(Red Bull HD, n.d.)
​
Red Bull is a highly popular energy drink marketed towards early adults. It is intended to provide energy for people doing daily activities, resulting in high performance and attentiveness. Situations where Red Bull encourages consumption include:

• On the Road
• While in Lecture Halls and Study Sessions
• While at Work
• While Doing Sports
• While Playing Video Games

(Red Bull, n.d.)

All of these situations are geared towards Red Bull's targeted market of young adults.

Nutritional Analysis
Each can of Red Bull contains 110 calories (6% of early adults' daily intake), with little amounts of saturated fats and cholesterol. Red Bull is also very low in protein and fiber. (Nutrition Facts, n.d.)

However, most of the calories come from the drink's 27 g of sugar (29% of early adults' daily intake). ​It is not recommended for people to consume Red Bull due to the high amounts of sugar present in the drink. The high sugar drinks can be linked to obesity in young adults, due to the ease of consumption of the product. Also, users can experience a "crash-like" feeling after consumption, due to the high amounts of sugar causing blood sugar and insulin spikes in the body. To provide energy, each can of Red Bull also contains 80 mg of caffeine. The caffeine can provide a temporary boost in energy, but can also later result in nausea, headaches and insomnia. However, even though Red Bull is high in caffeine, it still falls well within the recommended intake of 300-400 mg of caffeine per day. (Stein, 2015) (Whiteman, n.d.)

Although Red Bull provides quick and convenient energy boosts for young adults, it is not recommended for young adults to rely on the drinks for providing energy, due to the high amounts of sugar. Also, a regular reliance on energy drinks may cause people to develop a dependence on them, and may result in withdrawal symptoms or difficulty performing without them. Instead, it is recommended to rely on other convenient healthier sources of energy, such as drinking tea, or getting carbohydrates from fruit. (Energy Drink, n.d.)

KRAFT DINNER HEALTH CLAIMS:

• 'Good' source of Calcium, Iron and Protein
• Contains 1/2 serving of vegetables in every serving
• Targeted at college students (early adults)
  
  ADVERTISEMENT FEATURES:
• Cheap yet delicious
• Young adults commonly featured in the ads
• Ads are frequently on TV, and on online sources such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, etc.

When you're looking to save on food, there's no doubt that Kraft Dinner (KD) is a cheap meal. But more often than not, the cheaper the food is in price, the cheaper the food is in quality as well. Consuming KD on a regular basis sacrifices your health! Let's start with the fact that the orange/yellow color that appears to be the color of the cheese, is actually tartrazine (yellow 5). Tartrazine is an artificial dye made from petroleum. This food dye has been banned from many countries such as Austria and Norway because of its health risks. Yellow 5 contains cancer causing agents, and causes long-term health problems like asthma, migraines, and skin rashes. It also has been linked to have a negative impact on an individual's ability to learn. So, although Kraft Dinner may be a cheap, easy, and delicious meal - its ingredients prove otherwise on long-term health affects. 

​By: Darryl Leung

CHANGES IN THE BODY

• Most adults have reached their adult heights by the age of 20, and stop growing. However in males, muscles continue to grow, and both genders continue to progressively gain more body fat.

(Welton, 2013)

• Skin becomes thinner and loses its elasticity
• Wrinkles start to develop
• Wounds take longer to heal

​(Physical, n.d.)

• Early adults need to maintain adequate intake of vitamins and minerals such as zinc, Vitamin C, A, B7, and E, as they help address these issues that arise during this particular life cycle.

PHYSICAL PERFORMANCE

• Early adulthood is the time where professional athletes train the most intensively, as they are at their peak in physical performance at that age. Such physical abilities include things such as muscle strength, sensory abilities, reaction time, and cardiac functioning. As the athletes progress into middle age, their quality of performance starts to decline, so all the efforts of their careers get focused on the few years of prime time in early adulthood.
  (Physical, n.d.)
• Because of the intensive physical demand on the body that the training generates, diets need to be very high in nutritional value, to give the body energy, and to help the body recover and handle the physical loads.
• However, the body’s metabolic rate starts declining in early adulthood, making it necessary for early adults to be very conscious of calorie intake, especially coming out of adolescence where calorie intake may have been very forgiving due to high metabolic rates.

           (Early, n.d.)

• This decline in metabolism results in a diet that needs to be high in nutritional value, but not excessive in calories.

By: Mackenzie Lad, Rabiah Choksi & Darryl Leung

DAILY ENERGY NEEDS:

• WOMEN: 1,600 - 2,100 calories per day
• MEN: 2,000 - 3,000 calories per day​
• About 15-20% of calories from protein,
• 15 - 30%  of calories from fat (do NOT exceed)
• 55 - 60% of calories from carbohydrates
• Active adults should eat above the average calorie requirements to maintain body weight. The increased amount of energy the individual requires is dependent on the type of activity and amount of time spent exercising.
  ​​

GOALS: Eat the most nutrients within fewer calories, limit saturated & trans fats, half of all grain products consumed should be whole grains.

​
It is not always easy to meet these seemingly simple nutritional goals on a daily basis. Many factors, both in one's control and out of reach, influence the individual's ability to eat the best diet for their age, weight, gender, and health conditions. Some of these factors include...

• Drug /alcohol use and abuse
• Health trends in the media (fad dieting)
• Genetics prevailing after growth period (adolescence) ends
• Social stress/ anxiety
• Financial conditions
• Time Management
• Family situation

As you can see,  SOCIAL, PHYSIOLOGICAL, and PSYCHOLOGICAL factors play a key role in the food choices and health status of the early adult.

Dietary choices go beyond physical appearance and self esteem. There are many health issues directly related to unhealthy eating, some of which include...

• Heart disease
• Osteoporosis
• Early onset Alzheimer's disease
• Obesity 
• Type II diabetes
• Digestive disorders
  

Dietary issues can develop in early adulthood as well, such as

• Lactose intolerance (declining levels of lactase in the body) (Orenstein, n.d.)

Healthy habits are formed within individuals early in life, and young adulthood is the first test of independence one must face. When making nutritional choices, early adults should be wary of the health issues associated with poor diets, and make a conscious effort to consume the recommended amount of nutrients for his/her age, weight, activity level, gender.