Nutritional health
Case studies:
Teenager: Chantelle is 18 and she is lactose intolerant. She lives a rather sedentary lifestyle
and she goes to college, and she has been smoking since she was 13, she often is not hungry
due to this and she finds herself snacking on things through the day, when she has meals,
they are usually unhealthy, she would often like to order pizza to her house, even though
this will upset her stomach due to the dairy. She does not like to cook so she likes food that
is easy and quick to make. She very often skips meals a she is bad at cooking.
Adult: Tony is 53 and he is overweight. Tony is on low income, and he does not work, and he
receives benefits to keep him going. He finds that he does not have enough money to cook
or to eat a balanced diet, so he often eats ready meals and takeaways. He does not get out
that much because he had an injury at work before, and he has very low energy and his legs
hurt a lot, he gets leg pains and cramps in his legs, he does not get a lot of physical exercise.
But he does like to drink beer a lot and will sometimes go to the pub and have around 8
pints, he also will drink at home occasionally.
P1 – concepts of nutritional health and how they contribute to wellbeing
The eight practical tips cover the basics of healthy eating
and can help people to make healthier choices.
The healthy plate
The healthy plate is a guide to people on what they
should base their meals on and how they can keep them
balanced.
Fruit and vegetables 33%
Bread, other cereals and potatoes 33%
Milk and dairy products 15%
Foods containing fat and food containing sugar 7%
Meat, fish and alternatives 12%
1|Page
,Malnutrition
You need to meet your body’s needs for energy and nutrients to have good health. The
amount of energy your intake is or the nutrients you have can affect your health and if you
have the wrong amount it can lead to health problems. The term malnutrition can cover
both under and over nutrition.
Effects of food processing and preparation methods
Heavily processed foods can include unhealthy levels of added sugars, sodium and fats. They
make the foods we eat taste better but too much of them will lead to health issues like
obesity, heart disease, high blood pressure and diabetes.
A lot of food preparation processed can reduce the amount of nutrients that are in food.
Processed that expose foods to higher levels of heat, light and oxygen can cause a higher
nutrient loss.
BMI
This is a measure of health. Your BMI divides your
mass by your height (which is squared).
Chantelle is 5’9 and she is 8 ½ stone, according to
her BMI, which is 17.6, she is underweight. Tony is
5’11 and he is 15 stone, his BMI is 29.4 and he is
classed as overweight and is close to becoming
classed as obese.
Dietary reference values and reference nutrient intakes
Dietary reference values are estimates of the amount of energy and nutrients are needed
for good health. This can vary depending on someone’s age, gender and their size.
According to Chantelle’s dietary reference value she should be having around 2,468 calories
a day and if tony wants to reach a healthy weight he should be eating 2008-2581 calories a
day to be losing around 1-2 lbs a week, according to the NHS website. 18-year-old girls like
Chantelle should be eating higher amounts of things like protein, vitamins B6, B12, and C,
and a higher level of iron due to menstrual losses, but she will need a lower amount of zinc
and calcium than boys. Tony is 53, energy requirements will decrease gradually as people
typically become less active when they are older and their metabolic rate is reduced, his
protein requirements will decrease and his vitamin and mineral needs will be the same as
they were through his adulthood.
2|Page
, Reference nutrient intakes are guidelines that are used to inform consumers in how much
protein, fat and carbohydrates that they should have which will meet the needs of the
group that they apply to.
Chantelle:
Tony:
Source: https://www.nal.usda.gov/human-nutrition-and-food-safety/dri-calculator
Food labelling
It’s a legal requirement that nutritional values have to be displayed on the label of foods.
The label will explain the amount of calories, protein, fat, carbohydrates, sugars and salt,
per serving and per 100 grams. It also states how much a serving will weigh for that product.
3|Page