Chapter 25 — Exercises

Three tiers. 🔄 retrieval; 🪞 reflection.

Tier 1 — Recall and Comprehension

R1. Give §25.1's table — energy, protein/kg, micronutrients and required nutrient density across six stages. ⚠️ Which row is the chapter's central problem, and why?

R2. ⚠️ Why is folic acid supplementation described as preconception rather than pregnancy?

R3. Give the energy increase in each trimester of pregnancy. ⚠️ What's the verdict on "eating for two"?

R4. Name four nutrients whose requirements rise in pregnancy. ⚠️ Which one does the chapter call genuinely under-taught, and where is it found?

R5. ⚠️ What are the real food-safety dangers in pregnancy, and how does that connect to Chapter 20?

R6. ⚠️ Compare lactation to pregnancy on energy and iodine. Which is higher?

R7. State both halves of the chapter's position on breastfeeding and formula. ⚠️ What does PROBIT show, and what does it not show?

R8. ⚠️ Why is complementary feeding recommended at around six months specifically?

R9. Give four complementary feeding rules. ⚠️ Which one does the chapter call absolute?

R10. ⚠️ Describe the LEAP trial and what changed as a result. What is the exception?

R11. State the division of responsibility. ⚠️ Who decides what, and who decides how much?

R12. ⚠️ Give the six feeding practices §25.6 says not to do, with what each is associated with. Which two backfire in opposite directions?

R13. What is food neophobia, when does it peak, and what is the intervention?

R14. ⚠️ What is parental weight talk associated with? State §25.7's practical instruction.

R15. Give §25.10b's bone table. ⚠️ When is the deposit made and when is the withdrawal?

R16. ⚠️ State the menopause weight question accurately — what's age, what's menopause, and which matters metabolically?

R17. ⚠️ List everything that inverts in §25.12.

R18. Give the protein recommendations for older adults, daily and per meal. ⚠️ What's the mechanism, and what must accompany it?

R19. ⚠️ Name eight contributors to the anorexia of ageing. Which two interventions does §25.14 call the most cost-effective, and are they nutritional?

R20. ⚠️ Name five signs of dysphagia. Which is often the presenting sign?

Tier 2 — Application

A1. 🔄 One sentence, four ages. Take "Eat less, watch your portions, cut down on fat, lose a bit of weight."

a) ⚠️ Explain precisely what's wrong with it for each of the chapter's four people. b) Now rewrite it four times, correctly. c) ⚠️ Which version is closest to standard public health messaging, and what does that tell you?

A2. The stage check. For each, state the single highest-priority nutritional action:

a) A 29-year-old planning a pregnancy in six months b) A woman three months postpartum, breastfeeding, trying to lose pregnancy weight c) A 4-year-old who refuses all vegetables d) A 14-year-old gymnast whose periods have stopped e) A 51-year-old woman worried about "menopause weight" f) An 81-year-old who has lost 5 kg in six months g) A 76-year-old with a wet voice after drinking tea

A3. ⚠️ Diagnose the feeding practice. For each parental behaviour, name it, say what it's associated with, and give the alternative:

a) "You can have pudding if you finish your broccoli." b) "We don't keep biscuits in the house because he'd eat them all." c) "Three more bites and you can get down." d) "She's got such a sweet tooth, just like her dad." e) "I'm being good today" (said in front of a child)

A4. The bone timeline. A 15-year-old distance runner is under-fuelling.

a) ⚠️ What is happening to her bone right now? b) What will be true at 51 that wouldn't have been? c) ⚠️ What is the intervention, and is it different from the one you'd give her at 51?

A5. Invert the advice. Take five recommendations from earlier chapters and state what they become for an 80-year-old:

a) Energy density down (Ch 22) b) Restrict added sugar (Ch 18) c) Aim for a healthy weight (Ch 24) d) Increase fibre (Ch 11) e) Drink to thirst (Ch 15)

A6. ⚠️ The older adult review. Someone is advising an 82-year-old about diet.

a) What two questions should be asked before any dietary advice? (§25.14) b) What should be measured? c) ⚠️ What would make you refuse to give weight-loss advice, and what would make you reconsider?

Tier 3 — Analysis and Synthesis

S1. The default person. This chapter argues most advice is calibrated for an adult aged ~25–55, not pregnant, not growing, not old.

a) ⚠️ Estimate what fraction of a typical lifespan is spent as that person. b) Find three pieces of public health messaging that fail for a stage in this chapter. c) ⚠️ Design a labelling or messaging system that accounts for stage. What breaks?

S2. ⚠️ Breastfeeding, honestly. §25.4 states both halves deliberately.

a) Write the strongest case that the chapter under-states the benefits. b) Write the strongest case that it over-states them. c) ⚠️ The chapter says support should go into workplaces, healthcare and paid leave rather than information. Is that a nutrition claim or a political one? Does the distinction matter?

S3. Stale guidance, quantified. Allergen advice reversed within a decade.

a) ⚠️ How would a health system actually retract advice to the people holding it? Design it. b) What would it cost, and what would go wrong? c) ⚠️ Find two other reversals in this book and estimate how many people are still following the old version.

S4. ⚠️ The obesity paradox. §25.12 holds the practical implication while flagging the explanation as low-confidence.

a) State the reverse-causation explanation precisely. b) ⚠️ Design the study that would separate it. Why is it hard? c) ⚠️ Is it defensible to act on a finding whose mechanism you don't believe? When?

S5. The research gap. §25.15 notes that the evidence base for nutrition in the menopause transition is thin relative to how many people it affects.

a) ⚠️ Name three other populations where this is true. (Chapter 23 §23.11 has one.) b) What determines what gets studied? Give three mechanisms. c) ⚠️ How should a textbook handle a topic where the research is thin but the need is large? Assess how this chapter did.

S6. 🔄 Two ends of one problem. §25.10b claims RED-S in a 15-year-old and osteoporosis risk in a 50-year-old are the same problem, thirty-five years apart.

a) ⚠️ Defend that claim precisely. b) Where does the analogy break? c) ⚠️ If it's true, what should change about how adolescent sport is run? Who would resist, and why?

🪞 Reflection

M1. ⚠️ Do the Project Checkpoint's Step 2. What are you still doing that was designed for a version of you from ten or more years ago?

M2. §25.6 says pressure and restriction both backfire. ⚠️ If you feed a child — which do you do? Be honest; nearly everyone does one.

M3. ⚠️ §25.7 says not to comment on your own body in front of a child. Do you? Did someone do it in front of you?

M4. ⚠️ §25.14 says eating with other people is one of the most effective interventions available. Who eats alone, in your life? What would it take to change that once a week?

M5. 🔄 ⚠️ The chapter opens with one sentence being wrong four times. Whose advice about food have you accepted without asking which version of you it was written for?