Applying Nutritional Concepts to Real Life

Applying Nutritional Concepts to Real Life

During this course there have been many topics that I have learned about. As I think over the topics we have covered there are a few that stick out. The first topic is metabolism. The second topic is portion control. But the topic I think that will be forever imbedded in my mind is balance. These are all important elements I will use to improve my personal nutrition and wellness. I will describe to you what I learned about each topic and how I will apply these to my everyday life.

Metabolism as defined in our text is a "collective term for all of the chemical and physical reactions occurring in living cells, including the reactions by which the body obtains and uses energy from foods." Growing up I have heard "you must have a high metabolism". I really never understood what that meant. Now I know that it means that my body burns calories fast. It also has to do with how active I am. The more active you are the more energy you need. This means the more energy that needs to be created. So the food I take in is used to make the energy and it is burned off faster. I will use this knowledge to stay active so that I can maintain I higher metabolic rate.

Portion control is the next topic I have learned a lot about in this class. I have never paid attention to the size of a serving. Never realized how some products make you think you are eating serving size portions but can really be two or three servings. I have learned to pay attention to the labels of the foods I eat. In the text we also learned ways of knowing how much food is on our plate without carrying measuring cups. For instance one cupped hand is proportionate to a half a cup. I will use this knowledge to regulate how much I eat. By doing this I can maintain better control of the portion I need for my required daily intake.

Balance has had the biggest impact on me. I can use this in every aspect of my life. To maintain anything you have to have balance. My take on balance is best described by the obvious of whatever you take in you must burn off what you do not need. If you do not work the extra calories off with exercise you will carry the extra as fat cells. Balance is one of the most difficult but necessary parts of your diet.

As a whole I think that metabolism, portion control and balance are the concepts that I will use in my life regularly. Although I only described three different concepts I have learned a lot about my own personal health and how important each and every food you effects you in someway. They can be good or bad but it is up to me to decipher what they are. I think now that I have learned more about how to research what I need to maintain my daily required intake I will think about these things whenever I am in the kitchen getting ready to cook dinner.