Re: Midterm

I definitely was impressed and pleased by a lot of the preparation and effort I saw in students getting ready for today's midterm. I'll work to get it graded as quickly as possible. Good luck on tomorrow's exams and your exhibition presentations!

1/26/15 - Snowpocalypse Edition

Your HW tonight and tomorrow (and who knows how long) is to study - and complete/go through Assignment 33. If you have questions at any point, shoot me an email.

Topics We Discussed This Semester

Unit 1 - Determinants of Food Choice
- cost, availability, location, taste, convenience (among many others) - know examples of these factors/how they work

Unit 2 - Food and the Human Body
- digestion - know the organs and the enzymes, the path that food takes, chemical v. mechanical digestion
- macronutrients - proteins, lipids, carbohydrates, water - know definitions (ex. saturated fats or polysaccharides), examples, sources, functions
- calories - definition, how many are found in carbs, etc.
- reading and interpreting a nutrition label
- micronutrients - vitamins and minerals like iron, calcium, potassium, Vitamins A, C, D, E and folate - know the functions, deficiency symptoms, and sources associated with each

Unit 3 - Diet and Health
- chronic disease v. acute disease
- leading causes of death - CVD, cancer, diabetes, atherosclerosis, hypertension - relationship to obesity, connection to diet
- obesity - causes of obesity
- health claims v. structure-function claims

1/23/15

This weekend's homework is to... STUDY.  Review your notes, old quizzes, check-ins, and review sheets, this website :-), etc. and come ready with questions on Monday.

1/22/15

Tonight's homework is to review the notes that you took in class today. You will be writing about the effectiveness of herbal supplements and/or the trustworthiness of the claims they present. And while you're at it, why not start preparing for the midterm?

1/21/15

Tonight's homework is to finish your presentations/posters and be ready to present about your findings for about 10 or so minutes (NOTE: your presentation should only be 2 to 3 minutes, but you will be presenting it a few times). See previous posts for assistance and let me know if you have further questions.

Also, remember that the midterm exam is on 1/29. It helps to prepare sooner than later.

1/20/15

Tonight's homework is to continue your preparations for your presentation on Thursday. See below for reminders or if you missed class/misplaced any handouts. Here is a model (with multiple ways to show the same information/slide) that could be helpful.

Investigating and Evaluating Health Claims – Part 2 Task You will use your newly expanded understanding of claims found on food/supplement packaging in order to make and support a more general claim about the trustworthiness of health claims. In order to do this, you will first present your work to the rest of the class on Thursday – either through a Powerpoint/Prezi or a poster summarizing the findings of your research. Then on Friday, you will review what you learned from the rest of the class and write (and support) a claim answering questions like “How trustworthy are the claims on supplement labels?” or “How helpful are herbal supplements?”
 Procedure 1. Use your research and conclusions to create a 2-3 minute presentations outlining your conclusions about the effectiveness of herbal supplements and your supporting evidence.
 OR
 Use your research and conclusions to craft a poster/visual aid that outlines your conclusions about the effectiveness of herbal supplements and your supporting evidence.
 2. Prepare to speak coherently, intelligently, and eloquently about your conclusions and evidence on Thursday. Other students will be listening to your findings and using them as evidence to support their writing.

	Mastery – 4	Proficient – 3	Satisfactory – 2	Needs Revision – 1
Quality of presentation (Work Habits)	-Written/presented work is easy to read, yet sophisticated, and consistently free of errors while oral presentation is competent, professional, engaging and hooks the audience’s attention	Written/presented work is easy to read and consistently free of errors while oral presentation is competent, professional, and interesting	Written/presented work is unclear and/or contains several errors while oral presentation is lacking in content or unprofessional	Errors and/or the lack of clarity make comprehension difficult while oral presentation is unfocused and unprofessional
Claim	States clear, well-reasoned claim and counterclaim	States clear, well-reasoned claim	States a logical, but vague claim	States an illogical or indefensible position
Support of claim	Thoroughly supports claims with several detailed, convincing, specific reasons/pieces of evidence as well as refuted counterclaims	Thoroughly supports claims with multiple detailed, specific reasons/pieces of evidence as well as attempts at forming counterclaims/ refutations of them	Supports claims with multiple detailed, convincing specific reason/piece of evidence	Supports claims with reasons/ evidence that are not convincing due to lack of detail, specificity, or clarity OR not having enough pieces of evidence to support each claim
Demonstrates knowledge of class material	Very consistently demonstrates deep knowledge of related material by correctly using vocabulary and explaining examples clearly.	Consistently demonstrates knowledge of related material by correctly using vocabulary and explaining examples.	Demonstrates knowledge of related material by using vocabulary and explaining examples, but with some errors.	Does not demonstrate sufficient knowledge of class material through errors or lack of usage/ explanation.
Writing conventions	Writes elegantly and in a sophisticated manner while very consistently adhering to spelling and grammar conventions.	Very consistently adheres to spelling and grammar conventions.	Consistently adheres to spelling and grammar conventions.	Mostly adheres to spelling and grammar conventions.

1/16/15

This weekend's homework is to complete and write up your research and conclusions about the 3 supplements/claims you chose on Wednesday. See Wednesday's post for resources/assistance. Please bring either a paper copy of your work or make sure that you can access it online.

1/15/15

Tonight's homework is to study for tomorrow's quiz.

Assignment #32 - Diet and Health Quiz Review

Answer all of the following questions to the best of your ability.

1. What is hypertension? How can one’s diet affect its progression?

2. What is diabetes? How can one’s diet affect its progression?

3. What is atherosclerosis? How can one’s diet affect its progression?

4. How is atherosclerosis related to cholesterol?

5. What is cancer? How can one’s diet affect its progression?

6. How is cancer related to DNA?

7. Place the following diseases in order according to which causes the most deaths each year.

Cancer                        Diabetes         Heart disease

8. Why does your body’s cells require glucose?

9. What is the role of insulin in the body? How is it related to chronic disease?

10. What is the glycemic index of a food? How does it relate to chronic disease?

11. What are the differences between Type I and II diabetes?

12. How prevalent is obesity and/or being overweight?

13. Describe at least two factors that can impact someone’s risk of obesity later in life.

14. Why should we be concerned with the obesity epidemic?

1/14/15

Tonight's homework is to work on researching and drawing conclusions about a supplement's health claim. You should look up your supplement and its claim using Google Scholar (scholar.google.com), find relevant articles (ex. about trials in humans, not in vitro or in animals), and evaluate the evidence that they contain, in order to draw conclusions about the claims. Remember to continue preparing for Friday's quiz on chronic disease and diet.

You may need to define some vocabulary in order to make sense of the information in the journal articles. For example, controlled study, blind study, double-blind study, randomized, matched cohort, and placebo are among some of the terms you may come across.

Your product (as of now), will include the following:

Supplement health claim: A diet containing regular doses of Whelton Extract will promote brain growth and improved memory.

Conclusion: There is little to no evidence that Whelton Extract has benefits on memory or contributes to growth of cognitive ability.

Evidence: Costa et al. (2014) investigated two groups of adult patients to determine the effects of regular doses of Whelton Extract. They found that adults given 500 mg of Whelton Extract daily for 60 days did not show improved cognitive ability scores on the Wonderlic exam compared to a group of matched adults given a placebo. The experiment was a double-blind set up meaning that neither the patients nor the researchers knew which patients were receiving Whelton Extract or the placebo.

ONE MAJOR DIFFERENCE IS THAT YOUR WORK REQUIRES EVIDENCE FROM AT LEAST TWO ARTICLES.

Unit 3 Mini-Project - Investigating and Evaluating Health Claims

Introduction

Herbals and botanicals have been used medicinally for thousands of years. Once thought of as ‘traditional medicine’ used by native or ancient cultures, herbal medicine has emerged as a popular complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), or supplement to modern medicine. The herbal market is growing steadily at about 20% each year, and it is estimated that in the United States alone the sale of botanical dietary supplements exceeded $5.3 billion in 2011. Herbal and botanical supplements are the leading type of CAM for both adults and those under the age of 18. Despite the natural origin of many herbals and botanicals, these substances are considered dietary supplements and should be taken with caution, as their use may result in negative side-effects.

Dietary supplements include vitamins, minerals, herbs, amino acids, enzymes, and other substances that may be ‘supplemented’, or added to the diet, in order to complete dietary needs or to make up for a nutrition deficiency. These substances are not intended to replace a healthy diet. Dietary supplements may be found in many forms including pills, capsules, powders, drinks, or energy bars.

Herbal and botanical supplements are plants used for oral medicinal purposes, and include the flower, leaf, root, and seed of the plant. Herbs and botanicals are sold as dietary supplements, which are regulated differently than pharmaceutical drugs and are sold under the terms: ‘herbals’, ‘herbal products’, ‘herbal medicines’, and ‘herbal remedies.’ Supplements are not required to go through the same stringent testing as over the counter (OTC) and prescribed medicine, and are not regulated as closely by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Procedure

Your task is to choose and investigate three of the herbal supplements identified on the next page and the health claims associated with them. Is there sufficient evidence to support the claims that the manufacturers of these supplements make and advertise to potential customers?

In order to determine the veracity of these claims, you need to look for:

·         Evidence from trustworthy sources

·         Evidence from scientific journal articles

o   For each claim, you need to find at least two scientific articles and discuss:

§  What the researchers were testing

§  How they were conducting their study

§  Their findings

Popular Herbal Supplements and Their Purported Benefits

Echinacea (Echinacea angustifolia)	• Reduce duration of colds • Boost immune system • Heal wounds
Evening primrose oil (Oenothera biennis)	• Reduce menopausal symptoms (hot flashes) • Reduce breast pain • Treat eczema • Treat ADHD • Treat rheumatoid arthritis • Treat osteoporosis
Feverfew thin (Tanacetum parthenium)	• Reduce migraines, headaches • Treat arthritis
Garlic (Allium sativum)	• Reduce the risk of heart disease • Lower high blood cholesterol • Lower high blood pressure • Prevent cancer • Treat athlete’s foot
Ginger (Zingiber officinale)	• Prevent motion sickness • Reduce morning sickness • Reduce nausea • Used as digestive aid • Treatment for rheumatoid arthritis, join, and muscle pain
Ginkgo biloba (Ginkgo biloba)	• Improve age-related memory impairment and dementia • Improve visual field in glaucoma and diabetic retinopathy • Lowering blood pressure, reducing hypertension
Ginseng (Panax ginseng)	• Improve cognitive function • Enhance athletic performance • Improve mood • Lower blood glucose
Green tea extract (Camellia sinensis)	• Reduces risk for cancer • Reduces risk for heart disease • Controls blood pressure
St. John’s wort (Hypericum perforatum)	Orally: • Treat depression • Improve premenstrual syndrome • Treat obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) • Treat seasonal affective disorder (SAD) Topically: • Used for wounds (inflammation), muscle aches, first-degree burns
Saw palmetto (Serenoa repens)	• Treat benign prostatic hyperplasia • Improve overall prostate health • Enhance sexual vigor

1/13/15

Tonight's homework is to complete Assignment 31 and prepare for the quiz on Friday.

1/12/15

Tonight's homework is as follows:

1. visit a grocery store, find two foods with health claims, take pictures of those health claims (including the product name) and the nutrition labels, and then print/email them to yourself/me
2. complete the reading from class today
3. complete Assignment 30 if necessary

1/9/15

This weekend's homework is to read "Understanding the Food Label" from Colorado State University.

1/8/15

There is no formal homework. We will work on and (hopefully) complete Assignment 30 tomorrow in class. If you so choose to work on it, below are the steps for writing/outlining I discussed in class today.

1. gather your notes/assignments about chronic disease
2. look for connections between diet and chronic diseases
3. choose/develop 3-5 recommendations (ex. eat less _______ or eat more _______). Another idea is to focus upon/look for recommendations that apply to multiple diseases at the same time.
4. look for/think about evidence/reasoning about:
- what benefits the recommendation will provide (ex. a lower risk of _______)
- why the chronic diseases you are discussing are a problem
5. discuss how to go about enacting the recommendations - for example, specific foods
6. write it

1/7/15

Did you finish your classwork? If so, then you don't have any formal homework - but you should look over your notes (and work on that exhibition). If not, then the task is below.

You recently have been accepted as a (paid!) intern at your college’s health center. Your team’s first task is to design flyers and posters promoting wellness on campus and your supervisor asks you to spread the word about what students can do to lower their risks of developing cancer later in life.

You need to:

• Choose an action that you will advertise to students (Ex. Eat more __________)
• Clearly identify what they should do (Ex. Eat _______ servings of _______ every ______)
• Justify this action in a paragraph (both to the students – your target audience – and to your supervisor)

EXTRA CREDIT – Make the flyer/poster.

1/6/15

Tonight's homework is to complete Assignment 29 through question 4.

Assignment #29 Cancer: Promotion and Prevention

Introduction

Cancer is the second leading cause of death in the United States and is attributed to one in every four deaths. The seemingly simple act of cells abandoning their normal schedules for division and growth is actually caused and mitigated by a complex mix of factors including lifestyle, genetics, and the environment. Evidence suggests that between 20 and 30 percent of cancers are due to poor food choices and physical inactivity. Some dietary factors may act as promoters, other may have protective roles.

Your task is to continue your research about the role that diet and behavior can have on cancer. Again, the ultimate goal is that you are better able to discuss and make recommendations about how diet and behavior are related to chronic disease – and then be able to support those recommendations.

To begin accomplishing this task, please do the following:

1. Use the this link to access the “Nutrition Link” section of Harvard School of Public Health’s website.

2. Find cancer and notice that there are 7 different links to access further information about different dietary factors (ex. Vitamin D and cancer).

3. Choose at least 4 dietary factors that are of the most interest to you (and different than what you researched over break) and take note of and record the following:

· How does this factor affect the development of cancer?

· What is the research that supports this relationship – ex. how do we know that fiber intake can (or cannot) affect the development of cancer?

4. Write a summary paragraph of what you learned about the effects of diet on cancer development. For example, you could answer one of the following questions:

· What should people eat (or not eat) to lower their risks of developing cancer?

· How does one’s diet affect his or her likelihood of developing cancer?

5. Now that you are more aware of the effects of diet on cancer, what is your reaction?

a. Do you feel as though you are at a high risk? Low risk? Why?

b. What behaviors/choices could you change to lower your risk of cancer? What barriers exist to making those changes?

1/5/15

Happy New Year and welcome back! Tonight's homework is the following:

1. Complete today's classwork which was interpreting the cancer data set and reflecting upon it.

Guiding questions:
a. What inferences can you draw from examining these sets of data?
b. What is your reaction to this information?
c. What questions do you have as a result?

2. Find and read one article about cancer from a trustworthy source (ex. New York Times, ScienceDaily, Scientific American, etc.). Then write a brief summary of the article including a bibliography. Be ready to discuss what you learned from the article.