no one food provides all the vitamins, minerals, protein, fat, carbohydrates and water we need in the amounts we need them, it is important to eat several types of food each day to get the nutrients we need.
To help describe a varied diet, foods are grouped by the nutrients they contain. The major groups used here are the following:
1. Breads, cereals, and other grain products.
2. Fruits
3. Vegetables
4. Meat, poultry, fish, eggs, dry beans & peas
5. Milk, cheese, and yogurt
A varied diet includes foods from each of these groups every day. It should have different foods within groups, too.
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Guideline 2: Maintain Desirable Weight.
Reduce the number of calories you eat, get the most nutritional value for the calories consumed, and increase exercise.
Obesity is harmful to your health and may shorten your life. It increases risk of high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, and many other medical problems.
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Guideline 3: Avoid Too Much Fat, Saturated Fat, and Cholesterol.
Most nutritional authorities recommend that the U.S. population as a whole should reduce daily intake of fat, saturated fat and cholesterol. Why? Because diets high in fat, saturated fat and cholesterol increase the risk of heart disease and give you calories without significant nutrient value.
The way to lower fat intake includes the following:
1. selecting lower fat dairy products
2. selecting lean meats
3. using lowfat preparation methods
4. reducing amounts of fats added at the table
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Guideline 4: Eat Foods with Adequate Starch and Fiber.
Why eat starch and fiber? Because they provide energy, provide vitamins and minerals, mostly are low in fat, and they taste good. Fiber helps the digestive system work properly.
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Guideline 5: Avoid Too Much Sugar.
Why?
The major problem related to eating too much sugar is tooth decay. Tooth decay, however, is more than a matter of HOW MUCH sugar you eat. Both the FORM in which you eat sugar and HOW OFTEN you eat it are important. Sticky or chewy sugary foods that stay on the teeth longer cause more problems than other sweets. Sugary foods eaten between meals are more likely to cause tooth decay than those eaten only at mealtime.
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Guideline 6: Avoid Too Much Sodium.
Why cut down on sodium? Because about one out of four Americans has elevated blood pressure and sodium can contribute to causing high blood pressure and aggravating it once it exists.
How do you cut down on sodium? You do it in three places: in the supermarket read the nutritional and ingredient labels on what you buy; in the kitchen learn to use less salt in cooking; and at the table taste your food before you salt it, and then, if you must salt, use one shake instead of two.
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Guideline 7: If You Drink Alcoholic Beverages, Do So in Moderation.
Key ideas: abstinence or moderation is the best policy when it comes to alcoholic beverages, If you drink, don’t drive. If you’re pregnant, don’t drink.
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An International Approach.
Another approach to finding guidelines in food consumption is presented by Rudolph Ballentine, M.D. He studies the diets of cultures from different parts of the world that had developed diets that maintained health and longevity,
When Ballentine looked at what is considered healthful, wholesome, everyday food by the traditional cooks in various cultures around the world, many similarities emerged. As he looked further, he saw that these healthful diets all had the same five food groups represented. The five groups are grains, legumes, vegetables, raw foods, and a B12 group. This is what he found.
Whole grains constitute the bulk of most of these diets and are consumed in the largest quantities. The ever-present legume, which is taken approximately half that quantity, complements the grains, and together they provide the proper proportions of the eight essential amino acids, This grain/ legume combination is the core of the meal, but the vegetables give it flavor and vitality. The amount of fresh vegetables which are consumed varies according to availability, but in those areas where they can be obtained, they are usually included in sizable quantities. Generally, this means that they are taken in larger portions than the legume but smaller portions than the grains.
. . . In addition to this basic trio of grain, legume and vegetable, most traditional diets contain varying quantities of a fourth food group of foods which includes dairy products, meat, eggs, fish, fowl and certain fermented bean preparations (such as tofu and miso). This food group might be referred to as the B12 group since all the foods included in it contain this vitamin whereas foods in the outer three groups do not. . . . A small daily serving of raw foods constitutes the fifth food group found in traditional diets.
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(figure available in print format)
Illustration showing the proportions for the 5 traditional food groups.
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Four examples of menus based on the 5 traditional food groups follow.
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Mexican Tostadas
Grain
|
tortilla
|
Vegetables
|
tomato, onion
|
Legume
|
.refried pinto or kidney beans
|
Raw
|
lettuce
|
B12
|
cheese
|
Middle East Falafel
Grain
|
pita, bulbar
|
Vegetables
|
onions, tomato, parsley, green leaves
|
Legume
|
humus sesame seeds, garbanzo beans
|
Raw
|
sprig of mint, fruit
|
B12
|
yogurt sauce
|
Casserole and Salad
Grain
|
whole wheat pasta
|
Vegetables
|
onion, zucchini, tomato
|
Legume
|
sprouts, seeds, nuts and beans in salad
|
Raw
|
green salad of romaine lettuce
|
B12
|
cheese and/or meat
|
French Country Meal
Grain
|
good French bread
|
Vegetables
|
tomato, zucchini
|
Legume
|
Ientils
|
Raw
|
salad greens
|
B12
|
meat
|
Foods in proper proportions from the 5 traditional food groups give a good balance of protein, carbohydrates and fat. The chart below lists some comparison diets. The vegetarian diet referred to does not contain meat or dairy products but gets its protein from whole foods, beans, peas, grains, vegetables and fruit. Ballentine and others believe that if you eat your caloric allowance, about 2000 calories a day for women and 2500 calories per day for men, in wholesome foods mentioned above, you cannot help but get all the protein you need,
Percentage of Calories of Protein, Carbohydrate and Fat
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Diet
|
Protein
|
Carbohydrate
|
Fat
|
Preferred Ratio
|
20
|
60
|
20
|
Modern American
|
13
|
43
|
44
|
Typical Teenager
|
8
|
51
|
41
|
Vegetarian
|
18
|
61
|
21
|
Non-Vegetarian
|
20
|
57
|
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|
An essential criterion for improving nutrition is the selection of healthful foods, but this is not easy in today’s supermarkets. Ballentine describes the modern supermarket as follows.
In recent decades, our supermarkets have become vast emporia, housing the by-products of the millions which are spent on advertising and packaging. They contain long aisles lined with brilliantly designed items that dazzle the eye with their colors and the mind with clever slogans that imply a wholesomeness they don’t possess, that appeal to the desire for youth and excitement, that tempt one with promises of pleasure and convenience, or that tug at nostalgic memories of happier times when food was country-fresh and Momemade-simple.
The most basic guideline for finding one’s way through this labyrinth is to focus on obtaining foods which are as close as possible to their whole natural state
.
This means steering clear of those foods whose natural integrity has been disturbed
. (Underlining added.)
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Ballentine suggests that if you want to improve your nutrition, gradually substitute for unhealthy foods others which are more healthful. A good first step is to reduce the use of refined sugar by having fruit juice instead of soft drinks, fruit instead of other sweets, and use honey or raw sugar instead of refined sugar if you must use a sweetener. Secondly, omit refined white flour and white flour products from the diet and replace with more Whole grain flour and whole grain products. The third major change in diet would be to keep it low in total fats and oils. There is disagreement on which oils or fats are best, but almost all authorities agree Americans should cut down on fats in general and saturated (animal) fats specifically.
Using the above information your supermarket shopping would simply consist of stopping at the produce counter, dairy section, and shelves which hold dried beans, peas, rice and whole grain flours.
The golden rule in food selection is to buy the freshest food possible. Here is a description of what happens in Paris.
While the sun rises in Paris, a major intersection in each neighborhood is completely transformed into a bustling marketplace. The fresh fruits and vegetables brought into the city only a few hours before are piled high on moveable stands. Housewives come out early to get the pick of the lot, but long before noon it is all sold out. Prices are lowered at the end of the morning to auction off the last odds and ends, and the stands are then whisked away until the following day.
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However, things are not the same throughout the world.
In most of the modern Western world, transportation from market is not so rapid as in Paris. Vegetables and fruits may stand many days in transit, often traveling thousands of miles in refrigerated trucks and reaching their destination after a long period. They then go to wholesalers, and it may be s day or two later before they reach the retail outlet. They are then put in the produce section on refrigerated display counters and may remain there another day or more before they are finally purchased. On arrival in the kitchen, the vegetables may then be shoved into the refrigerator by the shopper, only to be cooked another several days hence.
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What guidelines do you use in your food selection? The unit end with a brief look at an environmental and political aspect of the food we choose.
Environmental Issues.
Whatever we buy as consumers
,
we encourage the production of that item
. Along with concerns about the nutritional value of food, and its monetary cost, comes questions of its environmental cost. How much energy was needed to produce it? What were the environmental cost in terms of pollution for its production? Considering the packaging, is it biodegradable or will it be around forever. When we select an item do we do so because of its quality or because of the advertising we,ve seen or the attractiveness of its packaging?
Our landfill sights for getting rid of trash are being used up, and major struggles are taking place to find a way of both taking care of the waste we produce and not adding further to air, water and land pollution.
Governor William A. O’Neill, in July 1987, signed into law a bill that requires by 1991 the residents of Connecticut will have to start separating their trash into three types: recyclable, non-recyclable, and newspapers and magazines. At least 25% of the states solid waste will have to be recycled. When we buy something we need to ask what will happen to it after we have finished with it?
3. Food is a Political Issue.
Land reform, working conditions, trade control, farm supports, and food content regulation are some political food issues. We will look briefly at two of these issues.
Land reform questions are being asked throughout the world. Suzan George and George Paige ask a related question. “Why are so many food-producers, rather than we the consumers, the first to go hungry?”
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They and others believe that land ownership has a lot to do with it. 4% of the world’s big landowners control half of the world’s cropland. In the U.S., 5% of the farmers work over half the cropland. Some people believe land reform is essential for the development of a sustainable method of food production and distribution.
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Working Conditions. Do you buy grapes? Do you want to? The United Farm workers, lead by Caesar Chavez, is trying to launch a boycott against table grapes. One of the reasons they give is that among the grapepickers there is a high incidence of cancer and birth defects. They feel it is due to the pesticides being used on the fields in which they work. They want better control over the use of pesticides.
We may someday have machines that could harvest grapes, that would end the workers’ concern but it would end their jobs too. Such a machine, however, would not settle the question of how much, if any, pesticides should be used on the food we consume. The complexity of food production and consumption includes, among other things, serious nutritional, environmental, and political issues.