1: Designing A Healthy Diet

Learning Objectives

After completing this unit, you should be able to:

1. Be able to define nutrition, food, and nutrients, and describe how nutrition is related to health, including risk of chronic disease.
2. Describe the different factors that impact food choices.
3. Understand the basic structure of molecules and that all nutrients are also chemical molecules.
4. Be able to describe the 6 types of nutrients and the various ways they are classified.
5. Understand how the Dietary Reference Intakes (DRI) are determined, what each type of DRI value means, and how they are used.
6. Be able to use the information in a Nutrition Facts label to understand the nutritional qualities of a food.
7. Be familiar with several concepts that are helpful in planning a healthful diet, including adequacy, balance, moderation, variety, nutrient density, and empty calories.
8. Be familiar with and able to use tools for planning a healthful diet, including MyPlate, Harvard Healthy Eating Plate, and the Dietary Guidelines for Americans.