Matching Items (7)
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- All Subjects: Nutrition
- Creators: Levinson, Simin
- Member of: Barrett, The Honors College Thesis/Creative Project Collection
- Resource Type: Text
Description
Forty collegiate gymnasts were recruited for a nutrition and health study. Participants must have been at least eighteen years old at Arizona State University (ASU) in the club or team gymnastics program. The Institutional Review Board (IRB) reviewed and accepted my survey in order to hand out to the gymnasts. The ASU club and team coach and the ASU study team also approved my survey. As soon as the survey was approved, it was emailed to all of the gymnasts. ASU gymnasts were surveyed on nutritional knowledge and personal health. Subjects answered a quiz on nutrient needs and serving sizes. Personal questions consisted of height, weight, injuries, body image, and typical meal plans. Gymnasts were given a $10 compensation to increase the participation. We found that only 16% of gymnasts surveyed scored a 70% or higher on their nutritional knowledge. Although these gymnasts do not have adequate knowledge, the majority consume a healthy diet. Diets included fruits, vegetables, protein-rich foods, and few high fat and sugary foods. Four of the gymnasts had one or fewer injuries in the past two years, although, four gymnasts also had three or more injuries. No correlation was found between diet and injuries. There was also no correlation between the gymnast's nutritional knowledge and their health.
ContributorsKugler, Natalie K. (Author) / Levinson, Simin (Thesis director) / Berger, Christopher (Committee member) / School of Nutrition and Health Promotion (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-12
Description
Nutritional support offered before and during chemotherapy treatment is proven to improve the outcomes of treatment (Bernhardson, 2016). This project seeks to examine current forms of nutritional support offered to patients, as well as the models of care and support teams in cancer treatment centers. The basis for this project incorporated personal experiences at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Gilbert, Arizona as well as research into the work of clinical oncology dietitians. An intense interest in food videos and blogs also informed this project, and was incorporated in the hope of providing chemotherapy patients a platform to discover recipes specific to their unique situation. The combination of this research was utilized to create several videos which demonstrated specific recipes beneficial for patients as well as creating a platform for this particular population. While nutritional support can take multiple forms, the focus of nutritional support surrounds symptom management. The common side effects of chemotherapy such as nausea, mucositis (mouth sores), and extreme weight loss were taken into account. Recipes were formulated to directly address these conditions and each recipe was broken down into the benefits of both macronutrients and micronutrients. In addition to formulating specific recipes and videos, barriers to proper nutritional support were examined and explained. These barriers include understaffing of clinical dietitians at cancer treatment centers, a patient's lack of transportation to and from treatments, as well as an overwhelming viewpoint that nutritional support is only required for extreme cases of malnutrition. Combatting these barriers and offering more forms of nutritional support will help to increase a patient's positive response to treatment, manage their symptoms, and improve their overall quality of life.
ContributorsMonteilh, Christina Eleanor (Author) / Levinson, Simin (Thesis director) / Martinelli, Sarah (Committee member) / Harrington Bioengineering Program (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-12
Description
This creative project seeks to demonstrate the nutritional and financial benefits of cooking in versus eating out to college age students. We sought to determine what factors significantly differentiated restaurant meals versus home-cooked versions, and how we could share this information with our peers to potentially influence them to make a healthy lifestyle change. The first step was to determine the factors that influence college-aged students eating habits, and was presented with a review of relevant literature in several topics. We researched food literacy in young adults, the impact of fast food, social media's role in healthy eating habits, health behavior change in young adults, and the benefits of home cooking to obtain a general baseline of the knowledge of college-aged students. The initial research was utilized to write more effective blog posts that appropriately addressed our targeted demographic and to determine what platforms would be most appropriate to convey our information. These ideas were taken and then translated into a blog and Instagram account that contained healthy, copycat recipes of popular restaurant meals. We wrote 30 blog posts which were made up of 20 original recipes, 8 nutrition informational posts, and an introduction/conclusion. Finally, a focus group was hosted to ascertain the opinions of our peers, and to determine if they would be willing to make a lifestyle change in the form of cooking more frequently as opposed to eating out regularly. We provided them with a pre and post survey to gather their opinions before and after reviewing the findings of our research and project. We concluded that if given the information in an accessible way, college students are willing to eat in, not out.
ContributorsKirch, Jayme Elizabeth (Co-author) / Sanford, Victoria (Co-author) / Lehmann, Jessica (Thesis director) / Martinelli, Sarah (Committee member) / Levinson, Simin (Committee member) / School of Nutrition and Health Promotion (Contributor) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor) / School of Human Evolution and Social Change (Contributor) / Department of Supply Chain Management (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
Injury Prevention of Young Adult Competitive Athletes Abstract: This literature review covers many aspects of health and injury prevention that affects the young adult population. This review will begin to formulate a general guideline for sustaining performance while minimizing the incidence for injury. This population is specifically narrowed down to competitive athletes between the ages of 16-22. Some of the topics covered in this paper are the effects of macro-nutrients and micro-nutrients such as iron, calcium, vitamin D and vitamin C, on the body. Along with relating nutrition to lowering the risk of injury, there are also other topics covered such as sleep, stress relief in the form of binaural sounds, training and over-training. Nutrition topics include carbohydrates, proteins and fats, which are then split into their respective roles inside the body. These macro-nutrients are also associated with recovery and the timing and quantity consumed can be at optimal levels for competitive athletes based on gender, age and size. The vitamins and minerals discussed are also important factors in injury prevention related to bone, ligament and muscle strength. These micro-nutrients are also related to hormone regulation and immune system response which are necessary in mitigating the risk of injury in the population being analyzed. Finally, there is a training section of this literary review which covers monitoring external and internal loads experienced by the athletes, movement patterns as well as flexibility, and how to respond to over-training syndrome and overreaching in young adult athletes. Creating a balance between all aspects covered will result in a high likelihood of reducing the risk for injury in the young adult population.
ContributorsMark, Colby Jordan (Author) / Levinson, Simin (Thesis director) / Feser, Erin (Committee member) / Harrington Bioengineering Program (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-12
Description
This thesis project will discuss how the three macronutrients, protein, carbohydrate and fat, benefit the body and what happens when the body is lacking in any of them. It also delves into micronutrients and supplements and how those can aid in the recovery process following an injury. Inflammation and sleep as well as mood disturbances are also explained. Meal options are available in the second half of this paper displaying pictures of nutritional meals along with their ingredients, instructions and calories. This project displays how a lack of protein can decrease muscle protein synthesis, how carbohydrate deficiency can lead to fatigue and more injury and how Omega-3 fatty acids are more beneficial than Omega-6 fatty acids. In addition, the paper discusses how vitamins, such as vitamin D and C, are important in providing bone strength and preventing excess inflammation. Supplements are reported to be beneficial, however, a disadvantage of consuming nutrients from a synthetic source can rob the athlete of a healthy mixture of nutrients and minerals. Overall, consumption of proper nutrients can aid in the recovery process following an injury and sleep is an important factor that should also be considered while the body heals.
ContributorsGorke, Haley Nicole (Author) / Levinson, Simin (Thesis director) / Hoffner, Kristin (Committee member) / College of Health Solutions (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2021-05
ContributorsWickman, Skylar (Author) / Levinson, Simin (Thesis director) / Lehmann, Jessica (Committee member) / O'Keefe, Kelly (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor) / College of Health Solutions (Contributor)
ContributorsWickman, Skylar (Author) / Levinson, Simin (Thesis director) / Lehmann, Jessica (Committee member) / O'Keefe, Kelly (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor) / College of Health Solutions (Contributor)