2.1 Intro to Nutrition & Diet Quality

Define the terms nutrition, nutrient, and essential nutrient.

• Nutrition: Study of nutrients in food and how the body handles them (ingestion, digestion, absorption, transport, metabolism, interactions, storage, excretion)

• Nutrient: Substances obtained from food and used in the body to promote growth, maintenance and repair of tissues

• Essential nutrient: Nutrients the body can’t make enough of for physiological needs. Needs to be from diet

1. Identified biological function

2. Absence of nutrient has symptoms

3. Given the nutrient, the symptoms are gone

List the 6 classes of nutrients essential for health and identify key characteristics of each class, and a major role in the body for each class of nutrient.

Explain how vitamins and minerals differ from each other, and from carbohydrates, lipids, and proteins.

• Vitamins:

• Minerals:

• Carbohydrates:

• Lipids:

• Proteins:

While enjoying dinner with your family, your mother mentions she heard that not all nutrients are essential. Knowing that you are taking an introductory nutrition course, she asks you to explain how that could be. In her mind, all nutrients are essential.

In your own words, define each of the 6 Dietary Reference Intake reference values for nutrients.

DRI: Based on scientific knowledge

• Used to assess and plan diets for healthy people or populations

1. Estimated average requirement (EAR)

   • Intake value estimated to meet 50% of an age and gender specific healthy population

2. Recommended dietary allowance (RDA)

   • Average daily dietary intake level that is sufficient to meet the nutrient requirements of 97-98% of healthy individuals in a group

   • RDA is determined from EAR

3. Adequate intake (AI)

   • When there isn’t enough scientific evidence for an EAR

   • Value based on observational scientific data from intake levels or approximations of observed mean daily nutrient intakes by a group of healthy people

   • Total fibre, total fat, water

4. Tolerable upper intake level (UL)

   • Max. Level of daily nutrient intakes that won’t have a risk to most healthy people in a population

   • Needs solid scientific evidence of adverse health effects

   • Not all vitamins and minerals have UL because they don’t have enough evidence for adverse effects

5. Estimated energy requirements (EER)

   • Dietary energy intake that is predicted to maintain energy balance that is consistent with good health

   • Calculated from a set of equations and set at an average intake of k calories

   • Excess intake of 50 k calories/day over daily energy expenditure can lead to gain 5 lbs in a year

     • 3500 kcal = 1 lbs of fat

6. Acceptable macronutrient distribution range (AMDR)

   • Recommended range of macronutrient intakes expressed as a % of total energy intake in a healthy diet

   • AMDR are set to reduce risk of chronic disease

   • CHO 45-65%

   • PRO 10-35%

   • FAT 20-35%

Describe 6 basic principles that are used in planning a healthy diet. Provide an example of how to apply each principle to one aspect of a healthy diet.

1. Adequacy

• Has all the essential nutrients in amounts needed to maintain health

2. Balance

• Have good proportion of foods from the food groups

3. kCal control

• Consume an appropriate number of kcal to maintain healthy body weight

4. Nutrient density

• Foods with more vitamins and minerals compoared to kcal

5. Moderation

• Foods with higher energy density in moderation

6. Variety

• Wide diversity of foods from each food group

• Pleasure, taste and many nutrients

What does a balanced diet mean? Be explicit.

Explain the concept of nutrient density and identify 5 nutrient-dense foods.

Foods with high levels of micronutrients (vitamins and minerals) relative to low kcalories (energy)

Explain the concept of energy density and identify 5 energy-dense foods.

Describe an example of the concept of moderation applied to a diet.

Identify a dietary planning principle that would correct the action of selecting foods predominantly from one or two food groups in Canada’s Food Guide.

Identify 4 concepts that are presented in Canada’s Food Guide, and discuss how each concept impacts your own personal eating habits.

1. Mindful of eating habits

2. Cook more often

3. Enjoy your food

4. Eat meals with others

Describe what a healthy diet means to you.

Name 1 voluntary and 2 mandatory sections of information found on food labels.

• Voluntary: Nutrient and health claims

• Mandatory: Nutrition facts table, ingredient list

Know:

Criteria for commonly used nutrient claims

• Fat-free: <-0.5 g fat/serving

• Low-fat: Not >3 g fat/serving

• Source dietary fibre: At least 2 g (and <4 g) dietary fibre/serving (eg. Whole grain bread)

• High source dietary fibre: At least 4 g (and <6 g) dietary fibre/serving (eg. Broccoli)

• Very high source At least 6 g dietary fibre/serving (eg. bran cereal)

Practice using the information found on Nutrition Facts tables to compare similar products either at home or in the grocery store (e.g., 2-3 different types of crackers, or 2-3 different types of margarines). In terms of meeting your personal needs, decide which product is most nutritious and provide your rationale.

On food labels, what %DV does ‘a little’ of a nutrient correspond to? What %DV does ‘a lot’ correspond to?

• A little: At least 5% DV (and 15%) per serving

• A lot: At least 15% DV per serving, vitamin V needs to be at least 50% DV

Distinguish between ‘added’, ‘free’ and ‘total’ sugars.

• Total sugar: All sugars present in foods and beverages regardless of the source (added, free, naturally occurring, unsweetened dairy)

• Free sugars: Sugars (MS, DS) added to foods as well as sugars naturally present in honey, syrups, fruit juices and fruit juice concentrates

• Added sugars: All sugars added to food and beverages during processing or preparation; all added sugars are free sugars

Explain how ingredients are sequenced in the Ingredient List section of a food label.

In descending order by weight

• The first ingredient listed weighs the most

Define the criteria for 5 nutrient claims that Health Canada allows on food labels.

1. Fat free

2. Low free

3. Source dietary fibre

4. High source dietary fibre

5. Very high source dietary fibre

Fat free

Low fat

Fibre

Describe common factors that influence personal food choices (think about your own food choices).

List strategies that you can use to eat nutritious foods when you are on-the-go every day or constrained for time.

Identify 4 ways to apply healthy dietary guidelines when eating out.

Identify at least 3 trustworthy sources of nutrition information (think broadly).

While out for dinner with your friends, each one of you has decided to apply 4 healthful dietary guidelines to the meals that you choose. What are the 4 guidelines that you would choose and explain how they apply to your meal?

Be comfortable using kcal, grams, and percentages interchangeably. For example, your diet consists of 2000 kcal. You ate 65 grams of protein and 310 grams of carbohydrate, with no alcohol intake. Determine what percentage of your total kcal comes from lipids. (answer: 25%)

Another example, your diet consists of 2500 kcal. You ate 27% as total fat, and 53% as carbohydrate. Determine the number of grams of protein in your diet, assuming no alcohol intake. (answer: 125 g). Refer to the Sample Calculations handout for more examples.