Knowledge in Nutrition

Unit 9 Project: Knowledge in Nutrition
Sherri Marquez
Kaplan University

CM220-07
Professor Cardamon
February 14, 2012

Knowledge in Nutrition
Nutrition affects every aspect of life whether the people want to see it or not. Proper nutrition is a lot like keeping up the maintenance on a car; if the traveler doesn’t prepare the car before the trip and doesn’t maintain the car during the trip then the car will fail and he will never reach his destination. Just like with owning a first car there are things needed to know before the new owner can drive off the lot, such as maintaining the car. Maintenance is key to keeping a car running at an optimal efficiency, as with knowing how to nourish the body so it doesn’t break down and fail (Ingram Jr., 2009). Before being sent out on the journey through life, the individual needs to know how to take care of and nourish the body so it will last throughout the entire journey and carry him to the finish line. A mandatory two-year nutrition and cooking class for high school students would help to prepare them for the journey through life that they will soon embark on. This class would cover proper nutrition, menu planning and then spend a year in the cafeteria learning how to prepare these nutritious foods. A high school nutrition class is a perfect time to set the foundation on which the next generations can sustain a healthy life and take the journey of a lifetime.

Overweight adults and children are prevalent in this country; America needs to stop the domino effect that is causing generation after generation to become overweight and obese. As of 2009, 63.1% of adults are overweight (Hendrick, 2010). This is an alarming percent of Americans, with obesity also comes the healthy risked associated with obesity and being overweight. Being overweight can increase the risk for chronic health conditions such as, cancer, heart disease, high blood pressure and diabetes (Rose, 2011). Having any one of these conditions will not only inhibit the ability to perform at your best in life but it could be fatal. How can the population expect to live life to the full potential if you don’t take care of the body and prevent these horrible conditions from happening? This isn’t just a problem among adults; children are becoming more overweight as well. What? You’re surprised? Why shouldn’t children become overweight? According to The Obesity Epidemic by Kathleen Vail, obese and overweight kids are more likely to become overweight adults. They are more likely to develop asthma, high blood pressure, and joint and orthopedic problems. (Vail, 2004) If parents are overweight because of poor eating habits then of course the children will become overweight. Children eat what their parents eat, they will become adults who will lean towards eating what they ate as a child and therefor they will be feeding their children the same foods. This is causing a domino effect, which is one of the reasons the rate of overweight Americans is climbing. As far as the children, 1 in 3 children are considered overweight or obese. (Gavin, 2009) To fix this domino effect and get America back on the healthy track we need to educate the next generation on proper nutrition. This is where the high school nutrition and cooking class would come into play. Not only will the nutrition and cooking class give the next generation nutrition education and skills they need, but it will help lower the obesity rate by teaching them how to nourish their body the right way.

Speaking of overweight children, this leads to the next topic and why a nutrition class may improve academic standing. It has been shown that poor nutrition has been linked to poor academic performance. In a study done by the American Society for Nutrition it was found that children who had a higher intake of polyunsaturated fatty acids found in fish and vegetable oils had better academic performance than children who had a high cholesterol intake (Lloyd, N. D.). It is also found that children who eat more fast food test lower on standardized tests. If poor nutrition affects the ability for a child to learn then it must affect an adult’s brain as well. Learning doesn’t just stop at high school, many students go on to college, and college is much harder than high school so students need to be performing at their optimal level. Students are more likely to catch a cold virus the school is full of malnourished students, the students will then have a high rate of absences, which will result in getting behind academically. This leads to the next topic, the cost of poor nutrition. It costs schools a lot of money when a student is absent, and it costs money to deal with students who are in poor health.

A school looses money when they have absent students, according to Action for Healthy Kids "Even an average school with a highly probably absence rate based on poor nutrition and physical inactivity would lose from $95,000 to $160,000 per year in state aid.” (Action for Healthy Kids, 2004). This is just one of the expenses of children who have poor nutrition. As stated above poor nutrition will lead to being overweight and being over weight will lead to chronic health conditions. It costs schools money to hire staff to deal with children with health problems, which will require extra staff to administer medications, and it will take extra staff to come in and tutor students who are doing poorly in their academics. All of these things cause the school to spend more money when that money could be used more wisely if we just got a handle on nutrition. Part of this big idea is to have the students plan a menu in the first year of the two-year nutrition and cooking class. Not only will the students be in charge of running the cafeteria in the second year of this class but also they will use the menu they planned to prepare the daily lunches. The student’s will be cooking the school lunches and learning how to prepare healthy nutritious foods, if the students do this it would give them hands on experience but also it will save the school money because they will not be spending the money to staff an entire kitchen because the students will be in charge of the kitchen. The average salary of a lunch lady is $23,000 (Simlpy Hired, N. D.). If it takes five people to staff a school cafeteria, this would mean it costs one school $115,000 a year to staff a cafeteria. Imagine where that money could go if the students take advantage of the opportunity to learn how to prepare and cook foods and run the cafeteria. Not only would this save a school and an entire school district thousands of dollars but also these students would be gaining skills they will use for the rest of their lives, which leads to the next reason this nutrition and cooking class is an excellent idea.

Planning a menu and learning how to prepare foods is a skill everyone needs. It’s one thing to know what the family should be eating, but it’s a whole different story when its time to take that knowledge and actually use it to prepare meals. If the food doesn’t taste good, the family will not want to eat it. Learning how to put healthy foods together that compliment each other so the meal tastes good is half the battle of eating healthy. Menu planning is also very important, and it goes hand in hand with nutrition. In this day in age families are busy, in most homes both parents are working and if there is no knowledge of how to plan a weekly or monthly menu then it will be too easy to just swing through the drive thru and pick up some junk food because it will be easier than trying to figure out what to cook. Also, it is easier to budget meals when there is a menu to follow, it’s more important than ever to be able to save money and budget to get the most out of the dollar. It’s essential to know how to cook for health and how to plan a menu; these are life skills that are just as important as the math, reading and sciences that are also taught in school. This nutrition class would cover all the areas that is so important to keeping the body healthy and free of disease, knowledge of how the body processes food, menu planning and budgeting for healthy foods, learning to cook delicious healthy foods that the whole family will enjoy and be eager to dive into. A nutrition class will give students the knowledge they need to take the journey through life and reach their destination without their body failing them. Superior health brings vitality and with vitality comes unimaginable success in every aspect of life.

Revision of Unit 5 Letter to the Editor

Dear Editor,

School is supposed to prepare us to have a successful life as an adult, what does success really mean? Does it mean to make bundles of money and climb the corporate ladder? Is success finding the love of your life and building the foundation for a happy family? Or is success having peace within yourself and to be the best you can be? Whatever success means to you I think most of us can agree that success starts within ourselves. If the schools really want to prepare the next generation, they need to become more rounded in the classes offered. I agree that academics are very important, but I also think that learning how to be healthy and nourish your body is very important as well. It doesn’t matter how much you plan to accomplish in life, if the body is unable to take you there then it will never get there. It’s like planning a five thousand mile trip in a car; if the traveller neglects the car eventually it will break down and he will not reach the destination. I feel it’s very important to teach the next generation how to properly take care of their body; they need more than just a semester or two of health class. I have an idea to offer students a class that will teach them everything they need to know about nutrition and food preparation. Students need a year or more of schooling to learn about how their bodies process foods, how to nourish their body and how to prepare these foods and how to prepare these foods so they learn to make them tasty for their family. With the rate of obesity climbing it is clear that Americans simply do not know what they should be eating, how much they should be eating and how to prepare nutritious wholesome foods. This is one area where schools are failing our children and not providing them with a well rounded education.

Sincerely,
Sherri Marquez

Multimodal Project (Unit 7)
For the multimodal project I chose to do a power point presentation that uses research I gathered to persuade my audience that students would greatly benefit from an in-depth nutrition class. My presentation starts out by comparing the journey of life to the journey one would take in a car. Then I proceed to explain what the class would entail. Then I use my research to persuade the audience why this nutrition class would be great. I state the current obesity rate, how nutrition affects our academics and how proper nutrition can save the school money. These are all points that I feel are very persuasive.

Reflection Throughout this course I have learned that I really enjoy writing, I enjoy the creative aspect of it and taking an idea and presenting it in so many different ways as we did throughout this class. I thought it was very helpful to learn different way to present an idea to an audience. I’ve also learned that I think in first and second person, and I tend to also write in first and second person also. The process of writing is so important to follow and all the steps are there for a reason. I’ve learned it takes time to develop an effect persuasive piece and it won’t happen over night. The first step is important because you are brainstorming all your ideas and putting on paper what you know and you don’t know about the topic. This is when you might realize you need to change the topic and you will get an idea of how much research you will need to do. Prewriting is essential to form the general idea and how you will present it. Drafting, revising and proofreading are also really important because you are taking your project and perfecting it, it’s like baking a cake and then adding all the icing and decorations to make it beautiful and irresistible not to delve into. The skills I’ve developed in this class are learning how to identify first, second and third person writing. This will help me to writing more professional pieces in my career field. I’ve also learned how to do research and properly cite and reference my work so I can give credit to those who had the original idea. I’ve learned how important this is and I am glad I know how to do this. I’ve also learned that it takes time to write, the process should be well thought out and shouldn’t be done in one night. This is the best paper I’ve ever wrote and it took 9 weeks to prepare, so I know if I want to compose anything this good in the future I will need to really take the time and work as hard as I did with this project. I really enjoyed the discussions we had; it was nice getting feedback from classmates. I realized I have come across an idea that many people agree on and some who didn’t agree that my idea was the fix all, which was fine. I feel like when we were first presenting our big ideas to the class I didn’t even need any research to persuade and a lot of my classmates were jumping on my band wagon which told me I was onto something good. The feedback I got from the classmates and my professor was awesome. I liked all the discussion boards because it is interesting to get ideas from my classmates. I like having other people read my work because everyone has their own way of wording things and sometimes they can give me a better way of forming a sentence. With my power point presentation everyone including my professor thought I had too much information on my slides, which I took into account and agreed on after I went back and read through it. With my letter to the editor one of my classmates noticed I didn’t mention the part about having the students cook in the cafeteria, I am glad this person pointed this out because I hadn’t noticed and I made a change there too. Also my professor pointed out that my paper was not in third person, I fixed this and now when I read it I think it sounds a lot more persuasive and formal. Getting feedback is great and I really enjoy it, I don’t get offended and I take what my classmates and professor had to say seriously and really considered everything.

References

Action for Healthy Kids. (2004, November 4). AFHK Reports Show Link Between
Nutrition & Academic Achievement. Retrieved February 10, 2012, from School Nutrition Association: http://www.schoolnutrition.org/content.aspx?id=6592

Gavin, M. L. (2009, February). Overweight and Obesity. Retrieved February 4, 2012,
From Kids Health: http://kidshealth.org/parent/general/body/overweight_obesity.html#

Hendrick, B. (2009, February 10). Americans Are Eating Poorly, Exercising Less, and
Getting Bigger, Survey Finds. Retrieved February 13, 2012, from Web MD: http://www.webmd.com/diet/news/20100210/percentage-of-overweight-obese-americans-swells

Ingram Jr., Glenn. (2009). A Little Maintenance Goes a Long Way. Retrieved February
25, 2012, from Kaplan Library: http://web.ebscohost.com.lib.kaplan.edu/ehost/detail?sid=d613e734-fc38-45a1-84c3-f450f4ca8254%40sessionmgr4&vid=1&hid=123&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=hxh&AN=44224870

Lloyd, C. (N.D.). Food for thought. Retrieved February 10, 2012, from Great Schools
Involved Parents, Sucessful Kids: http://www.greatschools.org/parenting/health-nutrition/2066-how-food-affects-kids-brains.gs

Rose, C. (2011, September 11). Obesity in America. Retrieved February 7, 2012, from
Down to Earth: http://www.downtoearth.org/health/nutrition/obesity-america

Simply Hired. (N. D.). Average School Lunch Lady Salaries. Retrieved February 11,
2012, from Simply Hired: http://www.simplyhired.com/a/salary/search/q-school+lunch+lady

Vail, K. (2004). The Obesity Epidemic. Retrieved February 13, 2012, from Kaplan
Library: http://web.ebscohost.com.lib.kaplan.edu/ehost/detail?sid=ccc5e5c7-d285-40fd-ab07-fac0553c43dd%40sessionmgr4&vid=1&hid=8&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=tfh&AN=12445844

References: Action for Healthy Kids. (2004, November 4). AFHK Reports Show Link Between Nutrition & Academic Achievement Gavin, M. L. (2009, February). Overweight and Obesity. Retrieved February 4, 2012, From Kids Health: http://kidshealth.org/parent/general/body/overweight_obesity.html# Hendrick, B. (2009, February 10). Americans Are Eating Poorly, Exercising Less, and Getting Bigger, Survey Finds Lloyd, C. (N.D.). Food for thought. Retrieved February 10, 2012, from Great Schools Involved Parents, Sucessful Kids: http://www.greatschools.org/parenting/health-nutrition/2066-how-food-affects-kids-brains.gs Rose, C. (2011, September 11). Obesity in America. Retrieved February 7, 2012, from Down to Earth: http://www.downtoearth.org/health/nutrition/obesity-america Simply Hired. (N. D.). Average School Lunch Lady Salaries. Retrieved February 11, 2012, from Simply Hired: http://www.simplyhired.com/a/salary/search/q-school+lunch+lady