Food And Nutrition For Customs And Culture

Wellness inventory

Discuss about the Food and Nutrition for Customs and Culture.

The present paper aims to put forward a personal health assessment guided by results of Wellness Inventory and the results of one-day food dairy as compared to recommendations of Eating Well with Canada’s Food Guide. The paper is a reflection on my personal health practices. My name is Imran Khan, a 23 year old single student studying at Athabasca University. My hobbies and interests include automobile, sports, movies and music. My future plan includes a post graduation degree and a house of my own and a little savings to keep me afloat for the bad times. My family health history is fairly clean, with no issues of addiction or substance abuse, however my parental line has a history of high cholesterol and my paternal grandfather in fact had to undergo open heart surgery. However my periodic checkups are yet to find something to worry about.

The wellness inventory score for my physical health and nutrition is 22, which is pretty good though I need to consider stretching into my daily exercise regimen. Another bad habit that I posses is not to drink enough water which had given me acne in my teenage. Though it pushed me to drink at least 6 glasses of water a day, I stopped doing as soon as I got better and the chances of developing the acne got reduced. I was at fault that I do not have the tendency to consume plenty of liquid. However, I suffered the ill effects when few months back I was diagnosed with urine infection and stared drinking a lot of water just when I got thirsty, though I cannot help thinking if that is the right way to hydrate your body.

I scored a 46 in the safety section but I do have to work on my habit of exceeding speed limit. Nevertheless, I still am a good enough driver on the whole. Another area for my improvement is the tendency to be careless and have a causal approach while handling tools and equipments. On this note I should positively start using safety measures while handling dangerous equipment.

For environmental wellness I scored 35 and subsequently my bad habits that need consideration include my habit to leave the water faucets running whenever I am brushing my teeth or shaving or even showering. This is because I have a silly habit of putting my hand in running water to either cool my hand in the summer or warm it up in winter. I know this is weird and wasting water is never a good thing and I have to put a stop to it.

Dietary habits

My social awareness score is pretty high at 45, with room for improvement in my involvement in community events. Although I realize that I have a responsibility of contributing towards the benefits of the society, I do not get enough time to participate in all activities aiming an improvement brought within the society. Hopefully, in the future I will give a little bit extra effort to take time out for attending community services.

My score for sexual and emotional awareness is also quite high with 45, by the virtue of my loving and caring nature I feel that I possess. However in my early teenage years I had trouble in socially connecting and choosing the right companionship for myself. I either appeared too soft or too rude. However, with time, I learned to distinguish between good and bad and along the years I have made a number of really close friends who are nothing short of family to me.

I scored 38 in emotional management which is not bad in my opinion, although I found some of the question to be pretty pointless. For example, I feel guilty while refusing someone or while facing failure to keep someone’s request. I think that a feeling of guilt is the reflection of sympathy and compassion, and I am undoubtedly proud of having those two attributes up my sleeve.

I scored 47 in intellectual awareness. I have quick thinking capabilities and my IQ is high as well. The only thing that I have to work on is visiting museums and zoos more often. I should take out time to participate and enjoy concerts and plays as well; however I will admit that in am not much interested into artistic stuff, neither am I very attached to animals at all. I only occasionally attend museums and concerts if the mood strikes or there is something really interesting occurring that I should not miss.

Although I am currently focusing just on my education fulltime, I do have had past work experiences. I scored 38 in occupational awareness which I think is quite fair. My problematic areas are stress and anxiety. I do tend to get worked up when I feel things are going out of control, although I keep my anxious reaction to myself and do not let it cloud my judgment or affect my performance.

I got 47 in spiritual awareness for which the credit goes to my upbringing since my family is spiritually connected and I am quite aware of my spiritual and religious roots even after being brought up in a foreign country. I am attached to my faith, my culture and my customs and I take pride in it. I think spirituality is a decisive factor in the character and it reflects in the nature and behavior of the person.

Vitamin and Iron deficiency

As mentioned above I am attached to my customs and religion I am to admit that I have a strong preference for having traditional food prepared in my culture. In my opinion the middle-eastern cuisine is unique in its taste and the delicacies are surely mouth watering. The middle-eastern cuisine most generally contains four items, one main dish, one side dish coupled with pita bread and rice. The main course mainly consists of chicken, fish or any meat with substantial amount of delicious gravy made of oil, spices, yoghurt, cheese and milk. The side dish on the other hand is lighter and contains lesser oil and spices but tasty nonetheless. In dinner I eat both the dishes with pita bread and rice and at lunch sometimes I eat light and skip something. Some of my absolute favorites in middle-eastern cuisine include haleem and biriyani.

Middle-eastern food pretty much comprises of all the ingredients that are generally required for a full albeit healthy diet and meets the daily nutritional requirement as well. It incorporates protein, carbohydrate, fat, fiber and vitamins in right proportions when cooked appropriately. Another characteristic feature of my family’s eating habit is that we try to incorporate vegetables in almost every meal which makes up for the extra spice and oil in our dietary habits. However I have to point out that middle-eastern cuisine does not contain all the elements that are listed in the Canadian food guide but it is fairly close to the guidelines. As per the recommendations of the guide I think I probably do meet all the requirements based on my age and gender if it is looked upon too strictly. There surely are a few elements that we tend to miss while sticking to the middle-eastern cuisine. However I try to make up for it as much as possible, for example, I have decided to incorporate more fruits and vegetables in my dietary plan, and will attempt to eat raw fruits and fruit juice more often than what I did until recently.

The routine blood tests and other checkups tell me that my vitamin levels are in checks though I have slightly low vitamin D levels. However the doctor prescribed me vitamin D supplements which will address the issue gradually. Vitamin D deficiency can cause various bone and teeth problems like mineralization, frequent bone injury, misshapenness, joint pain and muscle pain. In case of extreme vitamin D deficiency the condition can lead to elevated plasma calcium levels, excessive thirst, head ache, nausea, and ruptured arteries and kidney stone formation. With so many frightening consequences I will ensure I intake natural sources of vitamin D like fortified milk, eggs, sardines, liver and ample amount of exposure to sunlight along with my vitamin supplements so that my vitamin D levels increase before I can develop any of the consequences.

I also suffer with an iron deficiency that can lead to clinical complications like anemia, fatigue and unnatural paleness in adults. In extreme cases of iron deficiency are known to lead to vomiting, abdominal pain, organ damage and bluish coloration of skin. The doctor informed me that my iron deficiency is most probably genetic and prescribed me iron supplements and also advised me to include red meat, fish, poultry, shellfish, legumes and dry fruits as they are natural sources of iron. 

Every day the physical activities I undertake are enough to provide me the benefits of at least 150 minutes of aerobic exercise of moderate to high intensity. My cardio respiratory rate is stable at 140 minutes and my muscular strength came to be 120 minutes. However my muscular endurance went up to 130 and flexibility at 10, which is alarmingly low. I will have to incorporate balance in my vigorous intensity exercise to increase my flexibility considerably. I follow the same schedule for the weekdays; however on weekends my routine changes completely. On Weekends I like jog and attend gym sessions, and my gym practices differ from one another in Saturday and Sunday. For my free time I like to read or browse the internet or watch some television depending on the time available. On most of the weekdays I watch some television for 1 hour and from Friday to Sunday I increase it up to 2 o 3 hours. The time allotted to my internet browsing is quite similar as well.

There is room for improvement of my lifestyle choices. I can and should invest more on time physical fitness and diligently continue more cardio and muscular exercise given my hereditary susceptibility to high cholesterol. I should also incorporate more protein to address my deficiency issues and also include fruits and nuts. My inclination towards anxiety is also another of my concern which I plan to address by practicing meditation.

My waist circumference is around 31-33 inches and my hips are around 30-32 inches, however, my body mass index (BMI) is 17.49 kg/m2 which are slightly less than the normal threshold. I consider myself to be on thinner side and have planned to hit the gym more to gain more muscle strength.

Conclusion:

On a concluding note, in this report I have tried to incorporate all different aspects of my physical and mental health and wellbeing. Along with that I have attempted to present a small insight of my identity, nature and future goals and ambitions to clarify the reasons and factor that contribute to my habits and choices. This has been a wonderful experience for me to reflect on my habits and my health in general which will help me improve my condition where there is need for it.

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www.csep.ca. (2017). Retrieved 30 March 2017, from https://www.csep.ca/CMFiles/Guidelines/CSEP_PAGuidelines_adults_en.pdf

www.hc-sc.gc.ca. (2017). Retrieved 30 March 2017, from https://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/fn-an/alt_formats/hpfb-dgpsa/pdf/food-guide-aliment/print_eatwell_bienmang-eng.pdf