Preventing Diabetes Through Healthy Diet and Exercise
This reflective paper documents one student's year-long journey toward healthier living, motivated by witnessing a parent's deteriorating health due to poor diet and type 2 diabetes. Drawing on Kolb's experiential learning framework, the paper moves through four stages: concrete experience, observations and reflections, conceptual generalizations, and application to new situations. The author explores the links between high-fructose corn syrup consumption and diabetes onset, the benefits of organic and locally sourced foods, and the value of low-impact exercise such as hiking. The paper also addresses cardiovascular health markers, cholesterol types, and the limitations of quantitative fitness testing as a measure of true preventive health.
- Introduction: A Personal Motivation: Family diabetes diagnosis sparks personal health journey
- Observations and Reflections: Physical improvements and community connections through healthy living
- Concepts and Generalizations: Nutrition science, cholesterol types, and fitness testing
- Application to New Situations: Future dietary goals and sharing health knowledge with others
- Conclusion and Ongoing Commitment: Sustaining healthy habits and promoting cultural change
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What makes this paper effective
- The author grounds abstract health concepts in lived personal experience, making the argument both credible and relatable without sacrificing academic support.
- Peer-reviewed sources (Bray et al., 2004; Malik et al., 2010; Davis, 2008) are woven naturally into the narrative to substantiate claims about diet and diabetes, demonstrating source integration at an undergraduate level.
- The paper honestly acknowledges both successes and failures — particularly the inability to change a family member's habits — which gives it intellectual honesty and rhetorical balance.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper applies Kolb's experiential learning cycle as an organizing framework, moving systematically from concrete experience through reflective observation, abstract conceptualization, and active experimentation. This structure allows the author to use personal anecdote as evidence while situating it within a broader scholarly and scientific context, a technique common in health education and reflective practice writing.
Structure breakdown
The paper is divided into four labeled sections that map directly onto Kolb's cycle. The introduction establishes motivation and initial actions. The reflections section evaluates physical and social changes. The concepts section defines key nutritional and cardiovascular terms with scholarly backing. The application section outlines future goals and strategies for sharing health knowledge with others. The conclusion is embedded within the application section rather than standing alone.
Introduction: A Personal Motivation
I started my health and nutrition program study after I began reading more health literature. I had seen my father's health erode as a result of poor dieting and lack of exercise. He suffers from diabetes and is convinced it is not related to his lack of dieting or exercise, but the literature I had read convinced me otherwise. Davis (2008) showed that natives in the Marshall Islands developed diabetes when they moved away from their natural, organic diets and began consuming pre-packaged, fast foods. He initiated a program that returned them to a lifestyle of living off the land and sea, which gave them exercise and a healthy, organic diet. Their diabetes disappeared (Davis, 2008). Bray, Nielsen, and Popkin (2004) and Malik et al. (2010) have also shown a link between consumption of high-fructose corn syrup, soda, and the onset of diabetes. For me, it was a matter of reading the literature and seeing my father drink three cans of Mountain Dew every day alongside the fast food he regularly ate. I knew I did not want to go down that path, so I started focusing on my own health, nutrition, and exercise regimens. That was about a year ago.
My goals and objectives in starting a health and nutrition program were to eat organic, avoid unnecessary sugar — especially high-fructose corn syrup — and to get involved in a low-impact exercise routine. To achieve these goals, I began with a simple survey of the items in my fridge and cupboard and found far too much candy and pre-packaged food. I looked at my after-school and after-work activities and found they consisted mainly of sitting at a computer or watching television. My goals were to change these eating and exercise habits.
I did not keep any journals, not formally speaking, nor was I evaluated in any formal way. However, I am good at holding myself accountable, so I was not worried on that front. The challenge was to find out how to replace my unhealthy habits with healthy ones. I needed to know what options I had. To find this out, I turned to the Internet. I had refrained from going to the grocery store and was used to ordering on a food delivery app. I noticed a "healthy" filter option and selected it; a list of restaurants I had never visited appeared. I selected I Love Juice Bar and ordered a bowl of overnight oats. The overnight oats were delicious, so I looked up the recipe online and decided this was the type of meal I would prepare for brunch each day — no more donuts. The overnight oats recipe consisted of almond milk, almond butter, oats, blueberries (which I replaced with cut-up apples), honey, and cacao nibs. I have been enjoying overnight oats each day for a year and can honestly say that my digestion has improved, I sleep better at night, and I feel I have lost weight since I am no longer loading up on carbs and sugary snacks.
The main resources I used to learn about what foods to eat and what low-impact exercises to do were the Internet and health-conscious friends. A great deal of good information is available through social media, and it can all be verified by searching Google Scholar for scholarly resources, which I did to find information on diabetes and diet. The study by Davis (2008) on the Marshall Islands was particularly impactful for me.
References
Bray, G. A., Nielsen, S. J., & Popkin, B. M. (2004). Consumption of high-fructose corn syrup in beverages may play a role in the epidemic of obesity. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 79(4), 537–543.
Davis, B. (2008). Defeating diabetes: Lessons from the Marshall Islands. Today's Dietitian, 10(8), 24.
Heart. (2020). Cholesterol. Retrieved from https://www.heart.org/en/health-topics/cholesterol/hdl-good-ldl-bad-cholesterol-and-triglycerides
Heart Monounsaturated Fat. (2020). Retrieved from https://www.heart.org/en/healthy-living/healthy-eating/eat-smart/fats/monounsaturated-fats
Malik, V. S., Popkin, B. M., Bray, G. A., Després, J. P., Willett, W. C., & Hu, F. B. (2010). Sugar-sweetened beverages and risk of metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes: A meta-analysis. Diabetes Care. https://doi.org/10.2337/dc10-1079
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