Foods, Nutrition and Wellness
Foods, Nutrition and Wellness
This domain tests nutrients, their sources and functions, deficiency diseases, food groups, balanced meal planning, food hygiene and preservation, and links between diet and health conditions such as anaemia, obesity and diabetes.
Core rules
- Macronutrients: carbohydrates (4 kcal/g, energy), proteins (4 kcal/g, growth and repair), fats (9 kcal/g, energy, carrier of fat-soluble vitamins).
- Water-soluble vitamins (B group, C) are not stored and are lost through heat and cooking water; fat-soluble vitamins (A, D, E, K) are stored in the liver and fatty tissue.
- Deficiency diseases: kwashiorkor (protein deficiency - oedema, moon face) and marasmus (overall energy deficiency - wasting); vitamin A - night blindness; vitamin D/calcium - rickets; iron - anaemia; iodine - goitre; vitamin C - scurvy; thiamine - beri-beri; niacin - pellagra.
- Three food groups: body-building (proteins), energy-giving (cereals, fats, sugars), protective (fruit and vegetables).
- A balanced diet supplies energy and nutrients in the right proportions: plenty of vegetables and fruit, moderate staples, limited sugar, salt and fat.
Worked example
Plan a day's meals for a 15-year-old girl using local foods. Breakfast: maize porridge with groundnuts and milk, plus mango. Lunch: nsima, beans, pumpkin leaves, tomato. Supper: rice, usipa, carrots and greens. Reasoning: staples give carbohydrate; beans, fish and groundnuts give protein; greens and fruit give vitamin A, C and iron; milk supplies calcium. Then state one improvement - add a citrus fruit after meals to boost iron absorption.
Traps
- Mixing up kwashiorkor and marasmus.
- Claiming vitamin C is stored in the body.
- Describing a balanced diet as 'mostly protein foods'.