LESSON 

2, 12‐10‐12/THEORY SESSION /TEACHING MATERIAL: TEXT 1 NUTRITION & DIET  

NUTRITION & DIET

Nutrition (also called nourishment or aliment) is the provision, to cells and organisms, of the
materials necessary (in the form of food) to support life. Many common health problems can be
prevented or alleviated with a healthy diet.

In nutrition, diet is the sum of food consumed by a person or other organism. The diet of an 
organism is what it eats, which is largely determined by the perceived palatability of foods. 

Dietary habits are the habitual decisions an individual or culture makes when choosing what foods
to eat. With the word diet, it is often implied the use of specific intake of nutrition for health or
weight-management reasons (with the two often being related). Although humans are
omnivores, each culture and each person holds some food preferences or some food taboos,
due to personal tastes or ethical reasons.

Individual dietary choices may be more or less healthful. Proper nutrition requires the proper
ingestion and, equally important, the absorption of vitamins, minerals, and food energy* in the
form of carbohydrates, proteins, and fats. Dietary habits and choices play a significant role in
health and mortality.

Dietitians are health professionals who specialize in human nutrition, meal planning,
economics, and preparation. They are trained to provide safe, evidence-based dietary advice
and management to individuals (in health and disease), as well as to institutions. Clinical
nutritionists are health professionals who focus more specifically on the role of nutrition in chronic
disease, including possible prevention or remediation by addressing nutritional deficiencies
before resorting to drugs.

Health

A healthy diet is one that is arrived at with the intent of improving or maintaining optimal health.
This usually involves consuming nutrients by eating the appropriate amounts from all of the food
groups, including an adequate amount of water. Since human nutrition is complex, a healthy diet
may vary widely, and is subject to an individual's genetic makeup, environment, and health. For
around 20% of the human population, lack of food and malnutrition are the main impediments to
healthy eating.

Conversely, people in developed countries have the opposite problem; concern is often not about
volume of food but appropriate choices.

A poor diet can have an injurious impact on health, causing deficiency diseases such as scurvy
and kwashiorkor; health-threatening conditions like obesity and metabolic syndrome and such
common chronic systemic diseases as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and osteoporosis.

A number of different nutrition disorders may arise, depending on which nutrients are under or
overabundant in the diet.

Eating disorders

An eating disorder is a mental disorder that interferes with normal food consumption. Eating
disorders often affect people with a negative body image.

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LESSON 2, 12‐10‐12/THEORY SESSION /TEACHING MATERIAL: TEXT 1 NUTRITION & DIET  

Part 2

Diet and life outcomes

A three-decade long study published in the British medical journal, The Lancet, found that
Guatemalan men who had been well-fed soon after they were born, earned almost 50% more in
average salary than those who had not. The blind trial was performed by giving a high-nutrition
supplement to some infants and a lower-nutrition supplement to others, with only the
researchers knowing which infants received which supplements. The infants that received the high-
nutrition supplement had higher average salaries as adults.

Diets for weight management

A particular diet may be chosen to seek weight loss or weight gain. Changing a subject's dietary
intake, or "going on a diet", can change the energy balance and increase or decrease the amount of
fat stored by the body.

Some foods are specifically recommended, or even altered, for conformity to the requirements of a
particular diet. These diets are often recommended in conjunction with exercise. Specific weight loss
programs can be harmful to health, while others may be beneficial (and can thus be coined as
healthy diets). The terms healthy diet and diet for weight management are often related, as the two
promote healthy weight management. Having a healthy diet is a way to prevent health problems,
and will provide your body with the right balance of vitamins, minerals*, and other nutrients*.

Individual dietary choices

Many scientists urge reduced animal consumption in the developed world for improved health and
reduced impact on the environment. Many people choose to forgo food from animal sources to
varying degrees (flexitarianism, vegetarianism, veganism, fruitarianism) for health reasons, or
issues surrounding morality, or to reduce their personal impact on the environment. Raw foodism is
another contemporary trend. These diets may require tuning or supplementation to meet ordinary
nutritional needs.

Traditional diets

Traditional diets are those of native populations such as the Native Americans, Khoisan or Australian
Aborigines. Often, to qualify for cultural cuisine, traditional diets include more organic farming
and seasonal food according to food origins.

Traditional diets vary with availability of local resources, such as fish in coastal towns, eels and
eggs in estuary settlements, or squash, corn and beans in farming towns, as well as with cultural
and religious customs and taboos. In some cases, the crops and domestic animals that
characterize a traditional diet have been replaced by modern high-yield crops, and are no longer
available. The slow food movement attempts to counter this trend and to preserve traditional diets.

A recent study has suggested that traditional diets may have been more balanced than first thought.
New research indicates grains were part of the diet of ancient people in Italy, Russia and the Czech
Republic.

Religious and cultural dietary choices

Some cultures and religions have restrictions concerning what foods are acceptable in their diet. For
example, only Kosher foods are permitted by Judaism, and Halal foods by Islam.

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LESSON 2, 12‐10‐12/THEORY SESSION /TEACHING MATERIAL: TEXT 1 NUTRITION & DIET  

Economic influence

In addition to culture, religion, and personal choices, diet is also influenced by economics.
Throughout history and in contemporary life, poverty is often associated with the inability to afford
meat, or with malnutrition.

READING COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS.

PART 1

1. What determines the diet of an organism?

2. The dietary habits of an individual or culture are their food preferences. True/False?

3. By the word “diet” we also mean the particular amount of food for health or for weight control
reasons. True/False?

4. What causes food taboos?

5. Individual dietary choices play a serious role in health and mortality. True/False?

6. Proper ingestion means good breaking down of food. True/False?

7. Carbohydrates, proteins, fats as well as vitamins and minerals are found in food. True/False?

8. What are the tasks of dieticians?

9. What are dieticians trained to do?

10. Do clinical nutritionalists have the same tasks with dieticians?

11. Clinical nutritionalists suggest drugs. True/False?

12. What is the goal of a healthy diet?

13. What is the focus of a “healthy diet”?

14. What factors play a role in human nutrition?

15. What keeps 20% of the human population from healthy eating?

16. Developed countries suffer from “lack of food”. True/False?

17. What can a “poor diet” cause?

18. If an organism takes too much nutrients, this can cause a nutrition disorder. True/False?

19. Eating disorders affect people with positive body image. True/False?

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LESSON 2, 12‐10‐12/AΠ SESSION /TEACHING MATERIAL: TEXT 1 NUTRITION & DIET  
 
TEXT: NUTRITION AND DIET

VOCABULARY PRACTICE

A. MATCH THE TERMS ON THE LEFT WITH A CORRET DESCRIPTION

1.Consume: k. to give up the use or enjoyment of (something)

2.Intake: o. something that a country has and can use to

increase its wealth
3.Vary: q. to keep (something) in its original state or in good
condition or protect
4.Impact: t. the state of being poor

5.Recommendation: l. happening or beginning now or in recent times

6.For conformity to: a. to eat or drink (something) consumption

7.In conjunction with: p. to change or adjust sthg so that is proper or fit for a
situation or condition

8.Beneficial: u. a long fish that looks like a snake and has smooth
slippery skin
9.Promote: r. a law or rule that limits or controls  something  
 
10.Urge: c. to make changes to (something) so that it is not
always the same
11.Forgo: d. a powerful or major influence or effect

12.Contemporary: m. something that is currently popular or fashionable

13.Trend: e. to suggest that someone do (something)

14.Available: h. producing good or helpful results or effects

15.Resources: f. the fact or state of agreeing with or obeying

something
16.Tuning: s. to allow (something) to or to allow (someone) to do
or have something
17.Preserve: i. to help (something) happen, develop, or increase

18.Restriction: n. easy or possible to get or use : present or ready for

use
19.Permit : g. at the same time with something else; additionally

20.Poverty: b. the amount of something (such as food or drink) that

is taken into your body

21.Eel: j. to try to persuade (someone) in a serious way to do

something

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LESSON 2, 12‐10‐12/AΠ SESSION /TEACHING MATERIAL: TEXT 1 NUTRITION & DIET  
 
B. MATCH THE FOLLOWING WORDS WITH A DESCRIPTION BELOW

a. Mineral b. malnutrition c. Well-fed d. Supplement e. Flexitarian

f. Vegan g. Squash h. Corn i. Beans j. Crops

k. High-yield l. Grains

1. The seeds of plants (such as wheat, corn, and rice) that are used for food

2. A tall plant that produces yellow seeds (called kernels) that are eaten as a vegetable

3. A vegetarian who occasionally eats meat.

4. Having plenty of food to eat

5. Poor nutrition

6. A plant or plant product that is grown by farmers

7. To produce or provide (something, such as a plant or crop)

8. A person who does not eat any food that comes from animals and who often also does not use
animal products (such as leather)

9. Something that is added to something else in order to make it complete

10. Type of vegetable (such as a pumpkin) that has a usually hard skin and that is eaten cooked

11. Vegetarian: someone who eats only vegetables and grains

12. A chemical substance that occurs naturally in certain foods and that is important for good
health

13. A seed that is eaten as a vegetable and that comes from any one of many different kinds of
climbing plants

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LESSON 2, 12‐10‐12/AΠ SESSION /TEACHING MATERIAL: TEXT 1 NUTRITION & DIET  
 
C. FILL IN THE GAPS IN THE PARAGRAPHS BELOW WITH A SUITABLE WORD FROM
THE BOX ABOVE EACH.

a. Vegan b. volume c. uncooked

A. Raw foodism is the philosophy that most or all of one's diet should be 2……….. foods. Raw
foods diets are usually 1………….and vegan raw foodism will be the focus of this article. As I
understand it, the trend in raw foodist circles in recent years has been to emphasize eating at
least 80% of your food (by 3………….. ) as raw, rather than 100%.

a. enter b. dietary    c. aggregates d. chemical   e. broken f. molecules g. consist

B. 1. ……………minerals (also known as mineral nutrients) are the 2. …………elements required by

living organisms, other than the four elements carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, and oxygen present
in common organic 3……………. . Examples of mineral elements include calcium,
magnesium, potassium, sodium, zinc, and iodine. Most minerals that 4………………….into the
dietary physiology of organisms 5……………… of simple chemical elements. Larger 6. ………….of
minerals need to be 7………………… down for absorption.

a. tissues b. substance c. taken in d. converted e. metabolism

C. A nutrient is a chemical that an organism needs to live and grow or a 1……………. used in an
organism's 2. ………………….which must be 3……………..from its environment.
They are used to build and repair 4…………… regulate body processes and are 5.
…………………..to and used as energy.

a. labels b. available c. calories d. equal e. amount f. respiration

D. Food energy is the 1……………….. of energy obtained from food that is 2. ……………. through
cellular 3…………… Food energy is expressed in food 4……………… (labeling: EU kcal, U.S.
calories) or kilojoules (kJ).) One food calorie is 5………….. to 4.184 kilojoules. Within the
European Union, both the kilocalorie (kcal) and kilojoule (kJ) appear on nutrition 6.
……………… In many countries, only one of the units is displayed.

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LESSON 2, 12‐10‐12/AΠ SESSION /TEACHING MATERIAL: TEXT 1 NUTRITION & DIET  
 
D. WORD MATCH

Match the following words to make meaningful word compounds which are found in
the related text.

1. organic a. planning

2. nutritional b. syndrome

3. weight c. nutritionist

4. palatability of d. nutrition

5. clinical e. molecules

6.optimal f. management

7. nutritional g. trend

8. high-nutrition h. diet

9. meal i. foods

10. appropriate j. deficiencies

11. seasonal k. disorder

12. eating l. supplement

13. human m. ingestion

14. unbalanced n. element

15. contemporary o. intake

16. food p. health

17. dietary q. amounts

18. metabolic r. food

19. proper s. preferences

20. chemical t. needs

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