Eating A Proper Diet For The Elderly Essay

This article was to examine how the US government uses dietary guidelines for Americans and how the guidelines were supposed to help us eat and stay healthy. Diet and chronic diseases are sometimes connected. For example, it is proven that nutrient deficiency disease like scurvy can be cured by consuming the lost nutrients. However, it is also shown that some nutrient exposure can cause chronic illness such as energy, fats, sodium dietary fiber, and food exposures, etc. making it difficult to set dietary guidelines. In addition to some nutrient causing chronic diseases, nondietary factors such as stress, lack of exercise, smoking and other environmental factors are linked to causing chronic illnesses (Slavin, 2012).

In an article titled, “Feeding the Brain for Academic Success: How Nutrition and Hydration Boost Learning,” by Philippa Norman M.D. 2015, the author argues the importance of a healthy, well balanced diet for a student to function properly in a school setting. In this article, Dr. Norman talks about how the brain is composed of 100 billion neurons which drive our thinking, learning, feeling and states of being. She explains how important it is for neurons to have good fats, proteins, complex carbohydrates, micronutrients – vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients – and water. Norman walks the reader through the importance of these specific nutrients in order to drive the learning functions of neurons. She explains how neurons connect in the brain,

Hypothesis: Obesity amongst older individuals poses risk factors on health issues. Risk factor for many chronic conditions, including four of the ten leading causes of death in the U.S. -- coronary heart disease, type II diabetes, stroke and several forms of cancer. (Geriatric Nursing 1983) Obesity not only affects the health of older adults, it also affects their day-to-day lives. Decreased mobility related to muscle wasting, immobility causing decubitus ulcers. In the research I have conducted, more and more nursing homes possess residents that are obese, that are considered to have a calculated BMI greater than thirty-five. Obese geriatric patients are more likely to report poor

Every 5 years since 1980 the US government has put out dietary guidelines for which all Americans would benefit from if they wanted to lead a healthy life and lifestyle. We live in a modern age where most diseases have been thoroughly researched and in a lot of cases have been cured, managed or learned how to be prevented all together. This is where the dietary guidelines come in, they were created to be viable to follow for 95% of the healthy American population. By following the dietary guidelines not only will we live a healthier life and feel better but we’ll be preventing some of the more serious health problems, like CVD and stroke which are some of the leading causes of American deaths.

The Western Diet mainly consists of fried foods, refined grains, sugar, high carbohydrate and fats, and meats (3). It has been hypothesized that having a Western Diet increases one’s chances for developing depression. There has been a great deal of research into why the western diet increase’s one chance of having depression. A common sense reason maybe that the Western Diet consisted of large amounts carbohydrates, fats and sugars which promotes obesity and then causes depression (1). More scientific evidence suggest that having a improper diet like the Western Diet negatively affects peripheral and central dopamine, which are neurotransmitters (chemical which transmit signals across the synapse from the nerve cell to the target cell)

The hippocampus, in the limbic system of the brain, controls long-term memory and emotions. With the high sugar diets, inflammation markers within the hippocampus increased, but the immunomodulatory gene expression decreased. The inflammation markers directly correlate with the decrease in memory on these high sugar diets. Memory deficiency happened within short term exposures of sugar to the diet. Rats tested showed lower exploration ratios than control rats. These animals fed "sugar for less than 2 weeks (showed) impaired hippocampal-dependent place recognition memory compared to control and PUFA fed rats." (Beilharz, Kaakoush, Maniam, and Morris, 2016, p. 309). Place recognition tests confirmed the effects on memory with the sugar fed group being considerably lower in their scores. Sugar was the factor that proved to be "crucial for the memory deficits." (Beilharz et al., 2016, p. 309). The gut microbiome also has significant effects on emotions. Depression and anxiety, including anhedonic-like behaviors were found in direct relation to the sugar intake.

Now, in 2015, the number of searches and available information increased from ~334,000 hits to ~32, 200, 00 hits. The idea that food has similar addictive characteristics as drugs that affect the brain is quite controversial. People tend to eat when they are depressed, happy, emotional, celebrating and many other situations because food is easily accessed and not illegal. Research regarding sugar having addictive qualities was conducted in 2010 by the University of Texas and the Oregon Research Institute. Equipped with Haagen-Dazs ice cream and a group of overweight women, the researchers measured the brains reward center activity when shown images of ice cream and when tasting an ice cream milk shake; six months down the road, the group reconvened and the women once again tasted the ice cream. The results were that the woman who had gained weight over the time gap had decreased activity in the striatum, an area of the brain that registers reward, thus needing more to reach a feel good level of satisfaction (Langreth & Stanford, 2011). "The significance of this finding is that these are the same regions of the brain that light up in drug addicts who are show images of drug paraphernalia or drugs" (Wormer & Davis, 2013).

In today’s society malnutrition has always been an issue for older adults and young individuals. There has been studies that have stated that older adults among young people are the most susceptible to having poor eating habits. Malnutrition alongside obesity is a national issue. There have been many programs that have been put in place to solve this issues. There are many programs that are created in order to provide assistance for older adult’s health and safe (Nutrition and Aging, 2016).

Senior people, just like everyone else, need to eat properly to maintain health. Eating well can improve mental acuteness, resistance to illness, and energy levels. You have to maintain a healthy diet to have a positive outlook and being emotionally balanced. We, ExPO Signature Home Care, a home health care agency in New Jersey, helps our senior maintain a healthy diet is by providing them with of Go, Grow, and Glow foods.

Mental health problems are believed to be the result of a combination of factors, including age, genetics and environmental factors. One of the most obvious, yet under-recognized factors in the development of major trends in mental health is the role of nutrition.(Associate Parliamentary & Health, 2008). Recent evidence suggests that good nutrition is essential for our mental health and that a number of mental health conditions may be influenced by dietary factors.. The body of evidence linking both diet and mental health is growing at a rapid pace ( Associate Parliamentary & Health, 2008). Recently, there have been a number of published studies identifying an inverse association between diet quality and the common mental disorders, namely depression and anxiety, in adults (Bellisle, 2004). Other prospective studies suggest that diet quality influences the risk for depressive illness in adults over time. The evidence indicates that food plays a contributing role in the development, management and prevention of specific mental health problems such as depression, schizophrenia, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and Alzheimer’s disease ( Associate Parliamentary & Health, 2008).

How the mind can be effected by the food? . What we eat is what we are. Food can change the mood of any person. For example, if someone ate a salad for breakfast will have better mode than someone who ate a burger for breakfast. Furthermore, food that contains sugar will have negative results on the mental, but the fruits and vegetables will absolutely benefit the mind. As Zwier explains, the food that contains Omega-3, and also that help the mind to focus and memorize things (2012). Some food gives the mind good energy types of food have some effects on people mental: amount of food, fats and how to avoid mental problems.

     Since we have been learning about nutrition in class, our task was to record a food log. Nutrition requires a well-balanced diet containing nutrient and vitamins like amino acids and fatty acids. Over the past seven days I have been recording and have been looking very carefully at my intake of nutrients, minerals, vitamins, and fats. In our task, the objective was to record the basic foods we ate during the period of seven, but it did not require recording every single detail or our intake of food. Doing this food log was a pain and it was disturbing because I never wrote about what I ate like breakfast, lunch, dinner, or additional meals. I found this food log useful because it helped me learn what I

How does healthy eating affect your life? Many people really pay attention to the food they put in their bodies, until we get sick and need medical attention. I know that many of us love to eat fast food, but it catches up with us in the long run. While eating healthy would stop you from getting sick, and lower the cost of health care, healthy eating can enrich your body and prevent you from getting high doctor bills.

One of the most popular New Year’s Resolutions is making it to the gym and shedding off those extra unwanted pounds padded on from the end-of-year holidays that encourage over-indulgence of delicious treats and tasty comfort foods. This and many other unhealthy habits can lead to depression, anxiety and a reduced sense of self-worth. What most people do not realize is that the temptations can be lessened by having a better understanding of their brain health and its power. “Everything you are and everything you do is controlled by your brain” (Sharpbrains, 2014). Luckily, there is still hope for all of us to improve and repair our brains.

Staying healthy and eating right is a lifestyle that many people should consider. A juicy hamburger from McDonalds dripping with special sauce topped with cheese is not exactly considered a healthy meal. Our society today is busy and on the go at all times. It is so much easier to stop and get fast food and then continue on. However, we should stop and think; is it really worth it to not eat right and exercise?