GOOD AND BAD NUTRITION

taying healthy includes a balanced diet, staying clean, getting

plenty of exercise as well as keeping your heart strong and free of

drugs.People who practice good nutrition, hygiene and exercise

patterns develop a lifetime of habits that will keep them healthy for

many years. Especially when they are older!

Balance means that

you must eat the right

amounts of foods

from all levels of the

Food Pyramid each

day. This way you will

get all the calories

and nutrients you

need for proper

growth and

development.Moder

ation means that you

are careful not to eat

too much of any one

type of food.Let's

take a closer look at

the Food Pyramid to

see how it can help

you to plan good

meals.To make the

most out of the Food

Pyramid, we'll need to

figure out what

counts as a serving.

Let me help explain

this. Next to each

section of the

Pyramid below you

will see how many

servings of each food

it suggests that you

have each day.

Pablito Escobar

Daniela Miranda

8th grade

GOOD NUTRITION

The benefits of good nutrition are multiple. Besides helping you

maintain a healthy weight, good nutrition is essential for the body

and all its systems to function

optimally for a lifetime. In fact, the

benefits of good nutrition can be

found in physical and mental

health because a healthy diet

provides energy, promotes good

sleep, and gives the body what it

needs to stay healthy. When you

consider the benefits of good

nutrition, it's easier to eat healthy.

The Heart

The heart is the essential core of our bodies. Heart healthy eating

involves avoiding foods high in unsaturated fats and cholesterol

that can lead to heart disease and possible failure later in life.

Medical research has given us solid evidence that certain foods do

increase the risk for heart disease and that there is a direct link to

unsaturated fats and cholesterol. By avoiding foods that contain

these heart unhealthy substances, we can ensure our body that its

heart will function properly for years to come.

Bones

While the heart keeps it all running, our bones help keep it all

together. Healthy bones are necessary throughout our life and

become more important as we age. Consuming enough calcium

to maintain and promote bone health is essential for healthy

bones. We can avoid many bone conditions that may develop

later in life by providing our bodies with enough calcium in our diet.

Milk and other dairy products contain calcium and should be

consumed every day.

Energy

Though many benefits of good nutrition today may not be realized

until later in life, one benefit we can see daily is in our energy level.

Foods that are excessively sugary or high in fats can minimize our

energy levels from day to day. Fats are slow to digest, and thus

don't provide our body with a steady source of energy. Sugary

foods can create fluctuations in blood sugar levels, causing us to

feel tired very shortly after eating. By eating a healthy diet, we

maintain our energy levels at a constant throughout the day and

the result is simply feeling better.

Self Confidence

Whether or not you are at your optimum weight or not, the benefits

of good nutrition can be felt. Americans have been educated

enough over the years to know that junk foods are not the

healthiest choice. Yet many of us continue to indulge in them for

emotional reasons. When we make the conscious choice to eat

better and healthier, we begin to feel better about ourselves –

regardless of how quickly the weight comes off. It's also true that

the occasional sweet treat tastes better when its consumed guilt

free because we eat healthier on a daily basis.

When you examine all the benefits of good nutrition, you quickly

realize that eating healthy and making healthy food choices results

in a much better lifestyle. Anyone can start enjoying the benefits of

good nutrition by changing one eating habit a week. Cut down on

foods high in fat and begin replacing them with whole grain foods,

low fat foods, and fresh fruit and vegetables. You'll be reaping the

benefits of good nutrition before you know it!

Bad Nutrition

Bad nutrition promotes illness,

heart disease, and lots of

problems. But did you know that

education, and even criminal

behavior is affected by nutritional

issues. Apparently when people

suffer from nutritional imbalance,

they can suffer from psychological imbalances as well.

A study that took place in a prison in Virginia, had the purpose of

investigating whether the prisoners behavior would change if the

men were made more nutritious. At the time large amounts of

sugar and fast foods were being served. Their diet consisted of

hamburgers, fried potatoes, white bred, cookies sweet snacks, soft

drinks and milk shakes.

Their diet was changed to whole wheat bread, potatoes, meat,

vegetables, fruit, and fish. Amazingly the prisoners' violent behavior

diminished, and when junk food was reintroduced to their diet their

violent behavior returned.

The researcher Schoenthaler who performed the study on prisoners,

then questioned the effects of this diet on school kids. He

wondered, if positive effects were seen in prisoners, could the same

positive effects be seen on children.

He performed a study in an Arizona school. For four months their

diets changed to a more nutritional one and half the children in the

study got a vitamin and the other half were given a placebo.

The results showed that those students who took the vitamin

showed tremendous improvement. Mischief making was lowered

by about 50% in these children. They were less aggressive,

destructive and behaved better.

What these studies show is that bad nutrition not only affects us

physically, but it also affects us emotionally, and mentally. We must

remember that our brain is a part of our body, and needs nutrients

just as other parts of our bodies do. So when we don't give it the

right nutrition, it wont function correctly.

Doctors believe that it is impossible to take too few vitamins, so they

usually recommend that patients take some sort of supplement. But

they usually don't make recommendations as far as fruit and

vegetables go. Without important nutritional changes the

incidences of depression, ADHD, and aggressive behavior will

increase.