Week 4 Reflection

This week, instead of studying more about digestion and nutrition, I have decided to conclude on my past 4 weeks of reflections. I have learned much during this few weeks.

From my experience, I have learned that food is digested from the digestive system. The digestive system is made up of the mouth, the gullet, the stomach, the small intestine and the large intestine. All these parts play an important role in helping us to digest food efficiently.

Also, from my second week, I have learned that nutirents are useful chemicals needed by our bodies. Nutrients help our bodies stay strong and healthy. Therefore, our intake of food should have sufficient amounts of nutrients. I have also learned that an over excess of nutrients can lead to health problems, therefore, our intake of nutrients must be balanced. For example, fats should be eaten in moderation, but if we eat too much, it may lead to obesity.

For week 3 of my reflections, I have learned the importance of a nutritional diet. We must learn to have a nutritional diet as it will help as stay healthy and strong. People of olden civilisations have learned abouts this importance, and had applied it to their nation. Having a nutritional diet, can keep diseases at bay, improve our physical fitness and even our mental fitness! Also, most nutritional diets usaully consist of plant-based foods. Therefore, vegtables are a must-have for a healthy meal.

Over these few weeks, I have indeed learned to watch my diet. I did this through meals ordered at hawker centres. I tried to order food that was nutritious and yet delicious, which was successful. Ordering nutrional foods is really simple actually, you just have to know what to eat and what not to. I also tried to balance the amount of nutrient intakes through this. When eating the foods, I also knew what was happening in my body to digest the food. This really satisfied me because I knew what was happening in my body. This 4 weeks have indeed been a real blessing to me. I hope to use the information I have gathered these weeks to improve my next few weeks' reflections, and of course my daily diet. Thank you and bye!

Week 3 Reflection

For my 3rd week of reflection, I have researched about the importance of a balanced and healthy diet. Having a balanced diet means having a variety foods, and to moderate different nutrients. I will now present my findings.

Having a balanced and healthy diet, is not as simple as many people think. From my findings, I have discovered that with incentives and positive reinforcement, adapting such a diet is possible.

Before we look at the present, lets take a journey back in time. People of the past, such as the ancient Greeks and Persians, all understood the importance of a healthy diet. They knew that a healthy and balanced diet could help against diseases, improve physical fitness and mental strength.

Based on my findings, plant-based foods are the most commonly found foods in the diets of people who live with healthy diets. Therefore, plant-based foods are important for our diets.

Finally, I can conclude that it is indeed important for us to have nutritional and healthy diets. Therefore, I will soon come up with a chart of my diet. Bye!

Week 2 Reflection

For my 2nd week of the project, I have researched on nutrition. Nutrition comes from the word 'nutrients'. Nutrients are useful chemical substances needed by the body. Nutrients provide our bodies with energy and other useful substances that keep us healthy. All of these nutrients play an important role in helping our bodies stay healthy and functioning properly. Out of all these nutrients, there are five main nutrients: carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins and minerals. I will now fully explain these nutrients in detail.

Carbohydrates

Carbohydrates are the nutrients that give us energy. Energy as we know are important for us to function. Carbohydrates are what out bodies use to produce energy and keep us warm, and also function properly. Carbohydrates include sugars and starch. Carbohydrates are obtained from eating different foods like rice, potatoes and wheat. Though carbohydrates are important for our body, they can also be harmful. The more we eat foods containing carbohydrates, the more energy is stored up in our body. If we do not get rid of these excess carbohydrates, they will be converted into fats, and stored in our body. Over a long period of time, this could lead to weight problems.

Fats

Fats are also nutrients that give us energy. They provide our bodies with more energy than carbohydrates, when compared to same amount. Also, layers of fat under our skin help in keeping the heat in our bodies. It also protects our important organs inside our bodies. We can obtain fats from eating both plants and animals. However, overeating fats could lead to weight gain, and can easily land us into obesity.

Proteins

Proteins are needed by our bodies for the growth, repair and maintenance of cells. Proteins can also be used as a source of energy when we have low carbohydrate or fat intake. We can obtain protein from either animals or plants, namely meat, fish and eggs.

Vitamins

Vitamins protect our bodies from diseases and keep our bodies functioning. Vitamins are only needed by our bodies in small amounts. But, a lack of vitamins can also result in vitamin deficiency diseases, causing serious health problems. We need to eat food from plants and animals to obtain vitamins.

Minerals

Minerals also help in keeping our bodies healthy and functioning well. Minerals are only

needed in small amounts by our body. We can obtain minerals from a variety of food.

This week, I have learned a lot about nutrients. I hope to continue learning more about

Digestion and Nutrition in the coming weeks. Bye!

Week 1 Reflection

Hello, I am Ryan Lee from 2H(2010). For my first week of reflection, I have studied Digestion.

Digestion is the process in which food is broken down in the digestive system into substances needed by the body. Digestion is takes place in the digestive system. The digestive system consists of 5 stops, which I will elaborate on later. In the digestive system, all parts play an important role, in breaking down the food that we eat.

 Stop 1: The Mouth

As we all know, we all need food to survive, and food enters our body through the mouth. Therefore, the first stop in the digestive system is our mouth. When food enters our mouth, our teeth chew the food, breaking it down physically into smaller pieces. This plays a part in ensuring that more surface area is exposed for faster break down. Saliva is then mixed with the food. The saliva contains digestive enzymes and amylase. The tongue also helps with digestion, rolling smaller pieces of food into small balls. From this, we can see that food is digested physically and chemically in the mouth. The semi-digested food then moves on to the second stop...

Stop 2: The Gullet

To simply describe the gullet, it is a tube which connects the mouth to the stomach. The gullet does not play a part in breaking down the food, yet is vital in the digestive system. The gullet is made up of strong muscles, which push the food by contracting and relaxing. The action is in an involuntary movement called peristalsis. The food is pushed on into the third stop...

Stop 3: The Stomach

Welcome to the third stop, the stomach. The stomach is an expandable bag made up of muscles. It is expandable to help take in different amounts of food. The muscles in the stomach mix the food with a digestive juice called gastric juice. Gastric juice consists of proteases and hydrochloric acid. Proteases digest protein from the food into amino acids, while hydrochloric acid provides the acidic condition in the stomach need for the proteases to work, and also kills any bacteria which may have been digested with the food.

Stop 4: The Small Intestine

The small intestine is the fourth stop in the digestive system. It is also the place where most of the digestion takes place. There are many folds and finger-like projections called villi on the inner surface of the small intestine. The villi increase surface area in the small intestine, helping it to absorb more digested food. Water, vitamins and mineral salts are also absorbed in the small intestine. The food finally moves on to the last stop in the digestive system...

Stop 5: The Large Intestine

The undigested food finally moves on to the last stop, the large intestine. The large intestine absorbs water from the undigested food. The remainder of the undigested food is known as faeces. The faeces is later removed from the body as waste, known as defaecation.

This is the end of my 1st week's reflection. I have truly learned a lot from my first week of studying digestion. I will now continue on my learning targets for this project. Bye!

Learning Targets

-What is digestion and nutrition

-What makes up the digestive system and their functions

-What is the importance of a nutritional and healthy diet

-What are healthy and unhealthy foods

-How is food broken down