Topic: What Should You Eat?
You probably want to live a long and healthy life on this earth. What are you willing to do to make that possible? Here is an assignment that can improve the quality of what you eat, and hence, the quality of your life. Let us develop the rudiments of a maintenance diet for you—a desirable, workable, realistic, non-faddish maintenance diet—one you follow permanently. You have 4 reference sources:
Your textbook’s chapter on biomolecules; how they are built and used
- The Bible’s many prescriptive texts regarding nutrition (ignore “descriptive” texts)
- The course presentation entitled “Biomolecules and Nutrition”
- Trustworthy sources such as: http://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-living/nutrition-and-healthy-eating/basics/nutrition-basics/HLV-20049477
The foods you select will contain the same classes of biomolecules that you read about in your textbook: carbohydrates, lipids, proteins, nucleic acids, vitamins, and minerals. Use the following procedure to build your diet.
For your Thread:
- Work directly in the assignment’s text box, not in a Word document which must be attached there. Attached documents will automatically lose 5 points.
- Go to the Mayo Clinic web site: http://www.mayoclinic.com/. In the “Search” box at the top of the page, type the phrase: “Mayo Clinic Healthy Weight Pyramid” and click on the link to this program. It may take more than 30 seconds to hold.
- Record the suggested serving numbers to give quantitative values to the categories you will build your diet around.
- In Blackboard in your assignment text box, list the pyramid categories in this order: “Vegetables,” “Fruits,” “ Carbohydrates,” “Proteins,” “Fats,” and “Sweets” (also listing your serving numbers beside each category).
- Now list 8 separate specific foods that are well known to be high in each category and that you would eat. Do not reuse any food under a second category. You will thus select 48 foods for your diet: not a huge variety, but it’s a start! “ Leafy greens” or “seafood” are food categories, not specific foods.
- Along with your 6 lists of 8 foods, you may submit up to 2 prescriptive Bible passages that you feel most constrain your thinking on these things.
- Spend the first part of the module/week optimizing your list. You may freely visit other classmates’ lists to see what they have chosen (but then they become your authority). Your goal is always to improve your own list. Include about 54 words for your diet (6 headings + 48 foods) with space left over for 2 Bible verses (for a total of 100 words).
- Return to the Mayo site. In the upper left Menu, select: “Healthy Diet: Do You Follow Dietary Guidelines?” Follow this link. There are some excellent focusing suggestions here.
- Most really good foods are high in more than 1 category. This gives you flexibility in building your list. Salmon is high in proteins and lipids. What is it higher in? Use it under only 1 heading.
- Foods differ in their density of a wide variety of nutrients as compared to just the calories they give you. Which sweet would be better for you: hard candy or a fig bar?
- What is in the food item you’ve selected? Check out:http://ndb.nal.usda.gov.
- Suppose Mayo Clinic wisdom and Biblical wisdom seem to conflict. Which source will you defer to and why?