Question
Your local public health department has decided to create a campaign that encourages people to eat more nuts because of their potential health benefits. The department plans to focus its education efforts on three main audiences: people over 55, children younger than 12, and college students. As part of the campaign, they need a two-sentence summary of the primary health benefits for each audience.
Find three articles on the health benefits of eating nuts (or a particular nut). Create four versions of your summary that address different audiences:
Appropriate for all of the audiences
Particularly appropriate for seniors
Particularly appropriate for children
Particularly appropriate for college students
When submitting your final summaries, answer the following questions:
What changes did you make to your summaries to accommodate for each of these audiences, and why?
What assumptions about your audiences helped you decide what to include or exclude?
Also, include complete reference information for each of the three articles you used to create your summaries. Lastly, write a one-page memo directed to the Outreach Team of the Public Health Department that includes each of your summaries and justifies your choices.
Sample paper
Your local public health department has decided to create a campaign that encourages people to eat more nuts because of their potential health benefits.
Maintaining a healthy body has been paramount to the most individual. As a result, persons are always careful with the kind of food they eat and in most cases; they ensure they take a balanced diet to avoid malnutrition. Taking healthy food reduces chances of an individual getting sick. On the same note, eating nuts have been associated with plenty of health benefits which range from increased cognitive function to protection from Alzheimer’s and keeping a person’s heart healthy. As a result, individuals are encouraged to eat indigenous food such as groundnuts and peanuts to live a healthy life. In most cases, indigenous food is naturally free from any chemicals and thus do not pose any harm to a person’s health. This paper will attempt to show the benefits an individual can reap from groundnuts.
Part 1
Peanuts are considered to be very important in an individual’s health status as they contain large amounts of nutrients despite their size. Peanuts have nutritional benefits for individuals ranging from all the age from 10 years old to 60.
- Nutritional benefits of groundnuts to individuals above 60 years – aging population has a risk of experiencing memory loss given that their brain does not function like that of youth. However, consumption of peanuts helps to increase memory power as they contain vitamin B3 which is widely referred to as brain food(Jones, 2014). Thus, with proper peanuts consumption, an elderly individual stands a chance to have their brain function normally.
- Nutritional benefits of groundnuts to youths (college students) – college students who constitute a large percent of the youths have an opportunity to promote fertility as groundnuts are known to contain a large amount of folate. Moreover, consumption of peanuts for ladies during or pregnancies increases their chances of having a healthy baby free from serious neural tube defect.
- Nutritional benefits of groundnuts to individuals between the ages of 1 -12 years – infants and newborn children stand a high chance of death as their immune system is usually very weak. As a result, groundnuts are proposed to kids as the nuts contain vitamins that reduce mortality risks as well as the development of chronic diseases such as respiratory infections.
Part 2
Benefits of peanuts to all audiences
According to the University of Michigan health system (2011), eating 1.5 ounces per day of groundnuts as part of saturated fat and cholesterol reduces the risk of heart disease. It is widely known that cholesterol is one of the causes of heart diseases and thus consumption of groundnuts helps to fight the level of cholesterol in the body and thus prevent the risk of succumbing to heart diseases. Groundnuts have a healthy fatty acid and high levels of proteins, vitamins, and minerals that are significant in maintaining a healthy body. Moreover, constant consumption of peanuts lowers body mass index and helps in diabetes management diets to all individuals irrespective of age.
Benefits of peanuts to seniors
10 – 25% of individuals with above sixty years of age have a risk of contracting gallstone especially if the individuals were suffering from asthma and diabetes. According to a publication of University of California agriculture and natural resources department on safe methods of consuming and handling nuts, they state that frequent nuts consumption helps in cutting the risk of gallstones in both elderly men and women. Moreover, the seniors who have a habit of consuming groundnuts are entitled to benefit from L – arginine which helps to improve the health of artery walls by making them more flexible and less prone to blood clots thus facilitating easy flow of blood to all parts and organs of the body (Akhtar, 2014).
Benefits of peanuts to youths (college students)
According to V. S. Settaluri, C. V. K. Kandala , N. Puppala1 , J. Sundaram on peanuts and their nutritional aspects, state that eating pure nuts rather than peanut butter is better. Moreover, they go on to say that proper consumption of peanuts can help fight depression which is among the youths and college students as a result of life frustrations. Peanuts are known to a good source of tryptophan an amino acid which is essential in the production of serotonin a key brain chemical that helps in regulating moods. On most occasions, the youths believe that they can handle both studies and work, but they end up suffering from stress due to workload, but consumption of groundnut helps to reduce chances of contracting depression.
Benefits of groundnut consumption on children
Early healthy eating habits ensure that children have a healthy life ahead of them. Statistics shows that my children between the ages of 5 to 15 are trying to lose weight as they are overweight given their young age. However, consumption of peanuts can help such children to control their weight as they contain high proteins and fiber contents that promote the feeling of fullness more than it adopts carbohydrates and thus, these children can control their weights to avoid adverse effects on their later lives. Moreover, peanuts help to protect the children from heart infections they lower levels of serum triglycerides in the body (Jukanti, 2012).
Part 3
Most of the changes done in the second part of the summary are the inclusion of specific nutrients that helps to prevent certain health issues for audiences in those categories. Giving my audiences an opportunity to know specific nutrients in peanuts will help increase their chances of forming a habit of having them. However, all these summaries are based on the assumption that individuals are not constant consumers of groundnuts and that they will not have any adverse effect on their body (Jukanti, 2012).
Internal memo
To: Outreach Team of the Public Health Department
From: nutrition officer
Date: September 23, 2016
Subject: consumption of peanuts
Due to the increase in needs and requirements of a healthy eating habit, I wish to propose to you a new method of keeping your health in check through the consumption of groundnuts.
Groundnuts are known to have multiple of health benefits regardless of the age of individuals consuming them. Some of the notable benefits of peanuts to the seniors include boosting memory capacity as well as preventing the risk of contracting gallstone which is some of the common infections among the old population of the globe.
On the other hand, peanuts have health benefits on the youths and college students as they enhance their fatality through folate and help to reduce the risk of contracting depression due to life frustrations. Peanuts are known to contain tryptophan which is very important in their bodies.
Finally, peanuts have nutritional benefits to children as they help reduce their mortality rate as well as helping them to control their weight considering that they contain fatty acids that fight cholesterol in the body. A good eating habit should start at an early age.
Best regards,
John.
References
Akhtar, S. K. (2014). Physicochemical characteristics, functional properties, and nutritional benefits of peanut oil: a review. Critical reviews in food science and nutrition, 54(12), , 1562-1575.
Jones, J. B. (2014). A randomized trial on the effects of flavorings on the health benefits of daily peanut consumption. The American journal of clinical nutrition, 99(3), , 490-496.
Jukanti, A. K. (2012). Nutritional quality and health benefits of chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.): a review. British Journal of Nutrition, 108(S1), , S11-S26.
