Week 3: Eating & Exercise Flashcards
Explain how our diet can have an indirect and direct link with illness
Fat intake is directly linked to various forms of heart disease by range of psychological mechanisms
Fat intake is indirectly related to disease by virtue of its affects on weight control and obesity
How many deaths does the world health organisation say is caused by a low intake of fruit and vegetables
Over 3 million deaths a year worldwide by increasing the risk of contracting certain forms of cancer or cardiovascular disease
How are eating disorders associated with illness onset
They are associated with physical problems such as heart irregularities heart attacks stunted growth osteoporosis and reproductive problems
What illnesses is obesity associated with
Diabetes, heart disease and some forms of cancer
How does diet play a role in treating illnesses once the person is diagnosed
Obese people are mainly managed through diet based interventions
Patients diagnosed with angina, heart disease or following a heart attack also also recommended to change your lifestyle with particular emphasis on stopping smoking, increasing their physical activity and adopting a healthy diet
Diet changes are central to the management of both type one and type to diabetes often in a sense of weight loss
When someone has diabetes how much weight loss has been shown to result in improved glucose metabolism
Just a 10% decrease in weight has been shown to do this
In developing countries why is under eating in children significantly important
It results in physical and cognitive problems as well as a poor resistance to illness
What is wrong with the typical child diet in the western world
It does not match the recommendations for a healthy diet and children have been shown to eat too much fat and not enough fruit or vegetables
Do Australians meet the minimum recommended service for the five major food groups
No they do not
Less than 4% consume enough vegetables and legumes or beans each day
How many people in Australia meet the guidelines for dairy products
Only one in 10 meet the guidelines
How many Australians consume the minimum number of serves of lean meats and alternatives per day
One in seven people
In 1/3 of the population where does the total daily energy intake come from
It comes from energy dense but nutrient poor discretionary foods such as sweetened drinks alcohol cakes confectionery and pastries
What percentage of Australians are overweight or obese
63.4% of Australian adults
Two in every three people are overweight
How many Australians experience hypertension
2.6 million people or 11. 3%
What is a 3 key models of eating behaviour
Cognition models, developmental model, the weight concern model
Explain some of the research for the cognitive model of eating behaviour?
Has explored the role of specific cognitions in predicting intentions to consume specific foods.
They suggest that behavioural intentions are not particularly good predictors of behaviour but they highlight the importance of past behaviour and habit in predicting eating behaviour
has also pointed out the role of perceived behavioural control in predicting behaviour particularly in relation to healthy eating
What is the role of distraction in cognitive models of eating?
When we are distracted we are disconnecting our brains from the internal signals that mediate satiety
For example watching television increases food intake it may disrupt the link between food intake and the reductions in the desire to eat
What is the role of memory in cognitive models of eating?
Reminding participants of recent meals makes the memories of these meals more vivid which intern suppresses subsequent food intake
What is mindless eating?
Refers to how environmental or otherwise unconscious cues influence what and how much we eat
Explain the developmental model of eating behaviour
Highlights the importance of learning experience experience and focuses on the development of food preferences in childhood
What three factors influence or can explain the development of food preferences
Exposure, social learning, associative learning
Explain how exposure contributes to the development of food preferences
Humans normally show fear and avoidance of novel food - neophobia
Children typically show these responses to food but must come to accept and eat foods that may originally appear as threatening research has shown that exposure to novel foods can change preferences this is an adaptive mechanism
What has research found regarding food preference modification through reward and exposure?
There were two groups of children
One group was repeatedly exposed to new foods
The other group were told that they could choose a sticker if they ate one piece of the food
What they found was that exposure was more effective than reward
How does social learning relate to food preference development
Social learning describes the impact of observing other people‘s behaviour
For example parental behaviour and attitudes are central to the process with research highlighting a positive association between parents and children’s diets eg. children are more likely to eat a proper breakfast if their parents do
Media advertising promotes unhealthy foods and this can have a great impact on children. Studies have shown that obese children recognise more of the junk food adverts the children who are not
How does associative learning relate to food preference development
Behaviour can be influenced by its consequences consciously or unconsciously
Associative learning refers to the impact of contingent factors on behaviour. Eg. food can be paired with specific places, times of day, people etc these positive associations between stimuli and eating can change what and when people eat
Negative associations are also possible. Eg. Conditioned taste aversion is a form of associative learning in this case the animal learns to associate the novel taste of a new food with subsequent illness
How can food be used as a reward
Gaining access to food is contingent upon another behaviour as in if you’re well-behaved you can have a biscuit or a piece of fruit
Research shows that food acceptance increases if the foods are presented as a reward
Healthy food charts can be helpful for parents to encourage picky eaters this gives children visual proof that parents are pleased with them and an incentive to work towards
What is the weight concern model of eating behaviour
Food can change the bodies weight and shape this is associated with self perceptions of attractiveness, control and success. We want to look good, be in shape and what we eat influences this.
Many people show weight concern in the form of body dissatisfaction which often results in dieting this changes eating behaviour
What happens if subjects are shown a whole body silhouette of varying sizes and asked to indicate which one is closest to how they look and how they want to look
There is a discrepancy between perceptions of reality and the ideal it has been consistently shown that most girls and women would like to be thinner than they are and most males would like to be either the same or larger
Explain the role media has to play in body dissatisfaction
There are representations of thin women in the media or misrepresentations magazines, newspapers, television, films and even novels predominantly use images of thin women and so we are led to believe that this is the norm which is very dangerous
Explain the findings of the study looking at the influence of media and dieting
Research shows there is an association between the frequency of reading popular magazines and the importance placed on the images used in such magazines, and factors such as body dissatisfaction, drive for fitness and pathological eating this is particularly true in adolescent girls
This social pressure influences eating behaviour the most common consequence being dieting
What does sedentary lifestyle put you at an increased risk of
Cardiovascular and coronary heart disease, type to diabetes, osteoporosis and obesity and some forms of cancer
What is exercise
Exercise is used to refer to planned or structured discrete episodes of activity
What is physical activity
It describes all levels of non-sedentary behaviour that results in energy expenditure
What are the physical benefits of exercise on longevity
Increases longevity: can increase lifespan (roughly 2 years) regardless of weight class
Much of the mortality benefit (31%reduction) is obtained by doing the bare minimum to meet the minimum recommended levels of physical activity
What are the beneficial effects of exercise on physiology?
Enhances the function of circulatory and respiratory systems as well as skeletal/muscle function
Also seems to prevent many physical illness (chronic as well)
Effects of exercise on the body’s defence systems
Immune responses can undergo acute and chronic changes during intense exercise.
Infection risk across sedentary, moderate exercise and overtraining can be described as a j-shaped curve. Moderate exercise improves the immune response but it appears that people are more prone to bacterial and viral infections following intense training
What is exercise used to treat?
Used to manage obesity
Treat other health problems such as back pain, injury, constipation, headaches and diabetes.
Chronic fatigue syndrome
How does exercise influence self perceptions of health status?
Research showed that participants who engaged in physical activity rated their health status higher than those who didn’t suggesting that exercise influences self-perceptions of health status
Explain the effects of exercise on brain plasticity
The brain can change, adapt and modify itself. It is almost like a muscle
Neuroplasticity: changes in response to environment
What are the two kinds of brain plasticity
Functional plasticity: the brains ability to move functions from a damaged area of the brain to other in damaged areas
Structural plasticity: the brains ability to actually change its physical structure as a result of experience and learning
What is the name of the proteins that play a role in neuroplasticity? And what do they mainly do?
Neurotrophic factors
They stimulate the growth of specific tissues & regulate various cellular processes
How are neurotrophic factors and exercise related?
Exercise increases the production of neurotrophic factors such as (BDNF: brain derived neurotrophic factors) that mediate improvements in cognitive function and memory by promoting blood vessel formation in the brain, neurogenesis and neuroplasticity
How does regular exercise affect gray matter volume?
Neuroimaging studies indicate that regular exercise increases gray matter volume in all regions of the brain. Including:
- Prefrontal cortex: executive function
- Nucleus accumbens: incentives & positive reinforcement and learning
- Hippocampus: memory
- Cerebellum: motor learning and coordination
Explain the improvements in psychological well being from exercise
May improve depression, negative mood, responses to stress, ADHD, addiction
How does exercise improve psychological well-being
May induce release of natural opiates, producing a natural high acting as a pain killer and reducing the stress hormone cortisol
Stimulates the release of catecholamines such as noradrenaline and adrenaline which counter any stress and enhance mood
Muscle relaxation which can reduce feelings of tension
Explain cortisol
The stress hormone, cortisol, bonds to glucocorticoid receptors
Psychological stress induces the release of cortisol from the adrenal gland by activating the HPA axis
Takes part in flight or fight response
What does prolonged exposure to cortisol cause
Cognitive function impairments and can have neurotoxic effects in brain.
Explain the relationship between cortisol and exercise?
Exercise is a physical stressor that stimulates cortisol secretion in an intensity dependent manner. This does not result in long-term increases in cortisol production since this exercise induced effect on cortisol is a response to transient energy imbalances and is quickly bought back to normal levels
Exercise reduces the HPA axis reactivity and therefore reduces the biological response to psychological stress in humans
Exercise and ADHD?
Kids who took part in a regular physical activity program showed significant enhancement In inhibitory control and allocation of attentional resources
Exercise and addiction?
Studies showing the effects of aerobic exercise on cocaine self administration in male and female rats found that sedentary rodents self administered cocaine and this decreased following exercise
Exercise may help to manage craving
Explain decisional balance?
An assessment of the pros and cons of the exercise behaviour.
Helps to move across the SOC stages. Precontemplators provided more con reasons while the maintainers provided more pro reasons
It was concluded that one reason why people do not exercise is that they cannot think of good reasons to do so
