Food and nutrition.pdf

Diet and Health 11drastically reduce carbohydrate intake, or advocate excessive fruitconsumption, and those that claim that a person cannot digest proteinand carbohydrates at the same time. This is not true, as can be seen in theChapter - The Digestive System, g.ifferent parts of the digestive tract dealwith different nutrients and will absorb those nutrients, besides most foodsusually contain both protein and carbohydrates (eg. legumes which areoften 50% protein and 50% carbohydrate).Fad diets seldom produce long-lasting weight control. Highlyrestricted diets, such as the more extreme forms of Zen macrobiotics, haveled to nutritional deficiencies, starvation, and even death in a fewindividuals. Such diets have also been associated with retarded fetaldevelopment and childhood growth or other nutritional problems inyoung children.Commercial interests have capitalized on a heightened publicawareness of nutrition and health issues, but much of the public cannotevaluate the validity of available weight reduction schemes, supplements,and services. Self-appointed health and nutrition advisors have expresseddistrust of proven public health measures such as fluoridation andpasteurization and, instead, have promoted treatment alternatives thatare not supported by accepted medical practice. The public also may bemisled by extravagant claims of health benefits from the use of certainfoods or nutrient supplements.Economic Consequences of FraudPeople experience economic injury when purported remedies andcures do not work, are untrue, or are greatly exaggerated or whenpurchased products are not needed. Fraudulent products are known tobe extremely profitable to those who sell them. Quackery has become bigbusiness and costs the deluded consumers in excess of $10 billion a year!Most fraudulent products and services can be very costly yet arepromoted as having nutritional or health benefits that have not beensubstantiated in scientific literature.A vast array of substances are available for a variety of differentpurposes. some of them may even appear to work owing to the power ofthe placebo effect - if you expect product X will make you feel better, thenit probably will. But these supplements must not be dismissed as placebosin the sense of being inert pieces of chalk. These substances are what theysay they are, and many of them have powerful pharmacological effects(though not necessarily those claimed for them). The dangers ofhypervitaminosis is an obvious example. The effects of excess quantitiesof isolated amino acid supplements, minerals such as selenium andsubstances such as ginseng have never been fully explored and may be