| Course | HW320 Contemporary Diet and Nutrition |
|---|---|
| Unit | Unit 1 |
| Paper type | Discussion board post |
| Length | About 430 words, 2 pages double-spaced |
| Format | APA 7 discussion post |
| School | Purdue University Global |
| Program | BS in Health and Wellness |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for HW320 Unit 1
The Missing Last Sentence of 1945: A Unit 1 Discussion Post Tracing the Eight-Glasses-a-Day Rule
HW320 · Unit 1 Discussion Board Post
Posted by [Student Name]
The writer's habit is composite; the 1945 allowance, the review that traced it and the current reference intakes cited are real.
Initial Post
For six years I have carried a one-liter bottle with hourly lines printed down the side, and I feel guilty whenever the water level falls behind the clock. The belief behind it is simple: a healthy adult needs eight 8-ounce glasses of plain water a day, on top of everything else they drink.
When I went looking for where that came from, I found a physiologist's review that had tried to trace the rule and could find no scientific study behind it (Valtin, 2002). The likeliest origin, the review suggests, is a 1945 recommendation from the Food and Nutrition Board, which advised about 2.5 liters of water a day for adults, roughly one milliliter for each calorie of food. The sentence that followed is the one that usually goes missing: most of this quantity is contained in prepared foods. In other words, the original advice counted the water in soup, fruit, coffee and milk.
The current reference values make the same point more precisely. The Adequate Intake for total water is about 3.7 liters a day for men and 2.7 liters for women, and "total water" means water from all beverages and all foods, with food supplying roughly a fifth of it (Institute of Medicine, 2005). The report sets no separate target for plain water and notes that healthy people generally meet their needs by letting thirst and normal drinking at meals guide them.
The eight-glasses rule seems to have begun as a total that included food and every drink, and somewhere along the way it lost its last sentence and became a target for plain water alone.
So my bottle is not wrong, but my guilt is. The coffee I drink at work and the water in my lunch count. I am not going to throw the bottle away, since I like having it, but I will stop treating the lines as a test I can fail.
Question for classmates: have you found a nutrition rule whose original version said something different from what you were told?
Reply to Tomas
Tomas, you traced the idea that eggs raise cholesterol back to older guidelines. Did you find the point at which the advice changed, and whether new studies drove the change or the old ones were simply read differently?
References
Institute of Medicine. (2005). Dietary reference intakes for water, potassium, sodium, chloride, and sulfate. National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/10925
Valtin, H. (2002). "Drink at least eight glasses of water a day." Really? Is there scientific evidence for "8 x 8"? American Journal of Physiology: Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology, 283(5), R993-R1004. https://doi.org/10.1152/ajpregu.00365.2002
The Purdue Global HW320 Unit 1 instructions
The opening discussion in this nutrition course asks students to choose a food or nutrition belief, state it so it could be tested, and trace where it came from. Prompts usually want the belief described as the student actually lives it, the original source or the earliest version that can be found, and a comparison with what current reference standards say. A review article that discusses the history of a belief is often the quickest route to its origin. Quote the original wording where it matters, since beliefs often change as they travel. Use a current authoritative standard, such as a Dietary Reference Intake report, for the comparison. The belief does not have to turn out false. Aim for roughly 350 words in the initial post, then return later in the week with a reply that asks a classmate something.
How this HW320 Unit 1 example is built
The post opens with the habit itself, the liter bottle with hourly lines and the guilt of a missed mark. The belief is then stated as a testable claim about plain water beyond all other drinks. The middle paragraph follows a 2002 physiology review to the 1945 allowance and quotes the sentence that usually goes missing. A paragraph on the 2005 water report gives the adequate intakes for men and women and notes that about a fifth of total water comes from food. The highlighted sentence explains how the rule changed as it traveled. The writer keeps the bottle and drops the guilt, asks classmates for their own examples, and replies to Tomas about the history of advice on eggs.
HW320 Unit 1 rubric: what earns full points
HW320 discussion rubrics generally reward accurate identification of a belief's source and a correct comparison with current standards. A precisely stated belief earns more than a vague one. Use of credible sources, ideally an original document or a review that quotes it plus a current reference report, is scored under evidence. Critical thinking points go to posts that notice how a belief changed over time or why it persists. Peer engagement counts separately, and a reply that asks a classmate to apply the same method scores well. APA citations and clear writing complete the rubric. Posts that cite a health website repeating the belief, rather than its origin, usually lose points on evidence.
Common HW320 Unit 1 mistakes, and how to avoid them
Students often pick a belief and then cite a popular website that repeats it, which shows where it is said, not where it began. Another weakness is stating the belief so vaguely that no source could confirm or refute it. Some posts compare the belief with a Daily Value from a food label instead of a reference intake. Others conclude that a belief is a myth without showing what the original said. Replies frequently share a similar belief without questioning anything. If you have a food rule in mind but cannot find its origin, tell us the belief and where you first heard it, and a writer can help you follow it back to its earliest version.
Get an HW320 Unit 1 example written to your instructions
Name the food belief you have held longest without checking, whether about water, breakfast, eggs or anything else, and add the Unit 1 board prompt with its rubric. That belief's real origin anchors the post, and a reply is added wherever replies are graded. Your first sample is free and arrives within 24-48h. The paper above is an original model document written by our desk, not a submitted student paper and not an official Purdue University Global document.
More HW320 papers and BS in Health and Wellness samples
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HW320 Unit 1 questions, answered
Does the belief I choose have to turn out false?
No, and some of the strongest posts end with a belief that mostly holds. The grade usually follows the checking rather than the verdict. A claim that survives its origin trace, stated with the evidence that supports it, shows the same skill as one that collapses. What matters is that you tested it against a source older and more authoritative than the place you first heard it.
Where do I find the original source of a food belief?
Search for the claim in a library database and look for review articles that discuss its history, since these often quote the earliest version word for word. Government reports, older textbooks and archived dietary guidance are common origins. When the original is unobtainable, cite the review that reproduces it and say so in the post; graders in many sections accept a disclosed secondary citation.
What if a classmate picks the same belief?
It happens often in this unit, because a handful of food beliefs dominate every term. Two posts on the same belief can still differ in the origin they find, the reference they apply and the part of the claim they test. Read the thread before posting, and where a classmate has already covered the origin, take the belief further, into what current evidence says about the part left standing.
Where can I find a free HW320 Unit 1 sample paper?
This page holds a complete Unit 1 discussion post tracing the eight-glasses-of-water rule to a 1945 allowance, with a question to the class and a reply about eggs.
Does coffee count toward daily water intake?
In the reference intakes, total water includes every beverage and the water in food. The 2005 report sets no separate target for plain water, so coffee, tea, milk and soup all count.