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Nutrition & Health
The overall nutrition of our patient is not well balanced since he does not get enough
antioxidants such as fruit, vegetables, and grains. The reasons for his lack of antioxidants are that
he does not consume any fruit, only eats a can of vegetables and a bowl of cereal, and finally, he
consumes way too many desserts and unhealthy foods/drinks such as nachos, candy, soda, and
fries. He does not drink any water either and with him being a fifteen year old male who swims
for two hours, five days a week, he is not living a healthy lifestyle since he should be drinking
plenty of water and not soda, especially since he is a swimmer. The health condition in our
patient’s family history includes heart disease and my patient has high blood pressure which can
lead to that disease. High blood pressure can be extremely harmful and life threatening since it
can result in a heart attack. The steps to a heart attack caused by high blood pressure are listed as
the following:

HBP causes damaged and blocked arteries.
A heart attack is the result of a blocked blood supply to the heart muscle tissue. This
can happen when the arteries to the heart become thicker and harder from a buildup of
plaque. High blood pressure causes scarred arteries that fill up with plaque and become
more prone to blood clots. Sometimes plaque or a blood clot can completely close an
artery, blocking the blood flow to tissue on the other side.
 Damaged arteries cause blood supply failures.
When a blockage cuts off the blood supply, part of the heart muscle supplied by that
coronary artery is deprived of blood. This is when a heart attack occurs. The oxygenstarved part of the heart muscle begins to die. The longer the artery stays blocked, the
greater the damage to the heart.
 Heart muscle tissue dies when coronary arteries do not supply blood.
(American Heart Association September 11, 2014-2015).
Throughout the United States, many people are becoming obese and developing diseases
that are caused by the lack of a healthy diet. There are many statistic trends throughout the US
that have been recorded. Some of which are the following: “Fruit and vegetable intake, although
rising, is still below the five servings per day recommended in the USDA's Dietary Guidelines
for Americans, sixty percent of Americans eat snack food regularly, consuming about 20 percent
of their calories from snacks, and since 1965, artificial sweetener use has increased threefold,”
(Diet Health 2004-2015). Also, there is recorded data of eating healthy throughout the world
which includes all of the following: “Financial concerns (33%) proved to be a major, but not the
primary, obstacle to healthy eating around the world, the biggest barrier was a perceived time
crunch for survey respondents, with 35% of consumers agreeing to the statement that, ‘I don’t
always eat healthily because I haven’t got time,’ availability (26%), confusion about which foods
are healthy (24%), substandard taste (25%), and the desire to treat oneself (41%) were the other
main considerations preventing healthy eating,” (The Nielsen Company August 30, 2010-2015).
The diet/health trends nationally and internationally are similar in many ways since both
populations seem to have trouble keeping a healthy diet. In conclusion, it’s not that the people in
the US and throughout the world are surrounded by unhealthy food; health problems are caused
by of the choices that those humans make and how serious they are about being healthy.
Works Cited
"Heart and Artery Damage and High Blood Pressure." Heart and Artery Damage and High
Blood Pressure. American Heart Association, 11 Sept. 2014. Web. 12 Mar. 2015.
"Newswire ." Global Trends in Healthy Eating. The Nielsen Company, 30 Aug. 2010-2015.
Web. 12 Mar. 2015.
"Dietary Trends, American." Diet.com. Diet Health, 2004-2015. Web. 12 Mar. 2015.