Personal Nutrition Analysis

From tracking my food using Super Tracker over the span of three days, I have learned about the deficiencies in my diet and what I need to cut down on. As I entered in the food that I ate, there was a bar graph showing my progress in fulfilling my daily requirements for each of the food groups (whole fruit, grains, vegetables, protein, dairy). According to my weight, height, sex, and age, Super Tracker calculated that I needed 1600 calories a day. For the first day, I did not have enough grains, having only fulfilled 61% of my daily requirements. Furthermore, almost all the grains I ate that day were refined, from the crust of my pizza from lunch. I also did not have enough vegetables, dairy, or protein. However, I had an excess of fruit, eating 115% of my daily requirement. For the second day, I fulfilled my daily requirements much better than the previous day. I ate an excess of grains and vegetables, while I had just a little less than my daily requirements of protein, fruit, and dairy. Although I was closer to meeting my nutrition guidelines this day, I surpassed the allowed amount of empty calories by 34 calories, meaning that I should cut down on refined grains and foods that have no real nutrients in them, like processed foods. For the third and last day of my tracking, I was also quite close to meeting my nutritional requirements. For once, I had an excess of vegetables and basically met my requirement for grains. However, for fruits, protein, and dairy, I needed almost 50% more of my recommended amount to meet my requirements. Overall, over the span of three days, I realized that I definitely eat enough vegetables. However, I do need to increase my intake of the other four food groups, especially proteins. I should be eating seafood two times a week and be getting a full 8 ounces of seafood, but I only ate 1.5 ounces, well under the requirement. Furthermore, I need more dairy in my diet; over the three days, I had 2.25 ounces, when the requirement for me is 3 ounces. From this, I know that I should eat more yogurt/cheese, or in general low fat dairy. Lastly, my overall calorie count is low; on average, I only ate 1198 calories a day, when my recommended amount is 1600 calories. From this, I know that I should fill up the rest of my needed calories with non-empty calories, while also filling up the food groups that I need.

Day 1:

Day 2:

Day 3:

I also learned a lot from the Falcon Market activity we did during class. From the Falcon Market activity, I looked up the nutrition of a lot of the foods that I eat every day (fast food, Starbucks, processed food) and realized that they added lots of unnecessary fat and sugar in order to make the food taste better. I also discovered that although many foods say that they have zero trans fat, they in fact have a small amount in the form of hydrogenated oil listed in the ingredients. For example, in peanut butter, which is a supposedly somewhat healthy food and one that I eat very often, has hydrogenated oils listed in the ingredients although the trans fat on the nutrition label says zero. From the Falcon Market, I also learned about the benefits of seasonal produce, both nutritionally and financially. I also learned about the importance of glycemic index and load in determining how healthy a food is. Furthermore, I learned about the inaccuracy of BMI, since a muscular and healthy person can have the same BMI as someone who is morbidly obese. 

In order to improve my diet, I could replace many of the refined grains that I eat with multi/whole grains in order to reduce the number of empty calories that I consume and increase my intake of dietary fiber. From my nutrient report of my intake of vitamins, it shows that I need more Vitamin A, which I can get in carrots to also contribute to my intake of fiber. I also need much more choline, which is found in fish. In order to meet this requirement, I should eat more seafood (recommended 2x per week) to fulfill my choline and protein requirement as well. Furthermore, when ordering drinks, I should order the low fat/nonfat version in order to cut down my intake on empty calories and oils. 

If I had the opportunity to coach someone on proper health and nutrition, I would advise them to eat only foods that have nutrients in them, or foods that are not processed with no added sugar. Furthermore, I would tell them to eat more protein than vegetables if possible, since from the Falcon Market, I learned that consuming protein is more important to maintain a body's energy than consuming vegetables. I would also tell them to eat more fresh and raw foods, since they retain more vitamins than cooked vegetables; if they buy produce to eat, then they should also buy seasonal produce for better taste, more vitamins, and a lower price.

What is Health?

What is health? According to my lecture notes, there are five pillars of health: nutrition, exercise, sleep, stress and social.

However, according to me, health is something that I need to improve on radically. Although I am the strongest at the social and sleep aspects of health, the other pillars are in need of dire improvement. Outside of school, I hang out with my friends and get food with them very often, so I do have healthy social relationships with my peers. I also sleep very often, since I take a brief nap everyday after school and try not to go to sleep too late. However, for nutrition, I try to eat a balanced diet with vegetables and other nutrients, but I end up eating chips, candy, and other empty calories. Furthermore, I do not exercise that often; I occasionally walk home from school (a 30 minute walk) or bike to my friend's house to spend time with them, but I definitely do not get the recommended 30 minutes of exercise a day. Lastly, I have many extracurricular activities and lots of homework from school classes, so it is hard to complete everything and end with a calm mind; however, I am trying to take small breaks in between tasks to keep a tranquil mind.
In this unit of health, I want to learn about the perfect routine of exercise and nutrition in order to help my body function at its best ability. I also hope to improve my mood and spirit in general by improving the my exercise, diet, and stress control, so I can learn how to live a happier life with less effort. Furthermore, I want to learn about the accuracy of the food pyramid, since I have heard many assertions that the food pyramid is actually inaccurate. I am truly excited for this unit about health! :)

A&P Unit 1 Reflection

Over these past four weeks, I have completed Unit 1 of my Anatomy and Physiology course and learned many things that I did not know before. Unit 1 was somewhat a review of biology that I learned during my freshman year, but also an introduction to anatomy and physiology. In this unit, I learned the basic anatomical terms and essential structures/functions in the body that are needed to learn about the other structures of the body in depth.
The themes and essential understandings in this unit were anatomical terms, types and functions of tissues, macromolecules, and the structure of a cell. Through the vodcasts, I learned about the different organelles in a eukaryotic cell and their functions, which is a review from freshman year biology. I also reviewed macromolecules and their uses in our body. The other themes that I learned were new to me: anatomical terms and the types and functions of tissues. For anatomical terms, I learned how to refer to the specific location of body parts using terminology. I also learned about the different types and functions of the body tissues (connective, epithelial, muscle, nerve), which I did not know about before.

Abstract Illustration of Cells in Mitosis or Multiplication of Cells. Digital image. Shutterstock. Fusebulb, n.d. Web. 9 Sept. 2015. <http://image.shutterstock.com/display_pic_with_logo/466870/466870,1302593488,1/stock-photo-abstract-illustration-of-cells-in-mitosis-or-multiplication-of-cells-75090052.jpg>.

Although I learned a lot in just this first unit of anatomy and physiology, I feel like I still do not understand very well the concept of an extracellular matrix and how to distinguish the different tissues by looking at a diagram. I do not really understand the purpose of having a small or large extracellular matrix or what is in the matrix that aids the cells' function. I also have still have trouble distinguishing the different tissues just by looking at a diagram, especially between epithelial and muscle tissue, since they look very similar in certain diagrams.

Light Micrograph Showing a Simple Columnar Epithelium. Digital image.Shutterstock. N.p., n.d. Web. 9 Sept. 2015. <http://thumb1.shutterstock.com/display_pic_with_logo/1350394/185476790/stock-photo-light-micrograph-showing-a-simple-columnar-epithelium-human-gallbladder-h-e-stain-185476790.jpg>.

Illustration of the Types of Muscles. Digital image. Shutterstock. BlueRingMedia, n.d. Web. 9 Sept. 2015. <http://thumb7.shutterstock.com/display_pic_with_logo/1185467/155583245/stock-vector-illustration-of-the-types-of-muscles-155583245.jpg>.

In the next unit, I hope to take more notes on what my teacher says during class and not just copy down the information in the lecture notes. I also hope to use my textbook more often as a study tool, since there is a lot of useful information in the textbook that is tested that is not covered in depth in the lecture notes. Furthermore, I want to pay attention more in class and keep track of my labs, since I did not really use my labs to study for the test this unit.
The material I learned in Unit 1 also has real world applications, such as a recent drug that could possible rejuvenate aging brain and muscle tissue. According to iflscience (http://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/drug-could-rejuvenate-aging-brain-and-muscle-tissue), there is a new molecular drug that may stop the degeneration of stem cells as a person ages. From test trials on mice, this drug apparently contributes to to the tissues' ability to repair itself and to the maintenance of homestasis in the body. This recent discovery relates to the material I learned in class, such as the function of muscle tissue and how the body degenerates as it ages. By taking this drug, muscle tissue's function improves, helping the body repair itself easily. Furthermore, the article describes how the body ages and how stem cells degenerate more and more the older a person gets, as we learned during class.

Stem Cell Sphere. Digital image. Pixabay. Public Domain, n.d. Web. <https://pixabay.com/static/uploads/photo/2013/07/18/10/59/stem-cell-163711_640.jpg>.

Tissue Lab Write-Up

In the tissue lab conducted today, I looked at twelve different types of tissue samples under microscopes, including all four types of tissues. For each tissue sample, I recorded the slide name, magnification, tissue type, and drew a detailed sketch of the sample. After drawing a sketch of the sample, I related the tissue sample to the text written on an informational poster. Through this lab, I learned about the general structures of connective, epithelial, muscle, and nervous tissue, and the differences between them.
From lectures in class, I learned that skeletal muscle tissue had a rod-like structure, smooth muscle had a spindle-shaped structure, and cardiac muscle had a branch-like structure, which matched my observations of the muscle tissue samples. However, I expected the nervous tissue to be shaped with branches on all sides, but I saw circle-shaped cells in large clusters in the microscope.
From my observations, muscle tissue is red, long, and skinny. Depending on the type of muscle tissue, these long cells branch out or stay straight as rods. For nervous tissue, there is a small cluster of cells with branches coming off. Next, for epithelial cells, there are several different shapes (squamous, columnar, cuboidal) of cells and different layers , usually with a base of cells on the bottom. For connective tissue, there are many different types: bone, blood, cartilage, etc. All of these connective tissues look different, so there is no one structure/look to connective tissue.
There are very definitive connections between the anatomy of a tissue and its location/function. For example, nervous tissue is a cluster of cells and that has many branches around it. These branches function to relay signals to other nerves, somewhat like a domino effect. Since there are many branches on each nerve, it allows for the relaying of signals very quickly and efficiently. Another example of a connection between the anatomy of a tissue and its location/function is bone, a specialized type of connective tissue. In compact bone especially, the cells are very tightly packed together, with very little space in between the cells. The structure is so dense because it is made of 80% minerals and 20% matrix. From this tissue lab, I learned lots about the difference among the four types of tissues!