Week 8 Reflection

This is my last reflection on my studies about digestion and nutrition. As promised, I will show a graph of what I have learnt about. This graph is more of a word graph which I will write below.

Through all this weeks, I have learnt about digestion. At the beginning, I was quite unsure of how food was digested. After researching digestion, I learned how the digestive system digests our food, and how it allows our body to function. I also learned about the many nutrients in the foods that we eat. Through this, I have tried to balance my diet in order have a healthy one. This is also the importance of a healthy diet. Having a healthy diet also means we will have a good physical body. This is what I have learned throughout this journey.

This project has indeed helped my studies. I have learned much and have experienced a lot. From, trying to research about digestion to finding information about nutrients. It has been really enjoyable. Writing out my learning objectives has also helped me focus on what I want to know. I will indeed use this method again. Thank you, it has been a great time!!!

Week 7 Reflection

As my studies on digestion & nutrition come nearer to a close, I have decided to study and come out with a graph for my last reflection next week. But for this week, I have decided to talk about the future of foods, and its relation to the digestive system.

The future of foods is probably genetically modified foods. These foods have been genetically modified to make the foods taste better, ward off pests etc. Genetically modified foods are made by the insertion or deletion of certain genes in the food. The first ever genetically modified food was a tomato which could ripen without softening. The tomato was manufactured by a Californian company called Calgene. GM foods help in a certain way, but many people are avoiding it because of 1 reason, they are afraid that the foods could have negative side-effects. Although not proven, this could be true as the foods are not natural and have been modified. However, this doesn't stop consumers from buying them, saying that the foods are good.

The digestive system thus plays an important role. For instance, if the GM food has a negative side effect, the digestive system could very well be the place which rids the negative "effect". Personally, I think all GM foods would not harm us because the scientists should have taken safety precautions in the productions of this food. However, I believe that our digestive system is reliable and would expel any poisonous materials from the GM foods if needed. The digestive system indeed is a life saver to many, a marvelous creation indeed. Thank you!

Week 6 Reflection

Today, I will be explaining about my findings on how the body breaks down and uses food. Food is our energy source, but it first has to be broken down before it can be used as energy. This process of breaking down food occurs in the digestive system.
Digestion involves breaking down food with digestive juices. It starts in the mouth with salivary glands. The saliva excreted from the salivary gland help by releasing an enzyme into the food which starts breaking down carbohydrates into smaller molecules.
The next set of digestive glands is in the lining of the stomach. They produce stomach acid and an enzyme that digests protein. The food then move on to the small intestine.
The small intestine releases digestive enzymes with two other organs, the pancreas and the liver. The pancreas produces a juice which contains a wide array of enzymes to break down fat, carbohydrates and proteins. The liver produces another digestive juice, bile. The bile acid dissolve fat into the watery contents of the intestine.
The absorption of food starts in the small intestine. There are many folds called villi on the inner surface of the small intestine. Nutrients are absorbed from here. The absorbed nutrients are then transported around the body to every cell. These cells store the energy and when needed, release them. This in turn helps in our daily functions.
Indeed, digestion is important for our body to function. Without it, we would have no energy to carry out daily routines. Thank you!

Week 5 Reflection

This week, I have studied more about a healthy diet. First of all, a healthy diet must be balanced. Therefore, healthy foods should not have an over excess of anything. Also, the healthy foods are usually plant based foods. I will not present my findings.
To start off, I will use the first and most important meal of the day. Breakfast. Oatmeal is a good example for a healthy breakfast. It is ground oat groats made into a porridge. Daily consumption of a bowl of oat meal can lower blood cholesterol. Also, many different healthy ingredients such as raisins can be added, to make it more delicious. Oatmeal is surely a great choice for a healthy breakfast.
Moving on, I will talk about different types of healthy foods. Firstly, there are many great and healthy foods such as salads. Salads are great because they can be used for any occasion, and are basically comprised of vegetables and fruits. I'm sure everybody would have tried salads, and getting used to the taste is quite easy. As we can see, healthy foods can also be delicious.
These few years, our way of cooking food has become more and more unhealthy. A simple piece of chicken can be deep-fried in lots of oil. This is very unhealthy. Instead, steaming that piece of chicken would be much healthy. I'm sure our digestive system would agree with that!
I will continue on the digestive system next week. Thank you!