AS - Unit 2 - Food and health Flashcards
What is a balanced diet?
One that contains all the nutrients required for health in appropriate proprtions
What is obesity?
When a person is 20% or more heavier than the recommended weight for their height
Give 6 things that good nutrition will give you
Provide better health Ensure a stronger immune system You become ill less often Help you learn more effectively Make you stronger Make you more productive
What are proteins essential for?
Growth and repair of muscle and other body tissues
What is our main source of energy in our diet?
Carbohydrates
Why are fats important in our diet?
Important in:
Cell membranes
Waterproofing
Absorption of fat-soluble vitamins
Why are vitamins essential to our diets?
They play many important roles in the chemical processes taking place inside cells.
Why are minerals vital to our diets?
They are essential to the body’s normal function
Why is it important to be hydrated?
Water is used to transport many substances around the body
60% of the human body is water
Why is fibre and roughage important in our diets?
This is the indigestible part of our food, but it is essential for healthy functioning of the digestive system
How do you calculate BMI?
Mass in kg/ (height in m)2 (squared)
What is the average value of BMI for a healthy person?
18.5-25
Give 6 problems with the body which are caused by obesity
Cancer Cardiovascular disease Type 2 diabetes Gallstones Osteoarthritis High blood pressure (hypertension)
What can excess salt in your diet cause?
It will decrease the water potential of your blood
Bringing more water into the blood
The blood pressure increases
Putting the body into hypertension
What type of fats are beneficial to your diet and where can you find them?
Unsaturated fats are good for you, these are found in plants such as avocados
Olive oil is also a good source of unsaturated fat
What are lipoproteins?
A combination of lipid, cholesterol and protein used to transport fats and cholesterol around the body
Why is cholesterol in the blood?
Cholesterol is essential to the normal functioning of the body. It is found in cell membranes and in the skin
It is used to make steroid sex hormones and bile
Therefore cholesterol must be transported around the body.
Fats are not soluble in water so cholesterol has to find a way to be transported around the body
It is transported in the blood in the form of lipoproteins
These are tiny balls of fat combined with protein
What are the two forms of lipoproteins?
High-density lipoprotein (HDL)
Low-density lipoprotein (LDL)
What is high-density lipoprotein?
They are produced by the combination of unsaturated fats, cholesterol and protein.
They tend to carry cholestrol from the body tissues back to the liver
Liver cells have receptor sites that allow the HDLs to bind to their cell surface membranes
In liver, cholesterol is used in cell metabolism or broken down
Therefore, high levels of HDLs are associated with reducing blood cholesterol levels
What is low-density lipoprotein?
Produced by the combination of saturated fats, cholesterol and protein
These tend to carry cholesterol from the liver to the tissues
If too much saturated fat and cholesterol is consumed in the diet then the concentration of LDLs in the blood will rise
What does a high concentration of LDLs cause in the body?
Deposition in the artery walls
How do different fats affect the LDL receptors on tissue cells?
Saturated fats: Thought to decrease the activity of the LDL receptors. Therefore as blood LDL concentration rises, less is removed from the blood and they are deposited in the artery walls
Polyunsaturated fats: Increase the activity of the LDL receptors and so decrease the concentration of LDL in the blood
Monounsaturated fats: Seem to help remove LDLs from the blood
What increases the concentration of LDLs in the blood?
Eating a lot of saturated animal fats
What concentration of lipoproteins is it important to keep in the body?
Maintain a low proportion of LDLs in the blood
Maintain a high proportion of HDLs in the blood