The dietary guidelines are mainly meant to try to answer a simple question i.e. What should I do to live a healthy life? From the time the dietary guidelines were introduced to the general population across the global, the main focus of the nutritionists was not only onto the adequate nutrition but the effect of the right nutrition towards controlling certain chronic diseases. Currently, the main focus that the diet is mainly directed to the killer epidemic diseases, such as the obesity, diabetes and even cancer. These diseases have claimed many lives across the globe. As a result, many people having in one way or the other found to be consuming foods that are in contrary to the guidelines. Therefore, this paper is going to focus on the diet guidelines one is required to follow to stay healthy as well as describe certain disease conditions that result due to poor nutrition. Food is broadly defined as any substance that when taken in through the gut tends to provide the digestion materials in the tract thus giving nourishment to the body organs and eventually ensures the cells functionality. (Bennion et al., 2009)
The present recommended dietary guidelines for the general public is that one should aim for a healthy weight as determined by the body mass index, and also, one should let the food pyramid decide on what your food choices are. Also, one should try as much as possible to choose from the following category of foods on a daily basis:-
Grains varieties especially the whole grains
Fruits and vegetable varieties, this is done on a daily basis
Choose the diet that contains low saturated fats as well as cholesterol
The current guidelines of diet also recommend that one needs forty various essential nutrients for your health to be good. But in the real sense, there is no single meal that is capable of providing all these nutrients that are essential that one needs to stay healthy. It is, therefore, good for one to eat very many varieties of the foods from the recognized major food groups' i.e.
The vegetables and legumes or beans
The fruit
The grains (mostly the whole grains rich in high fibre), the lean meats as well as poultry, fish, the eggs tofu, the nuts, the seeds together with legumes.
The cheese, milk, yoghurt and other alternatives that have reduced fat content.
All these together give the proportion that your daily food pyramid should look like as illustrated below. (Lichtenstein et al., 2006)
The nutritional assessment usually uses certain tools or forms which include; screening forms, dietary intake forms and the nutrition profile forms. The main objective of these assessment tools is to gather information/data to access the nutritional status of a particular patient. The tools are used in a series so that it strengthens the validity of the kind of information that is to be collected thus eventually aids in the implementation of the nutrition intervention. (Martindale et al., 2009)
The screening forms involve discovering the characteristics and the risks factors that are known to be associated with the dietary nutritional problems. It identifies those are at risk i.e. those with complex and mainly involves the problem that tends to touch upon nutrition. The screening forms may be categorized as simple or complex based on the use it is intended to and the data may be collected by either a single practitioner or sometimes by a group of healthcare providers in a hospital or Medical Centre while the dietary intake forms are those tools that are used to collect the information concerning an individual food intake. These tools include; the 24-hour recall forms, the food frequency checklist, the records of food and the dietary history questionnaires. On the other hand, the nutrition profile forms are considered to be a broad needs assessment tool that may be used to collect or even organize the information concerning the population that is served and also the available resources. Its main purpose is to help in identification of the nutrition-related problems of a certain population. It can provide service as a basis for the planning of nutrition intervention programs. As the diagnostic tool, the nutrition profile forms tend to provide descriptive information that is based on the systematic method. This information can be used to help meet the nutrition or even health related requirements. It may also be used to expand the resources in a demographic area. (Martindale et al., 2009)
Medical nutrition therapy is the use of specific nutrition interventions to help treat an illness, injury or even the conditions. The following three conditions can be treated by implanting certain responses as described below:-
For the diabetes condition, the interventions are that to ensure more frequent intake of meals throughout the day thus reducing blood sugar level fluctuations. One should utilize lower glycemic index meals, a diet with adequate fibre is recommended. They include monounsaturated oils (olive and canola) in your diet to assist the blood lipid levels, limiting the alcohol intake to maybe once in a day with the meal, a low-calorie meal is used to help in weight loss if needed and the blueberries can be taken thus preventing the diabetic retinopathy.
For the heartburn conditions, one should try to eliminate reflux into the oesophagus as well as maintaining a desirable weight. Avoid large meals that tend to increase gastric pressure and also neutralize the gastric pressure. It is recommended that should take high protein meal to help stimulate the secretion of gastrin.
For the asthmatic condition, the recommendations are balanced and nutrient dense diet, food rich in vitamin A, B-6, zinc and Vitamin C. One should check to know the allergic triggers of asthma. Common allergic meals like wine, eggs and milk should be avoided. One should take more Fluidity food to provide adequate hydration. (Martindale et al., 2009)
It can be deduced that the most of the conditions or the disease are preventable with proper diet guidelines. Therefore, dietary can help one achieve certain health goals that will make one have a lifestyle that is healthy. It is important to the general public to try to recognize the useful of the nutrition in the prevention of certain chronic diseases. Even though much research has been done on our health and our wellbeing concerning the type of food we eat, there are still many calls for more research to be done so that nutritional disease conditions can get total control and prevention. It is also clear that the combinations of foods and the nutrients, as well as their quantities or amount, is taken by an individual, tends to produce synergistic as well as cumulative effects on our health and the type of disease that might affect us.
References
Bennion, M., & Scheule, B. M. (2009). Introductory foods.
Lichtenstein, A. H., Appel, L. J., Brands, M., Carnethon, M., Daniels, S., Franch, H. A., & Karanja, N. (2006). Diet and lifestyle recommendations revision 2006 A scientific statement from the American Heart Association nutrition committee. Circulation, 114(1), 82-96.
Martindale, R. G., McClave, S. A., Vanek, V. W., McCarthy, M., Roberts, P., Taylor, B., & The Critical Care Medicine of the American Nursing Association. (2009). Guidelines to adequate provision and the assessment of nutrition: Executive Summary*. Critical care medicine, 37(5), 1757-1761.
