Pre-Health Shadowing: To Eat or Not to Eat?
- kanishkabhalotia1
- Jun 26, 2021
- 5 min read
Updated: Jul 12, 2021
Note: Pre-health shadowing is a non-profit organization that helps pre-health students by providing lectures by credited medical professionals, learning resources, and volunteering opportunities. As a volunteer, I wrote an article to be assessed for publishing on the site (https://www.prehealthshadowing.com/).
Plan:
· It is evident that the author knows what they are writing about through an organized thesis statement and a captivating hook.
· You must have at least two supporting claims to your main argument.
· The work should include at least one citation from a peer-reviewed journal.
· Any images must be cited with the appropriate credentials. Images are not required.
· Along with facts, the author’s own analytical thoughts must back up any claims.
Subjects:
- Tello-medicine: medical care in the digital age
- drug use: worldly comparison to Amsterdam: safety of psychedelics
-government role in healthcare
- federally qualified health centres and their benefits, why we should pay attention
- plastic in the food chain
^ fish, animals, holistic impact on humans consumption
^ ocean pollution caused by the fishing industry
^ does fish contain protein?
^ killing ocean life for sport/celebration- diversity in the ocean
^ fishing industries being a large corporation
^ corrupt food labelling
^ conditions of workers
Possible thesis statements:
- The consequences of eating fish outweigh the benefits holistically as observed in the seafood being sold and environmental impacts of overfishing.
- The consequences of the actions of the fishing industry outweigh in negatives in comparison to the nutritional value of eating seafood.
- The environmental and human rights crimes the fishing industry has committed outweigh any nutritional positives eating seafood has.
Research:
· Discarded nets, lines, and ropes now make up about 46% of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
· Ghost fishing gear is the deadliest form of marine plastic as it unselectively catches wildlife, entangling marine mammals, seabirds, sea turtles, and sharks, subjecting them to a slow and painful death through exhaustion and suffocation. Ghost fishing gear also damages critical marine habitats such as coral reefs. Additionally, it’s responsible for the loss of commercially valuable fish stocks, undermining both the overall sustainability of fisheries as well as the people who depend on fish for food and livelihoods.
19.06.21- potential research idea
1. Anxiety’s effects on the body- specifically skin
Mental disorders have a variety of symptoms, many being or leading to stress. Studies have shown, and many of us have noticed, how high levels of anxiety and stress result in skin problems. I’m sure we’ve all faced an influx of acne during finals week.
2. Diet culture
- which diets are the best for building the perfect body
- is intermediate fasting healthy- Korean diets
- society’s obsession with weight loss
- are there multiple healthy body types?
- how does genetics impact weight?
Article
From Hollywood stars to K-pop idols to Instagram fitness ‘gurus’; everyone seems to have a different perspective on weight loss and diet culture. Some recommend intermittent fasting, others encouraging solely drinking beverages, or completely cutting food groups. Society’s obsession with the perfect body has allowed the birth of fitness and diet culture which is having psychological and physical impacts on its people.
Diets that people recommend tend to be so generalized though many advocates for self-love and acceptance. We often hear that everyone’s bodies are different though how does this translate into ideal body types, body dysmorphia, income, eating disorders, and weight-loss diets?
Diet Culture
The definition of diet is ‘what you eat’ though diet culture pushes healthy lifestyles through weight loss to achieve a specific body type. As body types we see in the media change, certain styles come into a fashion which causes trends within this culture. For instance, what first started off as a treatment for metabolic disfunction, the ketogenic diet has become popular amongst people trying to lose weight. It consists of a high fat intake while limiting carbohydrates, so the body is forced to burn fat for energy rather than carbohydrates. Though this seems like an effective strategy for overweight people, cutting out food groups can have consequences. “As a result of the changes in dietary consumption and the body’s adaptive mechanisms to cope with the reduced carbohydrate intake, there are several changes in the blood composition of individuals following the ketogenic diet.” (Yolanda Smith, B.Pharm, Jan 2020). Due to the increased fat intake in the diet, cholesterol and lipids levels in the blood increase dramatically with ‘News Medical: Life Sciences’ claiming 60% of patients have increased lipid levels due to this diet. The issue with trendy diets is that it doesn’t comply with the general population. People’s bodies and lifestyles are different, so it is unethical to weigh one diet against another.
Having popular body types cause dysmorphia, which is being observed in younger age groups as media becomes more accessible. This leads to eating disorders that mentally and physically destroy a person. According to the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders, 30 million Americans live with an ED. Due to the stigma surrounding mental health, many have not accepted their disorder and as a result, continue to suffer. Ergo, as a society, we must change the way we perceive bodies.
Lifestyle and Body Type
Genetic predisposition plays a role in a person’s ability to gain or lose weight. We can observe this as certain people have a higher and faster metabolism. Metabolism is the process where the human body converts carbohydrates into energy through respiration. A high rate of metabolism tends to burn calories faster, resulting in a leaner body type. If your ancestors had an adequate availability of food, their predecessors are likely to have a high metabolism. However, factors such as age, sex, hormone function, and activity level significantly contribute to the metabolism rate. Therefore, people would have different diets to suit their requirements. Returning to the last example, people with high metabolism with a high activity level would have to eat a larger number of calories to sustain themselves in comparison to someone with low metabolism and an inactive lifestyle. It is dangerous to recommend highly generalized diets like Keto since people are born with different dietary needs.
Moreover, income level and the current availability of essential nutrients influence someone’s requirements. “Poverty is a proximate determinant of malnutrition that mediates through inadequate dietary intake, lack of medical care, lack of access to sanitation and hygiene and poor environment.” (Basant Kumar Panda, Oct 2020). The sudden influx of any food group can disrupt someone’s internal processes as it challenges the basal metabolic rate (BMR). Overall, it is ineffective to have perfect body types since this is different for everyone.
In conclusion, hard evidence supports the destigmatization of unhealthy diet culture. Regardless of what the media feeds the population, people must recognize facts over fiction. It is unrealistic to expect certain body types from people since everyone leads different lives. To resolve such issues, we should advocate for body positivity, acknowledge research and demand for inclusive representation in media.
Citations
"Keto Therapies". Charlie Foundation for Ketogenic Therapies. The Charlie Foundation. November 12th 2020. https://charliefoundation.org/diet-plans/ Accessed 20.06.21.
"Ketogenic Diet Side Effects". Yolanda Smith, B.Pharm. News Medical Life Sciences. January 20th 2020. https://www.news-medical.net/health/Ketogenic-Diet-Side-Effects.aspx Accessed 20.06.21.
"Health Effects of Low-Carbohydrate Diets: Where Should New Research Go?" Judith Wylie-Rosett, EdD, RD, Karin Aebersold, MPH, Beth Conlon, MS, RD, Carmen R. Isasi, MD, PhD, and Natania W. Ostrovsky, PhD. US National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3595318/ Accessed 20.06.21.
"Reducing the Lipid Levels in Your Blood". American Family Physician. 1998 May. https://www.aafp.org/afp/1998/0501/p2207.html Accessed 20.6.21.
"Eating disorder statistics 2021". Anis Rehman, MD, SingleCare Team. The Check Up by SingleCare. January 21st 2021. https://www.singlecare.com/blog/news/eating-disorder-statistics/ Accessed 20.06.21.
"Metabolism" Larissa Hirsch, MD. Teens Health from Nemours. July 2019. https://kidshealth.org/en/teens/metabolism.html Accessed 20.06.21.
"Malnutrition and poverty in India: does the use of public distribution system matter?" Basant Kumar Panda, Sanjay K. Mohanty, Itishree Nayak, Vishal Dev Shastri, S.V. Subramanian. BMC Nutrition: Springer Nature. October 1st 2020. https://bmcnutr.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40795-020-00369-0 Accessed 20.06.21.
"Crucial Facts About High Metabolism Everyone Needs to Know". Anna Klepchukova, MD. Health Insights, Flo. September 23rd 2020. https://flo.health/menstrual-cycle/lifestyle/diet-and-nutrition/facts-about-high-metabolism Accessed 20.06.21.
"Why people become overweight?". Harvard Health Publishing: Harvard Medical School. June 24th 2019. https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/why-people-become-overweight Accessed 20.06.21.
"Other Factors in Weight Gain". Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. August 17th 2020. https://www.cdc.gov/healthyweight/calories/other_factors.html Accessed 20.06.21.
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