initial commit

Running Start/HEA150 - Health/Week 5/Discussion Replies Week 5.md

@@ -0,0 +1,17 @@
+#rs/class/hea150 #rs/discussion 
+- - -
+### Replying to Addison
+Hi Addison,
+I read the article from NPR about eating disorders among men as well, and I was surprised by the numbers for the ratio of men to women with eating disorders. It was pretty surprising to me how different the old and new ratios are, and how much data it seems like we have been missing or how much of a change in behavior there has been relating to eating disorders. I also chose to look at research focusing on an older audience around eating disorders, although I looked more at the elderly population. It is interesting to me how every age range has risks for developing eating disorders, although there are many different reasons for this happening. Younger people might develop them due to unhealthy body images, middle-aged people might develop them due to stressors such as divorce or parental death, and older people might develop them due to disease or lifestyle changes.
+
+### Replying to Suri
+Hi Suri,
+The article that I read was also about eating disorders in young men, although it looked at it more generally. I agree that body image and low self-esteem can harm anyone, and there are many different sources or ideals that this might come from. The information about eating disorders among French college students is interesting, I didn't realize that such a large portion of students would suffer from an eating disorder. I wonder what the number would be for college students in other countries, and if it is similar to those in France.
+
+### Replying to Alan
+Hi Alan,
+I read an article from NPR which also discusses eating disorders among young men, although a little more broadly. I agree with your point about bias around who can develop eating disorders leading to an under diagnoses of men with eating disorders, which explains the statistic mentioned in my article that now people estimate the ratio of women to men with eating disorders to be closer to 2-3 to 1 rather than 10 to 1. It is interesting to me that muscle dysphoria is most prevalent in men who internalize the "muscular ideal" and not the "thin ideal." It seems to me that this might be one of the differences between the causes of eating disorders generally in men and women where women tend to be focused more on being thin, and men tend to focus more on being muscular due to societal expectations.
+
+### Replying to Mariama
+Hi Mariama,
+Your description of eating disorders in South Korea is very interesting, and I didn't realize how much of an economic impact that they could have on a country. It is interesting to think about how even if countries might be taking an economic hit from eating disorders, there are many companies, especially in the United States, that are likely profiting off of them by selling more unhealthy food, supplements or something else.

Running Start/HEA150 - Health/Week 5/Discussion Response Week 5.md

@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+[[Health Week 5]]
+1. I listened to a podcast from NPR about eating disorders in young men and boys rising in prevalence, or at least in the number known. They mention how it was previously thought that the ratio of females to males with eating disorders was five to one, but now it is being estimated as closer to two or three to one. This is largely due to the idea that to be attractive, men should have as much muscle and as little fat as possible. As a result, many young men and boys are eating much less in an attempt to lose weight and going to the gym very often to gain muscle. Some of the causes described in the podcast is seeing male role models in movies and ads always being very lean with a lot of muscle, as well as other people complimenting guys more when they have lost more weight. One person describes his experience of praise he got after losing weight leading to him going to the gym several times a day and eating much less than he should have been to lose even more weight. I wasn't overly surprised by this information, since I have been exposed to many of the same influences and agree that the "ideal male physique" is harmful to body image. I do also think that one of the reasons for the rising rates of male eating disorders is because more young boys and men are going to doctors and asking for help like described in the podcast where a doctor talks about having more males as patients. Overall, this seems like a good thing and I am glad that more people feel comfortable seeking help and feel able to find ways to solve problems and move forward.
+2. The podcast that I listened to highlights the effects of eating disorders across many of the dimensions of wellness, including both social and physical. One of the situations that this podcast highlights as a challenge for people with eating disorders is going out to a restaurant with friends, and feeling like you could not participate in these things because you feel ashamed. This would likely cause a large impact on someones social life, and might make them fearful or anxious about certain situations and lead them to try and avoid them. The podcast also discusses the physical impacts of eating disorders, and how not getting enough nutrition for the body will lead to fatigue and being tired. Over time, this will take a toll on someones body, and especially if they are not able to sleep as well as a result of an eating disorder, it will lead to even farther reaching physical effects resulting from not getting enough sleep.
+3. I decided to look into eating disorders in older populations, since it seems like a group that is not often discussed in relation to eating disorders and weight loss. I used Google to look for information, and when searching a surprising amount of the results are from academic journals or reputable sources. One paper that I found was published in the Nutrients journal and is titled "Anorexia of Aging: Risk Factors, Consequences, and Potential Treatments." This paper describes the impacts of increasing age on a decrease in appetite and food intake. It also describes how this is a prevalent issue and how there are many factors from advancing age that promote a lack of appetite such as disease, lifestyle, and social conditions. It also discusses some solutions such as taking nutritional supplements and how these approaches are not often pursued in clinical practice. When searching for articles, the first few that I found seemed to be pretty good. Scrolling down revealed some that aren't directly related or from less reputable sources, but overall there was a good amount of reputable information when searching Google about this topic.

Running Start/HEA150 - Health/Week 5/Search and Report Week 5.md

@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+#rs/assignment #rs/class/hea150 
+- - -
+1. For my other two countries, I chose Japan and France. In the United States, the total calorie intake has gone up since 1961 going from about 3000 kcal to 3800 kcal. In Japan, the total calorie intake rose from 2400 kcal to 2900 kcal in the 1980s, but since then it has gone down to about 2700 kcal. In 1961, France had a total calorie intake of about 3100 kcal which rose to about 3600 kcal in 2000 and has stayed about even with that since.
+2. Most of the increase in total calories consumed in the United States has come from an increase in calories from fat. Animal protein and carbohydrates have risen a little, but plant protein has largely stayed the same since 1961. In Japan, the calories from carbohydrates has gone down from about 1800 kcal to 1400 kcal since 1961. The amount of fat did increase until the 90s, but since then it has stayed more or less the same. calories from animal and plant protein have also not changed much since 1961. In France, the calories from carbohydrates have dropped a little along with a small increase in calories from fat. Similar to the other two countries, animal and plant protein has largely been the same since 1961.
+3. All three countries that I looked at have seen some amount of increase in the amount of calories gained from fat, and this is likely due to a rise in processed foods throughout the world that contain a higher fat content than more organic or whole counterparts. The United States saw a much larger increase in the amount of fats consumed though, likely because there are many more fast food chains here, and there are many companies that have focused their efforts on the United States market and advertised processed food to the population. All three countries also didn't have much change in the amount of calories gained by plant or animal protein, possibly because changes in diets over the last 50 years have been focused more on fast food, junk food and sweets rather than meats, fruits or vegetables. This is probably why the carbohydrates and fat calories are changing the most, since these newer types of foods mostly contain calories from those sources.
+4. The second chart that I chose was the "Share of dietary energy supply from fats vs. GDP per capita." This chart is a graph with GDP per capita on the x-axis and the share of dietary energy from fats on the y-axis, and it plots each country on this chart based on these two statistics. The size of the circle for the country also represents the population of that country. This graph shows a pretty clear positive trend meaning that the more GDP per capita a country has, or generally how wealthy it is, the higher amount energy its population gets from fats. I wasn't very surprised by this information, since more developed countries will generally have diets composed of more processed foods leading to a higher fat intake. There is also an option to see the data animated over time, and it is sad to see how most of the countries are trending towards a higher amount of energy from fat in their diets.