NUTR 101

Prof: Sara Ducey

October 26, 2015

Reflective Essay about Human Being and Nutrition

Each human on earth needs energy to survive. Calories obtained in food are
usually burned by every single activity of the bodys physiology, therefore; a human
needs knowledge about evolution, climate, nutrition, cooking, and technology to
survive. Warngham believes that fire is needed to fuel the organ that makes
possible products of culture, language and human brain. We became human by
adding meat to our diet and more important eating it cooked, so fire plays a very
important role in our daily eating routine as it did many thousand years ago.
Wrangham proved a theory that chimps combine meat with tree leaves in
their mouth to facilitate chewing and swallowing. Today we are taught to eat a
balanced diet of meat, vegetables, grains, and fruits to nourish our body with the
necessary nutrients like protein, carbohydrates, vitamins and fibers. In my area of
work I face diseases caused by hereditary gens and poor nutrition, just to mention
Barretts, celiac disease, colon cancer, diverticulosis, and hemorrhoids. He says that
eating raw meat could be quiet dangerous for young children and terrific way to
lose wait for adults, this last statement sounds to me as sarcasm. Is it because raw
meat makes people sick from their stomach causing diarrhea therefore losing wait? I
remember very vague that when I was little my grandparent always had meat

drying under the sun on big flat stones. Now I understand that it was the way to
preserve the meat, since there was no electricity.
At the National Museum of Natural History I learned that fire may reach back
more than 1.5 million years. Also that fire provided a new tool with several uses
including cooking, which led to a fundamental change in the early human diet.
Cooking releases nutrients in foods and made them easier to digest as well as kill
some bacteria and poisons. Meat (liver) is a great source of Vitamin B12 as it is
lentils, and spinach. Vitamin B12 is involved in every cell of the body, formation of
blood and functions of the brain, deficiency of which can cause anemia, mental
disorder like Alzheimers disease- dementia. Heart disease and birth defects are
present with low concentration of folate. Diet high in crude protein support high milk
yield also associated with lower reproductive performance. High proteins can result
in elevated plasma urea concentration that affects urine tract system and fertility.
Deficiency of Vitamin E affects reproductions performance causing immature
gonads and lower hatching rate and survival of offspring. Adequate amount of
Vitamin E protects against heart diseases, cancer and age related, and it can be
found in tofu, cooked spinach, nuts, sunflower, avocado, shrimp, fish and broccoli.
Vitamin D is a hormone vital to the health of every cell of the body manufactured in
presence of ultra violet light. Foods rich of vit D are salmon, shrimp, egg yolks, and
sardines.
Nina Jablonskis hypothesis made me understand better the fundamentals of
the skin color as a product of the evolution. Her tech is about the importance of
exposure to the sun and the advantage and disadvantage of dark and light skin in
different climates. I have observed that my mother being very light skin color has

more dramatically effects when exposed to the sun without skin protection than me
being a fare dark skin.
Overall, I conclude that evolution; human being, nutrition, education,
technology, and ultraviolet light are correlated in every ones life