Many people question if they are truly eating correctly and getting the right amount of nutrients from their diet. Before college, I never really thought about this before because my mom is a dietitian: she always had well balanced meals and healthy suggestions. Now being an independent college student, I wonder if my diet is still balanced. In nutrition class we were given an assignment to record everything we ate for a week. I believed that this was a good way to analyze what I actually ate in order to compare it to the pre-determined daily recommendations. For the week of February 29th to March 6th, I recorded everything that I ate or drank. Each day, after a snack or meal, I would record the food I ate in the Lose It! App. After the week was over, I transferred the data to an excel spreadsheet where I created an appendix that included the amount of each food group and nutrient that I ate. Using the information in the appendix, I made two tables: one with just the food groups and the second with just the nutrients. Within those tables, I compared my daily average of food groups and nutrients to the recommended daily value. The objective is to observe the different types and amounts of each food group and nutrients that I consumed and if my eating habits are considered healthy.
Table 1 contains, the information for the amounts of each food group that I consumed. The results drawn from table 1, for fruits, are that I averaged 0.86 cups per day while the recommendation is 2
Based on a 24 Hour Recall of my diet, results using NutriCalc Plus report that my food intake lacked a healthy balance of all food groups. My Grain intake reached only 60% of the My Plate daily recommendations. My Vegetable intake was a mere 50% of the recommended servings. Additionally, I consumed 84% of the daily recommendations for the Dairy Group. Nonetheless, I did exceed the recommendations for the Fruit Group and Protein Group with intakes of 155% and 107%, respectively.
According to my three day diet analysis it seems like my eating habits are poor. Not necessarily that I am consuming too many bad foods but I am not getting the all around nutrients that I need on a daily basis. Sometimes not eating enough. Or ot finding time to eat at all is a big issue in this. Due to my job and the lack of time I have at home it is hard for me to get the nutrients I need on a daily basis. With the target that is shown of six oz. of grains two and a half cups of vegetables, two cups of fruits, two cups of dairy and five and a half oz. of protein foods I fell short in most of the areas that were targeted for me. My biggest two areas of consumption was refined grains and protein.
The first part of the report I would like to examine is the different food groups taken into my diet over the past four days. There are five major food groups which make up the dietary requirements of the body: Dairy, Grain, Fruits, Vegetables, and proteins. Each brings an essential source of nutrients to the body, which allows the body to function at a normal level of homeostasis. I noticed ever since I have fractured my back there has been a dramatic change in my diet, and physical activity level. Overall, I take in less than the recommended amount of calories of 2000 per day. I on average exceed the amount of fruits needed in a day, hit the level for protein, and dairy, but failed to meet the allocated portion of vegetables everyday. An alarming part of diet that I noticed was I exceeded my sodium intake everyday. This could be attributed to the fact of the
My data could be more accurate if I had used only one source for food data, and find the exact measurements for what I ate. Also, my record of fruits and vegetables may not have been accurate because I do not usually eat them alone, so they may have been in my food and I did not take account of them. On the third day, I ate Jack in the Box the whole day, which is a rare event to occur in my diet. On the weekends I am less active, but
As I began this project I saw no purpose of keeping track of all these different things. I proceeded through the project and started to keep track of my intake, macronutrient range, fat breakdown and stage of change reports and I found it quite helpful to keep track of all those things. This project made me ensure that I was on the right path to becoming a healthy human being. I did not realize how unhealthy my eating habits were until this project made me examine that, which was a good thing. I still find it hard to maintain a strict healthy diet while being at college. Sometimes I am forced to deviate from my healthy diet, but this project helps me get back on track.
In the table shown, it reflects my diet over a 3 day period. It shows the intake necessary based on a 2000 calorie diet and shows if the participant was receiving over or under the amount of nutrient necessary during the 3 day
For this three day diet analysis project I wanted to eat as I normally would and be honest about all that I ate, to analyze not only what and how much I was eating, but also to see how healthy my diet really is. By doing so I can see if any of my diet choices are putting me at risk for certain health diseases, and what changes can be made to make my diet healthier. After analyzing my diet, I would say I am fairly healthy, though I am out of the target range in a few areas. My profile calculated from my weight and height indicates that I have a BMI of 20.5. This is considered to be healthy; the healthy range is anywhere between 18.5-25. This was reassuring to hear because I am happy at my current weight, and
I was kind of surprised by the numbers because I have never studied my daily intakes before and they are showing that I eat a lot of carbohydrates. Macronutrients are relatively needed in large amounts. I had consumed a vast quantity of these nutrients during my three day period. For example, 21 water bottles along with the above mentioned proteins, carbohydrates and lipids.
The overall quality of my diet was extremely poor. Although I was able to stay below my recommended 2200 Calorie consumption both days; the amount of fat, saturated fat, protein, carbohydrates, cholesterol, and sodium exceeded my desired range. I have never taken the amount of cholesterol I ingest into thought because I considered cholesterol an elderly problem. The act of recording all I consumed in a single day informed me of eating problems I have and was formerly unaware of. Another piece of information my food log revealed was, the quality of food I chose when
Day 1 of recording my food intake that Moring I had a small bowl of frosted flakes cereal with 2 percent milk. For lunch, just a glass of water with lemons and bad of hot fries. Throughout the day, I had a few snacks blue raspberry snow cone, ice-cream cone from dairy queen and four-piece chicken nuggets from Wendy’s for dinner I had fully loaded nachos with chicken and beef, lettuce, sour cream, beans, guacamole, tomatoes and shredded cheese and later that night I had a hot dog without the wiener and just chili and cheese.
His target for calories is 3,185 per day and he reached 1808 calories which was identified as under. According to the attached analysis, he consumed 122g of protein, 206 g of carbohydrates and 40 grams for fat which were all recognized as ok according to the analysis. For fruits and vegetables his status was considered under for both. For fruits the recommended amount was 2 ½ cups and he only consumed 2 cups and for vegetables the recommended amount was 4 cups and he only consumed 2 ½ cups. His fiber intake for that day was 18 g and the recommended amount was 38 g which was not adequate enough based on the recommendation.
Food intake is something that everyone should take very seriously in their daily lives. Food intake is regulated by the complex interaction of psychological and physiological events associated with ingestion. While the energy content of foods has an important role in determining the amount eaten, a number of other properties of foods also may be important. These include palatability, macronutrient composition, and form of the food for example solid vs. liquid, how it is prepared, and its energy density.
I attached a copy of my report because it is so interesting; I don’t believe that I ate abnormally for me. I was almost double on the calorie intake! My intake of fats and cholesterol were over the suggested intake. My sodium intake was twice the recommended amount, and I never added seasoning to my food. My fiber, potassium, iron, and magnesium were under required amounts. My intake of vitamin A, E, K, and folate were also under required amounts. I did have DHA and EPA because I had a salmon BLT for lunch, but I don’t incorporate fish into my diet but maybe once a week if that. I had no caffeine intake; I recently made diet changes for myself that removed diet soda from my daily intake. Prior to that I lived off diet soda! So I understand that change is difficult. Although now I occasionally
In January, my diet proved to be moderately unhealthy. On several counts, I missed the target levels for a person of my gender and age. I took in slightly more calories than the target 1724 per day versus a target of 1600. I also ate more protein (55g versus 46g) and far more carbohydrates (256g versus 130g). My fiber intake was low (10g versus 25g). My saturated fat was 10% of total calories, whereas the target should be lower than 10%. My cholesterol was within the target range, so was one of the few things that I really did not need to change.
According to my journal entries, the average number of servings I consumed for fruits & vegetables are 8; for grain products are 11; for milk & alternatives are 10; for meat & alternatives are 7. Compared to the Canada’s Food Guide, I am really under average for consuming fruits and vegetables because the suggested number of servings for 2 days are 16, but I only consumed 8. Compared to the suggested servings by Canada’s Food Guide on grain products, I am slightly under average of 3, hitting an 11 on