Lesson 3.1

Lesson 3.
1: Healthy Eating Habits

Discussion
Introduction
Prevalence issue now a days is and even before is focused on malnutrition particularly
on obesity especially in low and middle income countries has been significantly
increasing over the past 20 years (Nutrients, 2018), and this has been associated with
individual eating habit. According to Encyclopedia 2014, the term eating habits (or
food habits ) refers to why and how people eat, which foods they eat, and with whom
they eat, as well as the ways people obtain, store, use, and discard food. And it’s a
multifactor that influences the way people eat; individual, social, cultural, religious,
economic, environmental, and political.
Healthy eating means consuming different sources of food that gives your body the
nutrients to sustain health, fitness, and energy levels. Protein, carbohydrates, fat, water,
vitamins, and minerals are the very nutrients that your body needs.
Nutrition from the latin word “nutire”, meaning to “nourish” is very vital especially in
maintaining a healthy weight, more when being physically active. As defined by
Zimmerman and Snow (2012), it is the sum of all processes involved in obtaining
nutrients for life support. And to keep your body strong and healthy, it is recommended
for you to eat well, same as to those who have a history of breast cancer or currently
undergoing treatment. Overweight also is one risk factor for both first-time and recurrent
breast cancer.
It is important to consider also that we are eating to fuel our body and for life continuity,
considering good food choices which should not be based on their pleasure factor. And
because of this we tend to eat more than what our body needs that eventually would
result to becoming fat, unhappy and down. All of these is because human beings are
very complex.
A. NUTRIENTS AND THEIR FUNCTION (Micronutrients and Macronutrients)
a) Macronutrients
-Nutrients that are needed in large amounts. Classes of macronutrients are:
carbohydrates, lipids, proteins, and water.
 Carbohydrates - are molecules composed of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. And

is classified into two basic forms: simple and complex sugar. Simple sugars
include sucrose, the type of sugar you would have in a bowl on the breakfast
table, and glucose, the type of sugar that circulates in your blood. Complex
sugars are long chains of simple sugars that can be branched or unbranched.
During digestion, the body breaks down all slow-releasing carbohydrates to
simple sugars, mostly glucose that can be stored in the body for future use. The
major food sources of carbohydrates are grains, milk, fruits, and starchy
vegetables like potatoes.
 Lipids - are also a family of molecules composed of carbon, hydrogen, and

oxygen, but unlike carbohydrates, they are insoluble in water. This nutrient is
responsible for the storage of energy, serve as cell membrane for organ
protection and temperature regulation and other body function. Sources are
butter, oils, meats, dairy products, nuts, and seeds, and in many processed
foods.
 Proteins - are macromolecules composed of chains of subunits called amino

acids (carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, and nitrogen) providing structure to bones,
muscles and skin, and play a role in conducting most of the chemical reactions
that take place in the body. Protein can be found in meats, dairy products,
seafood, and a variety of different plant-based foods, most notably soy.

 Water – the kind of nutrient that the body needs in large amount composed of
two hydrogen and one oxygen. Present in the body for about 60 percent of the
total body weight which is mainly responsible for transportation of other nutrients
in the body and other benefits.
b) Micronutrients
- are nutrients needed to be present in the body in smaller amounts, but are very
essential in carrying out bodily functions. Micronutrients include all the essential
minerals and vitamins, they play many roles as coenzymes producing energy, digesting
nutrient, and building macromolecules.
 Minerals - are solid inorganic substances that are vital to the proper functioning
of the body and must be taken in relatively large amounts (such as calcium,
potassium, and iron) and small amount, like trace minerals (zinc, selenium, and
copper) to maintain good health. Also, they are critical for enzyme function as
protection against harmful free radicals, build bone tissue, hormone synthesis,
maintain fluid balance, transmit nerve impulses, contract and relax muscles.
 Vitamins - are required to perform many functions in the body such as making
red blood cells, synthesizing bone tissue, and playing a role in normal vision,
nervous system function, and immune system function. They work together with
enzymes for better health condition. They are either fat- soluble or water-soluble:
water-soluble (vitamin C and all the B vitamins) and fat-soluble (vitamins A, D, E,
and K).
B. EATING PRACTICES
When our quality of life has diminished due to poor diet and lifestyle, it will lead some of
us on the brink of diabetes, obesity, and other diseases would resort to fad diets. Such
diets would often call for extreme measures such as restricting one macronutrient while
preferring another, by extreme reduction of calories, and in some cases, skipping meals
or opting for an artificial product in exchange of real food (Cafuir, 2018).
A. FAD Diets
Fad diets are trending, popular for losing weights. They typically promise rapid weight
loss and other health benefits based on no evidence or what so ever. However, there
are some so called Fad diets that have been shown to produce weight loss in controlled
studies. These diets can be healthy and well balanced. Here are some:
1. Atkins diet – the most famous low car weight lose diet. It consists of four stages,
including an initial two-week Induction Phase that restricts carbs 20 grams per day,
while allowing unlimited amount of protein and fat.
2. Vegan diet – have become popular among people who wants to lose weight. They’ve
been criticized for being unbalanced and extreme because they contain no animal
products, but on the other hand they’ve also been praised for being ethical and healthy
way of eating.
3. 5:2 diet – also called the fast diet is a type of intimate in fasting also known as
alternate day fasting.
Achieving a healthy diet is a matter of balancing the quality and quantity of food that is
eaten. There are tools to calculate important values in order to meet the optimum health
for different age groups. First thing to consider would be the Recommended Daily
Allowance (RDAs), and then we could add the Dietary Reference Intakes (DRIs), the
Estimated Average Requirements (EARs), and the Tolerable Upper Limits (ULs).

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Lesson 3.

1: Healthy Eating Habits

 Carbohydrates - are molecules composed of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. And

 Lipids - are also a family of molecules composed of carbon, hydrogen, and

 Proteins - are macromolecules composed of chains of subunits called amino

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