Nutrition (Bio 3524)

  1. Food addiction?

Food addiction is a perception that a person is highly dependent of a certain dish. A pleasure                                                                                        centers of the brain may be triggered by highly palatable foods such as   sugar, fat and

salt. When the pleasure is reached , a quick need to eat again occurs. Our body is                                  “automatically programmed to keep eating the food we like”.

  1. Genetically modified foods?

Genetically modified foods are foods which had been treated with radiation or chemicals to create a change in their DNA. These modifications permanently change chemical properties of the foods which our body may or may not adapt.

  1. Socio-economical status?

Worldwide, people are trained by the culture they live in to chose what food is. We associate food with emotions, nourishment, and we develop a relationship with it. This relationship has changed over the last couple of years because of the economical developments. Food has to travel long distances which in consequence has to be better preserved. Our population of people living in the US turn often to unhealthy food because of the financial difficulties and lack of time to prepare the healthy meal.

  1. Psycological factors?

Nowadays food is often associated with emotions. We reach for junk snacks because of the stress, excitement, sadness. Marketing firms advertise food as a positive reward. The suggest eating four times per day which is outside the norm that was accepted and followed in the past.

  1. What represents the most serious health risk outside US?

Overnutrition and Obesity represents the most serious risk outside the US. According to the speaker this problem effects our bodies and contribute to chronic diseases at the older and even young people . We ingest foods with are rich in artificial ingredients and those ingredients slow our metabolic rate. Lack of exercise and improvement in technology requires person to less movement .

  1. What’s the main problem with too many ingredients?

Many ingredients may be harmful to our bodies since our organism is not capabale of adapting to “the new rules” that fast if ever.

  1. Why would you like ice cream better than coliflower?

I would chose the ice cream because it gives me a lot of energy, pleasant feeling to my palate and is probably marketed more than the vegetable. I associate ice cream with happiness, a break from the usual monotony. Since our body is designed to defend ifself from starvation I most likely would choose a food that would give me the most energy in the shortest possible time.

  1. Should taxation influence the quality of food we eat?

It depends. In my opinion only certain, mainly junk food should be taxed. This extra money could be spend for nutritional education at schools or work places. On the other hand, food taxation on vegetables and fruits would only discourage more people to buy them in order to save. In such an event , a diet lacking vegetables and fruits would be very poorly  influencing our bodies.