Chapter 3

Making Healthful Food Choices

Objectives

Name benefits of making healthful food choices Identify how many daily servings you need from

each group in the food guide pyramid Explain how you can use the food guide pyramid

and dietary guidelines as resources to plan your diet

List tips for shopping for and preparing helpful foods

Benefits of Healthful Food Choices

Affects you health and appearance Job performance, Personal and Family life Helps you maintain good health Keeps you from getting deficiency diseases, may

lower your risk of chronic diseases You will have enough energy, fuel to do your

daily tasks Vit. C and Iron helps wounds heal and Protein

helps repair tissue

Benefits Continued

Get adequate rest and physical activity because this will affect your health as well

Avoid Smoking and Drinking, because this will have a negative affect on health and appearance

Vit. A and B vitamins promote healthy smooth skin

Flourine, Calcium and phosphorus help build strong teeth and bones

Proteins help build muscles

More Benefits

• Nutrients affect your job performance

• Gives you the strength and energy to do your best work and stay focused

• Helps you to be more confident and willing to approach customers, make sale and ask questions

• Your family and personal life can be affected positively by good health as well

Diet Planning Resources• Help for sorting out nutrition information

• Standards to help you know how much of each nutrient you need

• Recommended Nutrient Intakes

• Recommended Daily Allowances (RDA): set of suggested levels of nutrient intake for various people

– Designed to help prevent deficiency diseases

– Revised several times

– Also aimed at reducing the risk of diseases related to nutrition (heart disease, cancer and osteoporosis)

• Dietary Reference Intakes (DRI): Estimated nutrient intake levels used for planning and evaluating the diets of healthy people

– 4 standards that help measure nutritional quality of a diet

Types of DRI Values• Estimated Average Requirement (EAR): this nutrient intake value is

estimated to meet the needs of half of the healthy people in a group.

– If you do not have enough EAR of a nutrient deficiency diseases may occur

– Some nutrients don not have EAR

• Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA): Average daily dietary intake level for ALL healthy people in a group. The amount you should strive to have in your diet

– RDA's are based on EAR's

– No RDA's for nutrients without EAR's

• Adequate Intake (AI): Recommended nutrient intake value set for nutrients that don not have RDA's

– Based on observations and research done by nutritionist

• Tolerable Upper Intake Level (UI): Highest level of daily intake of a nutrient that is unlikely to cause an adverse effect

More Resources• Food Guide Pyramid: Visual representation of an eating plan

designed to help people choose nutritious diets

– USDA and Health and Human Services created this to help people select foods

– Categorizes food into groups and shows serving sizes for each group

– Special versions for young Children, pregnant women and cultural groups

• Dietary Guidelines: Guidelines designed to encourage healthy people ages 2 and over to form healthful diets and activity levels

– Reviewed every five years

– Three Key Messages: Aim for Fitness, Build a healthy base and Choose Sensibly

Choosing Wisely when shopping for Food

• Consider time and energy you will have available, nutrition and budget

– May have trade-offs (Example: pay more for a frozen dinner to save time)

• Processed vs. Fresh

• Fresh foods: Have not been processed. Can spoil easier, Nutrients can be lost in storage

• Processed foods: foods that have undergone some preparation procedure such as canning, freezing, drying, cooking or fortification.

– Often decreases the nutritional value

– fat and sodium may increase

– Exception: Frozen and canned fruits and veggies and Whole milk that has had the fat removed

Shopping Tips for Fresh Food• Choose a variety of fresh fruits and veggies (high in

fiber vitamins, minerals and low in sodium and fat)

• Stock up on extra fruit for snacks

• Look for lean cuts of meat

• Choose meats with little marbling

• Choose chicken and turkey often: light meat is lower in fat than dark meat

• Choose fresh fish and shellfish

• Choose nuts and seeds less often as meat alternatives because they are higher in fat

Tips for processed foods• Look for whole grain ingredients

• Choose bread, English muffins, rice and pasta for low fat carbohydrates

• Check labels on breakfast cereal carefully

• Select regular and quick cooking cereals more often than instant

• Choose fruits canned in juice instead of syrup

• Choose no salt added when buying canned veggies

• Choose beans, peas and lentils as low fat, high fiber meat alternatives

• Choose processed meat less often

• Choose reduced fat versions of dairy products and salad dressings

• Choose canned fish products packed in water instead of oil

• Choose low fat desserts

Choosing wisely when Preparing Foods

• Start with a main course: generally a source of protein, aim for lowfat proteins

• Round out the meal with side dishes, such as veggies

• Not all food must be low in calories, fat, sodium and sugar, but remember to balance it out

• Cook with canola oil and olive oil instead of butter

• Avoid adding oil and salt

• Use half the amount of butter called for or margarine

• Use salad dressings, mayo, sour cream sparingly

• Flavor with lemon juice and herbs instead of salt and butter

• Reduce sugar used

• Use powdered sugar instead of frosting on cakes

• Use fat free or low fat milk

Choosing Wisely When Eating Out• Choose restaurants that give you more choices

• Utilize nutrition information available

• Consider ordering a salad with low fat dressing

• Order a small size instead of large

• Use menu terms as clues (example: cream sauces are higher in fat)

• Notice items that are friend, breaded or sauted in butter

• Request items be made according to your preferences

Assignment

• Complete choosing wisely when shopping for food and choosing wisely when preparing foods worksheets

• Tomorrow: New Food Guide Pyramid and Dietary Guidelines ppt. And notes, Begin Mypyramid.gov web search