NDT BOOK

• Food choices


  Various factors that influence personal food choices
• Factors influencing food choices

  • Preference
  • Habit
  • Associations
  • Ethnic heritage and regional cuisines
  • Values
  • Social interaction
  • Emotional state
  • Availability, convenience, and economy
  • Age
  • Body weight and image
  • Medical conditions
• Preference


  Liking certain tastes like sweetness of sugar and savoriness of salt
• Genetics


  • Influence people's taste preferences
  • People born with great sensitivity to bitter tastes tend to avoid foods with bitter flavors
• Habit


  People eat certain foods simply because they have always done so
• Associations


  People like foods with happy associations, and can dislike foods associated with being sick or forced on them
• Ethnic heritage and regional cuisines


  Every country and region has its own typical foods and ways of combining them into meals
• Values


  Food choices may reflect people's environmental ethics, religious beliefs, and political views
• Social interaction


  Meals are social events, and the sharing of food is part of hospitality
• Emotional state


  Emotions guide food choices and eating behaviors
• Availability, convenience, and economy


  Influence people's food selections
• Age


  Influences people's food choices, with infants depending on others, children choosing familiar sweet foods, and adults choosing based on health concerns
• Body weight and image


  People select foods and supplements to improve their physical appearance
• Medical conditions


  Can limit the foods a person can select
• Ants


  Depend on others to choose foods for them
• Older children


  Rely on others but become more active in selecting foods that taste sweet and are familiar to them and rejecting those whose taste or texture they dislike
• Adults


  Links between taste preferences and food choices are less direct than in children, often choose foods based on health concerns such as body weight, may avoid sweet or familiar foods because of such concerns
• Body weight and image


  • People select certain foods and supplements that they believe will improve their physical appearance and avoid those they believe might be detrimental, such decisions can be beneficial when based on sound nutrition and fitness knowledge but may undermine good health when based on fads or carried to extremes
• Medical conditions


  • Can limit the foods a person can select, e.g. heart disease diet low in certain fats, chemotherapy can interfere with appetite or limit food choices, food allergies
• Health and nutrition


  Many consumers make food choices they believe will improve their health, food manufacturers and restaurant chefs have responded by offering health-promoting foods and beverages
• Functional foods


  Whole, fortified, enriched, or enhanced foods that have a potentially beneficial effect on health when consumed as part of a varied diet on a regular basis at effective levels
• Consumers


  • Typically welcome new foods into their diets if reasonably priced, clearly labeled, easy to find, convenient to prepare, and taste good, many "regular" foods provide numerous health benefits
• A person selects foods for many different reasons
• Food choices influence health - both positively and negatively
• Individual food selections neither make nor break a diet's healthfulness, but the balance of foods selected over time can make an important difference to health
• In the interest of health, people are wise to think "nutrition" when making their food choices
• Nutrients


  Substances obtained from food and used in the body to provide energy and structural materials and to serve as regulating agents to promote growth, maintenance, and repair, may also reduce the risks of some diseases
• Essential nutrients


  Nutrients a person must obtain from food because the body cannot make them for itself in sufficient quantities to meet physiological needs
• Organic


  (in chemistry) substances or molecules containing carbon-carbon bonds or carbon-hydrogen bonds, the four organic nutrients are carbohydrate, fat, protein, and vitamins
• Inorganic


  Not containing carbon or pertaining to living organisms, the two classes of nutrients that are inorganic are minerals and water
• Energy-yielding nutrients


  The nutrients that break down to yield energy the body can use, the three energy-yielding nutrients are carbohydrate, protein, and fat
• Calories


  A measure of heat energy, food energy is measured in kilocalories (1000 calories equal 1 kilocalorie), abbreviated kcalories or kcal
• Energy density


  A measure of the energy a food provides relative to the amount of food (kcalories per gram)
• Foods provide nutrients - substances that support the growth, maintenance, and repair of the body's tissues
• Six classes of nutrients

  • Water
  • Carbohydrates
  • Fats
  • Proteins
  • Vitamins
  • Minerals
• Vitamins, minerals, and water do not yield energy; instead they facilitate a variety of activities in the body
• Foods rich in the energy-yielding nutrients (carbohydrates, fats, and proteins) provide the major materials for building the body's tissues and yield energy the body can use or store
• Dietary Reference Intakes (DRI)


  A set of values for the dietary nutrient intakes of healthy people in the United States and Canada, used for planning and assessing diets
• Nutrition experts use the DRI recommendations to assess nutrient intakes and to guide people on amounts to consume, individuals can use them to decide how much of a nutrient they need to consume
• Dietary Reference Intakes (DRI)


  A set of nutrient intake values that can be used to plan and evaluate dietary intakes for healthy people