During this module of instruction, you will identify and evaluate the changes in the American western diet over the last forty years. You will learn how these changes have resulted in specific nutrient deficiencies that have led to increases in neurodevelopmental disorders like ADHD and autism and metabolic diseases like Type-2 diabetes and heart disease.
Learning Objectives
Teens will
1. Describe how the world's per person (per capita) refined sugar and vegetable oil consumption has changed over the last 40 years and how this change may impact health.
2. Recognize the factors that might explain the increasing blood mercury levels in the human population.
3. Explain how reductions in the consumption of certain foods lead to negative child birth and health outcomes and increases in common western diseases (e.g. hypertension, heart disease, Type-2 diabetes, Alzheimer's).
4. Become familiar with recipes for preparing calcium rich meals.
5. Prepare and eat a calcium rich meal.
Activities
1. Read Chapter 5 of your Unsafe At Any Meal book by Dr. Dufault.
2. View the Smithsonian Institute vidoe on food and medicine at the following link:
3. Using Table 5.2 in Chapter 5 of your book that provides a listing of foods rich in calcium, find a recipe on the Internet that uses three of these calcium rich foods as ingredients (Hint: See pictures at the bottom of this page for ideas). The recipe should be one you are willing to try. Use the recipe to prepare and eat the meal with your family.
4. Answer the discussion questions below and talk about them with your friend or study group.
Discussion Questions
1. How has refined sugar consumption changed in the United States since 1970? What does this change mean in a population that already has a magnesium deficit?
2. What factors might explain the 29% decrease in the American per capita consumption of calcium rich foods (Hint: See Table 5.2 in your book.)? What does this decrease mean for pregnancy or birth outcomes (e.g. lead detoxification, hypomethylation, low birth weight babies)?
3. Share with your friend or study group the recipe you used to prepare a calcium rich meal. Was it tasty?
One Dish Meal Ideas - Rich in Calcium
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