Nutrition 101: "Unjunk Your Junk Food"

The Science of Nutrition

Nutrition 101: Food Is Fuel

Lecture  5: Unjunk Your Junk Food 

Morgan Spurlock's "Super Size Me" in 7 minutes:

Ten Tips to A Great Plate: Handout Review

1)  Balance calories by eating enough to sustain daily activities

2)  Enjoy your food, but eat less of it

3)  Avoid oversized portions of food

4)  Eat more fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and low-fat dairy

5)  Make half your plate fruits and vegetables in a variety of colors

6)  Switch to low-fat dairy

7)  Make at least half your grains whole grains

8)  Cut back on foods that have extra fat, added sugar, and excess sodium

9)  Compare sodium labels and opt for low-sodium choices

10) Drink more water and fewer sugary drinks

The Truth About Coca Cola

Excerpt: "20 Crazy Uses for Coke"

Clean a toilet: To clean a toilet, pour one can of coke into it and let it sit for one hour. Afterwards, flush for a surprisingly good shine.

A powerful cleaning tool: Use coke to clean your engines. Coke distributors have been using this trick to clean their engines for over twenty years!

Get rid of hiccups: When you’ve got the hiccups, simply take a good mouthful of coke and gargle, your hiccups will vanish.

Clean burnt pans: To clean a burnt saucepan, simply add a can of coke and boil it.

Hair styling: Pour a can of flat coke into your hair and let stand a few minutes, wash out for outstanding curls.

Gum stuck in hair? Put the gum-infested part of your hair in coke and wait a few minutes, then gently wipe off.

Incredibly soft skin: Mix one tablespoon of standard coke with lotion and apply for soft and smooth skin.

Remove oil stains from your garage – Simply apply coke, let stand and hose off.

Bad cold?: Boil a can of coke and drink while hot to get rid of congestion.

Winter windshield: Frozen windshield? Can’t see? Late for work? Pour a can of coke all over your windshield and the ice will immediately clear up. Happy driving.

Chrome rust spots? Crumple some tinfoil and dip it into coke, then gently rub the affected area.

Have corroded car battery terminals? Pour some coke on there, let sit for a few minutes, and wipe off with a wet cloth.

Greasy clothes? Pour a can of coke into your washing machine along with (and don’t forget) detergent to effectively get rid of grease stains.

Loosen rusted bolts and nuts: Wrap a coke-wet cloth on a rusted bolt or nut. After a few minutes, it will have been loosened as a result of the acidic content in the coke.

Jelly fish sting: Stung by a jelly fish? Pour coke over it to neutralize the venom in the sting.

A lawn so green: Spraying coke on your lawn will help ensure that it stays greener and for longer.

Get rid of snails and slugs: Put little bowls of coke all over your garden. Sugar attracts, acid kills, your happy.

Read the full article: http://gomestic.com/homemaking/20-crazy-uses-for-coke/#ixzz1yWxWdRnj

More About Sugar:

Excerpt: "Does Sugar Affect Children's Behavior?"

This new program will teach dietitians that "[a] majority of studies so far have not found a link between sugar and behavior in children generally or children diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder." However, there are plenty of studies demonstrating that the converse is true, and that sugar has a major impact on mood and behavior.

For example, one recent study published in the journal Psychology Today found a strong link between high sugar consumption and the risk of both depression and schizophrenia. There are at least two potential mechanisms through which refined sugar intake could exert a toxic effect on mental health:

Sugar suppresses activity of a key growth hormone in your brain called BDNF, which is critically low in both depression and schizophrenia.

Sugar also triggers a cascade of chemical reactions in your body that promote chronic inflammation. In the long term, inflammation disrupts the normal functioning of your immune system, and disrupts proper brain function.

It's also a well-known fact that chronic inflammation plays a major role in heart disease, diabetes, arthritis, and cancer. So consuming excessive amounts of sugar can truly set off an avalanche of negative health events – both mental and physical.

A diet high in sugar, fructose and starchy carbohydrates also causes excessive insulin release, which can lead to falling blood sugar levels, or hypoglycemia. Hypoglycemia, in turn, causes your brain to secrete glutamate in levels that can cause agitation, depression, anger, anxiety and panic attacks.

One 1985 study published in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology found that reducing sugar intake had a positive impact on emotions. And another, the Los Angeles Probation Department Diet-Behavior Program: An Empirical Analysis of Six Institutional Settings, published in 1983, documented the results when juvenile delinquents were given a reduced-sugar diet—The saw a 44 percent reduction in the incidence of antisocial behavior during the subsequent 3 months, after the implementation of the revised diet.

So can sugar affect your child's behavior?

Yes, it can.

And if your child has behavioral- and/or learning problems, wouldn't it make sense to radically limit sugar and fructose for some time to see if anything changes for the better? That, after all, is far more important than what any study or health expert has to say about it.

Read the entire article: http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/07/09/why-do-dieticians-believe-sugar-fluoride-artificial-colors-are-safe-for-children.aspx

 Helpful Links

"The Sticky Truth about Chewing Gum" http://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/the-sticky-truth-about-chewing-gum/

Student Presentations due Thursday, June 28, 2012! 



Answer these four questions:

1) In general, I consume enough _________________.

(fruits, vegetables, whole grains, proteins, dairy, fats, water)

2) In general, I don't consume enough _____________.

(fruits, vegetables, whole grains, proteins, dairy, fats, water)

3) I have decided to give up eating _______________.

4) I have decided to include more ________________ in my diet.