Author Question: Can restaurant foods meet nutrient needs or support health as well as homemade foods? What are ... (Read 127 times)

BRWH · **on:** Aug 20, 2018

Can restaurant foods meet nutrient needs or support health as well as homemade foods? What are examples of ways to improve a restaurant meal?

Question 2

Why do energy needs often decrease with advancing age?

soda0602 · **Reply #1 on:** Aug 20, 2018

Answer to Question 1

It is possible to eat restaurant foods and meet nutrient needs with a healthful diet. However, making it happen takes some effort. Most often, restaurant foods are overly endowed with calories, fat, saturated fat, sugar, and salt but often lack fiber, iron, or calcium. Vegetables and fruits may not be on the menu and a single meat or pasta portion may exceed a whole day's recommended intake. However, there are ways to make restaurant food fit into a healthful diet. Some examples: Restrict your portions to sizes that do not exceed your energy needs. Ask that excess portions be placed in take-out containers right away. Ask for extra vegetables, fruit, or salad and request whole-grain breads and pasta. Make judicious choices of foods that stay within intake guidelines for solid fats, added sugars, and salt.

Answer to Question 2

Energy needs often decrease with advancing age because the number of active cells in each organ often decreases and the metabolism-controlling hormone thyroxine diminishes, reducing the body's resting metabolic rate. Another reason is that as older people reduce their physical activity, their lean tissue diminishes, resulting in sarcopenia, an age-related loss of muscle tissue with serious health implications.