Unit 21 P1 Nutrition

Healthy Eating
This report is about how important nutrition is for us. Good nutrition is essential for good health. Food provides energy for the body and the nutrients in foods are vital in keeping us healthy. Nutritious food helps to prevent our bodies from catching vital illnesses and diseases. Heart disease and a third of cancers are caused by poor diet and lack of nutrients. It is good to be aware of your diet and eat the right kinds of foods to stay fit and healthy.
In the 1950s due to the war there was a lack of food in the UK and home economics became very important. However this resulted in healthier diets because people had to learn to ration they were in short supply of meat, eggs, sugar and other essentials, they used to have tokens which they traded for these rare foods. Due to rationing people were eating smaller portions of food and the foods they were eating were a lot healthier. The typical meal in the 1950s would consist of a piece of meat with a lot of potatoes and vegetables on the side, on the ‘Eatwell plate’ that we have now it shows that this diet was quite healthy because they were getting a lot of vegetables, a lot of starch from potatoes and a reasonable amount of meat, this is a very balanced diet. On the other hand in this day and age we have more of a variety of foods. People from other countries came to settle in the UK and brought with them there cultural foods which UK citizens were eager to try such as curries, Chinese food and Italian food, due to this we now have more take-a-ways and restaurants. Technology such as the microwave was also introduced which led to microwave foods which are a lot quicker to make but lack in vital vitamins that fresh ingredients contain.
Due to all this food, people now are eating more than they should be and don’t have balanced diets at all. Obesity has become a growing problem in the UK and the US because of restaurants such as McDonalds, Pizza Hut, Burger King and others, these restaurants sell...