Nutrition Analysis

 From my diet monitoring, I learned that the foods I eat actually have a lot of empty calories. My nutrient deficiencies tend to come from not consuming enough foods with dairy products. On my third day, my dairy consumption was at a low of 17%. However on the first day, my protein intake was extremely high, at 205%. I think that I could have balanced those extremities out better rather than over or under compensating for those food groups. From the Falcon Market I learned that just reading nutrition labels does not provide an accurate conclusion as to the 'healthiness' of the food; rather it is calculating macromolecule percentages that can do so. I also learned about food recommendations such as eating organic and seasonal produce and ensuring that I get sufficient protein, produce, and healthy fats when I go shopping. To improve my overall diet balance, I could drink milk in the mornings and at night to make up for dairy deficiencies. Also, I should remember to eat in moderation and not cut things out completely.
If I had the opportunity to coach someone else on proper health and nutrition, first and foremost, I would remind them that proper health does not only depend on food consumption and that it has many other factors. I would also tell them to remember to well balanced meals, preferably with organic, seasonal, low-sodium, and non-processed foods. A well balanced meal would ensure that they would receive all the nutrients their body requires while organic, seasonal, low-sodium, and non-processed foods (just to name a few) would be more nutritious and healthy, without unnecessary, man-added ingredients.

What is Health?

 

To me, health is extremely important because without all the necessary nutrients in a person's body, enough sleep, stress alleviation, exercise and social well-being, a person cannot act to his or her full capability. I think I am best at achieving the nutrients my body needs, exercise, and maintaining good social interactions but I need to get more sleep and relax more. In regards to health, I would like to learn more about how nutrients interact with our body to keep us healthy.

Unit 1 Reflection

In this unit, we learned about the basics of anatomy and physiology: the basic biology of a cell, histology, the four macromolecules, and anatomical directional terms. I learned about the complexity of the human body, the different tissue types, and what makes our bodies tick. The tissue lab was very helpful in being able to differentiate between tissue types and how their structures relate to their functions. However I still do not fully understand how to identify the different tissue types as it seems that many of them are connected and related to each other, such as the connection between cuboidal and squamous cells. In the next unit, I plan to make flashcards and relate what we learn to more applications in my own life to help me remember them better. My uncle is fascinated with cytology and has always loved to talk about specialized cells and each one's specific organelles. Now I can understand and even discuss with him the minute details of our body.

Electronic devices and handwritten notes used in conjunction to enhance the learning experience.

Tissues, tissues, tissues!

There are four types of tissues: epithelial, connective, muscular, and nervous, all that have their own function and are each unique and essential to the body. Being able to physically view the different types of tissues and their different types was helpful in better understanding the characteristics of the tissues and was really interesting. Epithelial tissue was either stratified or simple and although there are only three types- squamous, cuboidal, and columnar- each one was distinctly different. For example, in 400x magnification, the cilated columnar depicted a few columnar cells protruding from its base layer of cuboidal cells. Muscle cells were 'neater' since some showed parallel fibers with intercalated discs. There are three types of muscle tissue in the body: skeletal, smooth, and cardiac. Looking at the connective tissue, I could see the extracellular matrix and the specific cells. The dense collagenous bone was mostly parallel to allow for the high density of the tissue which makes it strong enough to be bone, and the collagen fibers were clearly seen. The nervous tissue was packed together with a large amount of cells that I could see through the microscope even at x400 magnification. However, I noticed the nerve fibers between the cells and the nuclei in each cell. The neurons are like this so they can easily and quickly transmit signals to different parts of the body. The tissues in our body all have a specific purpose to aid our body, whether we realize its purpose or not!

 

Left: Compact bone cell (connective tissue)

Right: Nervous tissue cells in greater detail