Dietary Guidelines For Dummies
By: Jamie Castner
1. What do the Dietary Guidelines do for Americans?
- A health risk is the likelihood of developing health problems, such as heart disease, diabetes, and some cancers.
- Diet is everything you eat and drink.
2. Getting enough nutrients within your calorie needs
- Four factors that determine dietary needs are:
-Age
-Gender
-Activity Level
-Whether you are trying to loose or gain weight.
- Nutrient-Dense Foods are foods that provide high amounts of vitamins and minerals for relatively few calories.
(Ex. Whole-grain, vegetables, fruits, low-fat & fat-free milk, milk products, lean meats, and beans)
3. How to maintain a healthy weight
- A risk factor is a condition that increases your chances of developing a problem.
- Health problems related to too much body fat are:
-Diabetes
-Heart Disease
-High Blood Pressure
-Arthritis
-Some types of cancer
- Health risks for being underweight are:
-More weak
-Trouble concentrating
-Some types of cancer
-Easily gets sick
-Anemia
-Weak bones
- Two suggestions on loosing weight are:
-Have at least 60 minutes of physical activity per day.
4. Suggestions for being physically active every day
- Two ways that active living helps you:
-Strengthening heart and lungs
- Teens should get at least 60 minutes of activity per day.
- Two guidelines for including physical activity into your daily schedule are:
-Get involved in a team or individual sport
5. Importance of whole grains, fruits, vegetables, and milk
- Two reasons they are healthy:
-That is where your potassium comes from.
- Two health benefits for these foods are:
-They help protect against heart disease, cancer, and other health problems.
- Two ways to include these foods in your diet are:
-Drink fruit or vegetable juice with your meals or as a snack
6. How to limit fats and cholesterol
- Two types of unhealthy fats that raise cholesterol are:
-Trans fat
- Heart disease can develop from a high fat diet.
- Guidelines to achieve moderate fat intake are:
-Eat as few foods containing trans fat as possible
-Limit cholesterol to less than 300 milligrams per day
-Choose mostly foods prepared with little or no fat
-Eat dairy foods that are mostly reduced-fat, low-fat, and fat-free
-Get most of your fat from fish, nuts, and healthy oils
-Buy lean meat and poultry. Remove skin from chicken and turkey. Trim excess fat from meat.
-Eat egg yolks and whole eggs in moderation. Use egg substitutes sometimes.
-Choose fewer solid fats, such as butter and stick margarine.
7. Be choosy about carbohydrates
- Foods with natural sugar are:
-Milk
- Foods with added sugar are:
-Soft drinks
- You should limit your sugar intake because they could promote tooth decay.
8. Why reduce sodium and increase potassium?
- Sodium helps control body fluids.
- Diseases linked to excess sodium are:
-Heart attack
-Stroke
- Potassium helps counteract sodium's effects on blood pressure.
9. Avoid Alcohol
- Three reasons that teens should avoid alcohol are:
-Heavy drinking also increases the chance of accidents, injuries, violence, emotional problems, dependency, and other problems.