Food and Nutrition Izabela Skoczeń Magdalena Walasek

Traditional food § Analising the eating habits of different cultures or countries. Every community in the world has its own nutritional habits. You certainly know about Kosher foods permitted by Judaism or Haral/Haram food in Islam. We can observe a great influence of the diet on for example health or life expectancy. § Examplary comparison: Greece and Poland: Poles eat more bread. Greeks eat more fruits. § Health consequences: higher life expectancy in Greece.

§ § Traditional food in the baltic countries Traditional finnish kitchen is simple because of the lack of access to the fruits and vegetables. The main components used to prepare meal are meat and fish which are traditionally served with bread. Fish are really popular. The marine just as the fresh water ones. The most common is the herridge. The speciality of the finnish kitchen is the fish soup, the kalekukko, big fish dumpling and karjalanpaisti, the mixture of different kinds of meat.

§ Sweden has a very poor kitchen because of multiple wars during the centuries. It is rich in sugar, fish and coffee. § German kitchen is characterized by using lots of meat especially sauceges, bread. The most popular drink is beer. § Polish cuisine offers a lot of traditional meals, it doesn't contain so much fats and it uses a lot of vegetables. § During the ages lithuanian cuisine was strongly influenced by ukrainian, polish, tatarian, belarussian and jewish kitchen. It contains a lot of bread and seasons.

§ Latvia was a poor country and it's reflected on its kitchen. It is very simple, heavy and nourishing. It has a lot of flour-products and fish. § Estonian cuisine consists of mainly meat, fish and a small amount of fruits and vegetables. This nationality loves drinking beer. § Dutch kitchen is based on meat, fish, sauces, salads and coffee.

Fast Food § The contain of fats in fast-food products can be from 10, 2 g/100 g of product (ex. a vegetarian pizza) to 27, 7 g/100 g of product (a hot dog). § The products that have a particularly large amount of fat are: -hot dogs-37, 3 g/per portion -Whooper with cheese-34, 85 g/per portion -Mc. Royal-29, 06 g/per portion § In these products we can find 2 types of fats: a) the saturated ones which are good for our organisms b) the unsaturated (trans configuration) these are the bad ones which we should limit in our diets

§ The most terrifying example is the Mc. Donald’s Apple-Pie -which generally contain 12, 9 g/per portion, 28, 33 g/100 gof saturated fats and 55, 25 g/100 g of fat-are the trans isomers! § Not only the nutritional value of this food is controversial. There also other problems - Massive advertising directed especially to children (they can’t consider the real danger) - It causes environmental damage through excessive packaging and clearing forests for animal rearing. - Causes damage to the diversity of local cuisines. - It survives on a low-wage, low-benefit employment model, promoting exploitative labor practices throughout the food and food service industry - Its often lower quality versus sit-down restaurants

Genetically modified food § Genetic modifications (GM) consist of taking a gene from one species and transferring it on another to give him the wanted feature. § Genes (formed from a sequence of nucleic acids) are the biological units of inheritance, so single information which from the DNA chains and they form examples for thousands of proteins. These proteins built all kinds of living organisms-from bacteria to people. § It is easy to understand when we compare it to a book: the single letters (nucleic acids), form words (genes), which form sentences (proteins), from which a book can be made (a form of life).

§ Throughout million years of evolution genes have formed natural groups, which can co-operate in harmony. § In the natural environment crossing genes of non-related species would never happen. That’s why, when we are consuming genetically modified products, we expose our health to a danger. § This picture represent a normal apple and a GM one which looks bigger and tastier. But in reality the smaller one provides much more nutritional values.

Tea, coffee - addictions of our generation and their influence on health. § Tea: It is said that tea has a very positive effect on life. There is no unanimous opinion about coffee yet, but the latest experiments proved that it isn’t so harmful as we thought before. § Tea contains catechines-these are components which can reduce the risk of having certain cancers and the strength the immunological system. Green tea contain much more catechine than the dark one.

§ COFFEE: Studies are contradictory as to whether coffee has any specific health benefits, and results are similarly conflicting with respect to negative effects of coffee consumption. In addition, it is often unclear whether these risks or benefits are linked to caffeine or whether they are to be attributed to other chemical substances found in coffee (and whether decaffeinated coffee carries the same benefits or risks).

Sugar, flour, rice-refined products. § That the refined products are unhealthy, and sometimes very dangerous for our organisms is a well known fact. An example is sugar… § Although sugar is made from beetroots, which are natural products not treated chemically, the final substance is purified, filtered and crystallized. To have it’s white color sugar reacts with Ca. Cl which is a poison. To our stomachs, sugar comes as a completely chemical substance- sacharose. Sacharose does not contain vitamins, mineral salts and biologically active substances. In the natural product- a beetroot- there all of these substances, which sugar doesn’t contain. Our organism must use his own resources (ex. Calcium from its teeth, iron and others which can lay to different illnesses).

§ Flour: White flour is refined. It has an extraction rate of around 75% as the bran is removed (along with some of the nutrients) and only the central part or endosperm is used. © British Nutrition Foundation 2004

Vegetarianism § Vegetarian has a long history since ancient times. § Vegetarianism is the practice of not consuming the flesh of any animal (including sea animals) with or without also eschewing other animal derivatives, such as dairy products or eggs. Some vegetarians choose to also refrain from wearing clothing that has involved the death of animals, such as leather, silk and fur. Vegetarianism excludes all animal products from diet and attire, whether or not their production has involved the actual death of an animal (dairy, eggs, honey, wool, silk and down feathers). Vegetarians have varied motivations including religious, cultural, ethical, environmental, social, economic, and health concerns.

Influence of the computer on human health § The last researches showed that computers don’t make us more healthy and with the wrong use can give an irreparable harm. The sharp competition in the computer world has devided opinions about this question. Computer producers assert that computers are absolutely unharmful. At that time protection remedies producers have an other opinion. And this has forced me to make the analysis of indifferent medical establishments researches about the computer work influence on man health, with the help of Internet network. § The last investigations conducted under the aegis of American optometrical association (which consists of 32 thousand ophthalmologists and opticians) pay attention to the obvious fact again: working at the computer is not natural for human eyesight. 70 -75% of all users which routinely work at the monitor screen have problems with the eyesight. A lot of complaints come from the computer operators about sharp pain in the eyes, blearing, the common eyesight worsening.

§ All of this shows the necessity of your own health care, of keeping the sanitary regulations. Computer work is very interesting, perspective and necessary for all civilized countries, but we need healthy and efficient people. § Harmful computer influence on a man health can be greatly reduced or avoided with following the simple rules of their using. It is very important to make a right choose of a computer and auxiliary protection remedies. In some cases it is expediency to buy more expensive thing, but be calm for your health.

Conclusion § We made this project to make us more aware of what we eat and how should we understand healthy lifestyle. We wanted to show the differences in traditional food of the baltic countries which are our familiar region and attract people’s attention on what they can do to improve their health.