.
Unit 10, Assignment 1
To the NHS, the cost of treating ill-health caused by poor diet is soaring. Many health and social care
practitioners are involved in the provision of meals, so it is important to understand and be able to
explain good nutrition and what effects that poor nutrition could have on the body.
Dietary guidelines
There are several dietary guidelines that have been put together over the years to provide advice and
guidance to people about what types of food to eat and in the appropriate amounts. The NHS
Change4Life campaign is targeted at families to encourage them to change the types of foods that they
eat. Change4Life also encourages people to increase their activity levels. Change 4 life encourages
families to adopt six healthy behaviours. These include eating 5 a day of fruit and vegetables. 400-600-
600 is another piece of advice covered within change4life, it advises people on the number of calories
that should be eaten for breakfast (400 calories), lunch (600 calories) and dinner (600 calories). The
change4life campaign encourages people to watch how much salt you take in through your diet. Cutting
back the amount of fat in your diet, this should include mainly saturated fat. Sugar swaps are also
recommended in the campaign and having snacks with a maximum of 100 calorie snacks, but this is with
a maximum of 2 snacks a day. In the NHS Change4Life campaign also includes building a habit of
exercising into your daily life.
“The Eatwell plate shows how much of what we eat overall should come from each food group to
achieve a healthy, balanced diet. You do not need to achieve this balance with every meal, but try to get
the balance right over a day or even a week. The Eatwell plate provides us with guidance about each
amount of a group we should be eating.” (The Eatwell Guide, 2020) The smallest portion of the Eatwell
plate is fats, meaning that they should be eaten sparingly, this is because they are high in energy, and
could lead to weight gain and other health complications if eaten too often. “The Eatwell Guide shows
that five portions of fruit and vegetables should be eaten each day because they are a good source of
vitamins and minerals. It is advised that meals should be based on pasta, rice, bread or potatoes
because they are a good source of energy.” (The Eatwell Guide, 2020) The Eatwell plate is split into five
food groups, these are fruit and vegetables, bread, rice, potatoes, pasta and other starchy foods, taking
up the biggest portion of the plate, milk and dairy foods, meat, fish, eggs, beans and other sources of
protein that aren’t dairy, and foods and drinks that are high in fat or sugar, these take up the smallest
part of the plate.
,.
The food pyramid is a visual representation of a dietary guideline, it shows how different foods and
drinks contribute towards a balanced diet. The food pyramid allows individuals the flexibility to choose
foods and drinks from each shelf depending on their food preferences. It organises food and drink into
five main shelves, starting from the most important shelf on the bottom. Shelf 1 contains vegetables,
salad and fruit, around 5 to 7 portions a day; people are advised to base their meals on these and enjoy
a variety of colours. Fruit juice should be limited to unsweetened and should only be drank once a day,
due to the amount of natural sugar in it. Shelf 2 is for wholemeal cereals and breads, potatoes, pasta
and rice. Wholemeal and wholegrain cereals are best. Shelf 3 is proteins; they should be consumed at a
moderate amount at each meal; both high quality and low-quality proteins count towards a person’s
daily intake. Shelf 4 is dairy foods and should be eaten in moderate amounts for every meal. Shelf 5 is
for fats, sugars and salt, these should be eaten in very small amounts as an excess amount can lead to
poor health, such as type 2 diabetes and obesity.
Five-a-day gives suggestions for ways to eat the recommended five portions of fruit and vegetables each
day. You can choose from fresh, frozen, tinned, dried or juiced. (NHS) By eating five-a-day you are
ensuring that you are getting the recommended amount of vitamins and minerals as these are found in
fruit and vegetables.
The five main food groups include fruit and vegetables, starchy food (carbohydrates), dairy, protein and
fat. Fruit and vegetables should make up over a third of the food we eat each day. Food groups are used
to categorise types of food, for example, pasta is a carbohydrate. Carbohydrates should make up 60% of
a person’s diet, this is because they are needed as a source of energy. Protein should make up 15% of
the diet as it is needed for growth and repair, but it is also a secondary source of energy if it becomes
necessary. Fat is to make up 25% of the diet. Healthy eating includes all the essential nutrients, such as
carbohydrates, proteins, fats, vitamins and minerals. The NHS provides eight tips on healthy eating.
These are to base your meals on higher fibre starchy carbohydrates. It is also recommended that you eat
five portions at least of fruit and vegetables a day. Fish is a source of protein that also contains both
vitamins and minerals. Saturated fat and sugar must be cut down as it contributes to poor health.
Energy balance
The amount of energy in an item of food or drink is measured in calories. When we eat and drink more
calories than we use up, our bodies store the excess as body fat. If this continues, over time we may put
on weight, which could lead to health complications, such as type 2 diabetes or coronary heart disease.
It is recommended by the NHS that the average man needs around 2,500 kilocalories a day to maintain a
healthy body weight; for an average woman, that figure is around 2,000 kilocalories a day. Energy intake
depends on age, size and levels of physical activity, among other factors. Our bodies need energy to
keep us alive and keep our organs functioning normally. Weight maintenance occurs when the energy
intake is equal to the energy expenditure. When energy intake is more than the expenditure people will
begin to gain weight and this will occur over a period of time. Weight loss happens when the energy
intake is less than the energy expenditure.
The four dietary sources of energy are carbohydrates, fats, proteins and alcohol. Carbohydrates have
one kilocalorie that is equal to 4.18 kilojoules. Pasta and rice are examples of carbohydrates. Fats have
nine kilocalories per gram which is equal to 37 kilojoules per gram, which is why we should eat them in
small amounts. Fats are present in animal sources, such as meat. Proteins have four kilocalories which is
equal to 17 kilojoules. Sources of protein include meat, eggs and beans. Alcohol has 7 kilocalories in it
, .
which equals 29 kilojoules. “Kilocalories is another word for what’s commonly called a calorie, so 1,000
calories will be written as 1,000 kcals.” (Understanding calories, 2020) Furthermore another energy
measurement is kilojoules and this is defined kilojoules and they are a way of working out the metric
measurement for calories, in order to find the energy content for kilojoules, the calorie figure must be
multiplied by 4.2.
"The amount of energy in an item of food or drink is measured in calories. When we eat and drink more
calories than we use up, our bodies store the excess as body fat”. (Understanding calories, 2020) People
can maintain their body weight, their energy intake, this is by controlling what they have in their diet,
and energy expenditure by ensuring that the individuals activity level matches their energy intake, or it
can be done using a mixture of both methods. Energy expenditure varies depending on the activity that
the individual is doing, for example, 150 calories are burned during 30 minutes of brisk walking, but
when someone does 30 minutes of single tennis, they will lose 240 calories. The energy value of food
differs greatly depending on the nutrients they contain. Examples of a high calorie food are chips. In 100
grams of chips there are 536 calories. Examples of low-calorie foods are celery and cucumber. In 100
grams, there are 45 calories in a cucumber and 16 calories in celery. A typical fast-food meal contains
burger, fries and a coca cola. Alcoholic drinks high in calories are lager (beer), with it containing 180
calories and a glass of wine has 123 calories in it. The effects on body weight and health are that these
foods can cause obesity, type 2 diabetes and high cholesterol, if not consumed in smaller amounts and
less often. These illnesses can be prevented by making sensible food choices, this means that people will
choose low fat foods or foods containing sweetener instead of sugar.
“Dietary thermogenesis is the process of energy production in the body cause directly by the
metabolising of food consumed. Dietary thermogenesis is influenced by factors relating to the
consumption of the food and the physical state of the individual.” (Kalmus, 2020) Sources of
thermogenic foods may help increase metabolism and calorie burning by enhancing thermogenesis.
Thermogenic foods include foods that contain spices, like chilli peppers, green tea and coconut oil.
Nutritional measures
Nutritional measures show both health and nutritional status. They can be used in order to predict
health and survival. Nutritional measures will provide information on changes in body weight which are
an important indicator of nutritional status. BMI is a measure that uses your height and weight to work
out if your weight is healthy. BMI is used for everyone. However, muscle is much denser than fat, so
people who are more muscular such as weight trainers, may be a healthy weight even though their BMI
is classed as obese. If someone’s BMI is below 18.5, they would be in the underweight range; between
18.5 and 24.9 is the healthy weight range. If an individual’s BMI is between 25 and 29.9 is the
overweight range and finally an individual whose BMI is between 30 and 39.9 is in the obese range, and
would need to begin to lose weight, to prevent lifelong health conditions, that could be irreversible.
Ideal weight for height and gender means that males will weigh more as they have a bigger build to their
body. It is important to care about BMI as the higher the BMI, the higher the risk of developing a range
of conditions linked with the excess weight, including type 2 diabetes, arthritis as excess weight puts
extra pressure on the joints, in particular the leg joints. A moderately active male, who is 6ft 1inch and
18s 1Ib, they would be classed as overweight, this suggests that their energy balance is low, that their
body is not using all the calories that they are consuming. An inactive female who is 5ft 6in and weighs
7st 3Ibs is a healthy weight and this suggests that her energy balance is high, that her body is using the
