Diet PAC Intro

Hi there! If you’re reading this, you may have stumbled upon our Public Awareness Campaign regarding the issue of dieting. Our goal in establishing this PAC was to help spread the word about certain foods we consume that may be extremely toxic to our health and other foods that we may take for granted in our lives. While our PAC is mainly about covering these foods, the content on this website covers a wide variety of information pertaining to diets that extends beyond just how to distinguish between healthy and unhealthy foods. We hope you enjoy your stay here! 🙂

-William M, Kaljang S, Brianna P, Josue N.

Diet Plan Calendar

This is a calendar created for people to follow for one week which includes the caloric intake for each meal breakfast lunch and dinner including snacks that can be eaten throughout the day. For this I believe that it can be followed in many ways and can be used very flexibly. For example, you can choose a breakfast from Monday and lunch for Tuesday and dinner from Friday, making sure to keep count of the caloric intake. This will allow people to partly customize their own meal, allowing them to eat in the order they want while still maintaining a certain range of calories for the entire day. Using this format will allow me to continue adding more meal plans that people can mix and match in order to get a certain range for their calorie intake. I also included many nutritious foods as well as nuts and fruits to introduce healthier options to viewers.

Helping You Process Processed Foods

When it comes to foods people eat on an everyday basis, chances are the average consumer will have a good amount of processed food in their possession. While processing food does not necessarily make it unhealthy, there are methods of processing that certain foods undergo which actually do make them unhealthier to consume. This blog post covers a few processed foods found to be unhealthy, explains the features of the process that makes them unhealthy, and how you can avoid these foods and incorporate other foods into your diet.

When referring to processed foods, we usually like to think about prepackaged meat products due to their prevalence in places that sell food products. While this is true, “processed foods” is actually an umbrella term that applies to any food that has undergone some form of processing before being put on shelves. The NHS of the United Kingdom lists some forms of processing, including freezing, canning, baking, and drying. Processing foods can serve different purposes, such as to make foods taste better, change their texture or color, or to improve shelf life so they are sold for longer periods of time. Amy Smith of Medical News Today talks about the difference between mechanical processing (grinding, heating, pasteurizing) and chemical processing (added chemical flavoring agents, colors, sweeteners), noting that mechanical processing does not necessarily make foods unhealthier.

Not all forms of processing are intrinsically harmful to our health. Pasteurization is an example of this, as it extends the shelf life of certain foods and even eliminates pathogens. However, there are certainly processed foods to look out for that present more harm to our bodies than benefit. The additives used in chemical processing, mentioned earlier by Smith, are often times extremely refined or artificial and add little to no nutritional value. She calls foods that are chemically processed “ultra-processed foods,” and notes that they tend to be inexpensive and taste good most of the time. Such foods can include frozen meals, chips and other snacks, packaged bread, cereals, sodas, and other foods that can be prepared relatively fast. These foods usually contain high amounts of unhealthy additives such as saturated fat, added sugars, and high salt content while having very little nutritional value. Said additives, consumed in excess, can cause a variety of long-term health problems, including high cholesterol, diabetes, or high blood pressure to name a few. Smith also referenced a study done by scientists at the BMJ on over 100,000 adults, which found that eating 10% more ultra-processed foods was associated with a 10% increase in the risk of acquiring certain heart diseases due to the high fat and cholesterol content of said foods. Some ingredients to look out for in processed foods include high fructose corn syrup, dextrose, high carbohydrate count, high calorie count, high saturated fat, any level of trans fats, and low counts of nutrients or fiber. While processed foods are okay to consume once in a while, it is important for the individual to look for foods with high nutritional value (vitamins, protein, fiber, iron, calcium, etc.) to counter said foods to ensure they are getting the nutrients they need in a meal.

To reiterate, while not all processed foods are innately harmful to our health, there are certain forms of processing that provide no nutritional value, and can even add ingredients that pose a detriment to our health on top of the low nutritional value of the foods being processed. It’s always essential to be careful with what you eat, as many of us tend not to pay attention to the value of what we’re consuming. Looking past the high availability of processed foods can help open our eyes to healthier products that do much more good for our health than what we’re used to consuming.

https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/eat-well/what-are-processed-foods/

https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/318630#nutrients

https://www.bmj.com/content/365/bmj.l1451

Diet Lifestyle With a Smile

When people hear the phrase “Going on a diet” in most cases people set the bar too high for themselves which sets them up to fail causing there to be a negative connotation on diets. Many people believe that diets are just to gain and lose weight or to get into a certain shape but that should not be the case. A diet is a lifestyle that one follows and eats habitually so for that reason there’s a great emphasis on having a balanced diet.

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Food and Health

Over the years there have been greater connections between the food you eat and the person you are, having a healthy diet has many beneficial aspects that some people are unaware of such as providing more energy throughout the day, improving your health as well as boosting your mood. Your diet also has a direct correlation to your physique and like me more people want to get in shape. More important than exercise is your diet which has a tremendous effect on your weight and also directly correlated to many other health issues such as being prone to infections diseases as well as quickly getting exhausted after an activity. These issues alongside high blood pressure, high cholesterol, heart disease and stroke and more are faced by many people and your diet have a great impact on them.

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Portion Control

Many individuals forget that large quantities of processed foods are unhealthy and improper serving sizes of healthy foods are not beneficial either. The CDC reported that about 60% of American’s diets come from processed foods. Foods that contain preservatives, dyes, come inside of a can, have high sugar or sodium counts should be limited in an individual’s diet. For this reason anything important to understand what is considered a balanced diet, a balanced diet can be different for everyone but in general there are certain food groups that have to be included such as vegetables, fruits, grains, proteins as well as dairy products. It is important to understand that even when eating healthy foods you must eat in moderation. That is why it is called the balanced diet; you must find the right balance for yourself. Your body needs a certain amount of nutrients and calories to function properly so it is important to understand how much food from each food group you should eat for example a typical balanced diet contains up to 50 to 60% carbohydrate while only 12 to 20% protein and 30% fat. Understanding this it’s very important for creating your own balanced diet to improve your life.

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Starting Your Own Diet

When creating a diet you must understand that you have limitations so try to create a diet which you know you can follow and is nutritious. Diets can also be a meal plan that does not have to be strict but is beneficial to the consumer and can be very easy to follow for some people. You should try to create your own diet instead of trying to follow some popularized diet online like the California diet or the Beachbody diet which falls in the category of fat diet which has outlandish claims but in reality does more harm to your body and then helps. These are the diets that create the negative connotations and for this reason it is best to create your own personalized diet that you know you would follow and are comfortable with. Dieting does not have to have a negative reputation. We should look at dieting as a fun way to careful choose color meals for you and the family to create a balanced diet which is the cornerstone of a healthy and happy life.

Celebrity Diet Plan

Failure’s not an option. It’s just a step.” ~Dwayne Johnson, these are the words of an actor, retired professional wrestler, and formal football player, known best as “The Rock”. Dwayne Johnson or “The Rock” is known for having the Godlike figure of Zeus, because of his muscular physique. However in order to maintain his Godlike figure, he follows a rigorous lifestyle with a vast protein diet and a 14 hour workout.

Below is the meal plan that Dwayne Johnson follows:

Meal #1 (Breakfast)

10 oz. cod

2 whole eggs

2 cups of oatmeal

Meal #2 (Mid Morning)

8 oz. cod

12 oz. sweet potato

1 cup of vegetables (a mixture of broccoli, cauliflower, and carrots)

Meal #3 (Lunch)

8 oz. chicken

2 cups of white rice

1 cup vegetables

Meal #4 (Afternoon)

8 oz. cod

2 cups white rice

1 cup vegetables

1 tablespoon fish oil

Meal #5

8 oz. steak

12 oz. baked potato

Spinach salad

Meal #6

10 oz. cod

2 cups of white rice

Salad

Meal #7 (Supper)

10 egg white omelette

1 cup vegetables (onions, peppers, mushrooms)

1 tablespoon omega-3 fish oil

30 grams casein protein

“The Rock’s” diet can seem extreme for some people but an extreme fitness lifestyle calls for this kind of diet. This diet helps Dwayne keep a healthy body weight. Fourteen hours in the gym calls for a high calorie high protein diet like this one to maintain that body weight and muscle. Such diet helps Dwayne live up to his nickname “the Rock” and also keeps him energy for his busy day and immune system rock hard. Physical is one of the benefits of this diet; it also helps him with his sleep and mental health. Someone as big as “The Rock” needs a big diet.

This Lifestyle, as extreme as it sounds, is an ideal lifestyle for those who aspire to that Godlike body. Not only does this diet and lifestyle allow for a strong immune system and improves the digestive system, it also helps with maintaining and building strong bones and muscles. For those who do not wish to live the exact same lifestyle of the rock there are many aspects of the diet that many can follow. All in all, If you desire to improve your lifestyle and are feeling unmotivated, do like “The Rock” and let the hard times of the past motivate you today. 

https://therockgear.com/diet/

https://www.healthmug.com/blog/207/dwayne-the-rock-johnson-s-healthy-lifestyle-and-motivation

Diet the Right Way

Below are the results of questions from a survey we conducted with 86 responses. This survey is meant to serve as our outreach element, allowing us to conduct our own research outside of the sources we gathered for our other pieces. We will update this with our own interpretations of the data, but we also wanted to see if you could come up with some interpretations of your own…

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Diet the Right Way

Below are the results of questions from a survey we conducted with 86 responses. This survey is meant to serve as our outreach element, allowing us to conduct our own research outside of the sources we gathered for our other pieces. We will update this with our own interpretations of the data, but we also wanted to see if you could come up with some interpretations of your own…

Helping You Process Processed Foods

When it comes to foods people eat on an everyday basis, chances are the average consumer will have a good amount of processed food in their possession. The term “processed foods” refers to any food items that have been altered in some way during the production process. Most foods sold on a commercial level have undergone some form of processing, whether it be freezing, canning, or baking. While processing food does not necessarily make it unhealthy, there are methods of processing that certain foods undergo which actually do make them unhealthier to consume. This blog post covers a few processed foods found to be unhealthy, explains the features of the process that makes them unhealthy, and how you can avoid these foods and incorporate other foods into your diet.

Diet Planning Infographic

This infographic builds off some of the ideas already discussed in this PAC and culminates them into advice one can incorporate into their everyday lives. It’s important to not underscore the importance exercise has on maintaining a diet, but it’s also just as important to keep in mind everything that’s already been said about which foods to look for and which ones to avoid.

Preservatives Will Not Preserve Your Organs

This infographic is meant to establish a divide between healthy and unhealthy foods, with research to support each claim made here about different foods. It’s important to differentiate between foods so as to make sure one stays aware of what exactly they are consuming and how it might affect their health positively or negatively. As this PAC is about spreading awareness, there’s no better way to do so than through an infographic!