Diet Analysis
I have learned a lot from this two-day diet analysis assignment. In my two day assessment, I recorded my food intake, quantities, drinks, snacks, condiments, where and who I was with during the meal, the time of day, and the amount of time I spent eating. I was able to analyze my diet to examine what I was eating and what types of nutrients I was getting. I then compared all aspects with my recommended levels of nutrients for my dietary recommended intake. I learned that my eating habits are not the best and could lead to serious health problems in the future that may be detrimental.
The book describes a healthful diet as one that includes: consuming a variety of nutrient-dense foods within the food groups; limiting intake
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I was surprised that the amount of carbohydrates I consumed on both days was below what was recommended for me. They are usually my weakness so I expected them to be too high.
Which Day was better? When I first started looking over the results, I thought that I had done better on Day 2 because it seemed to have fewer areas where my levels were low. I thought the second day had more intakes of nutrients, vitamins, and minerals around my goal, but when examining the information closer within the bar graphs of each day and the bar graphs averaged together, I wasn’t so sure this was the case.
Day 1 was lower in more areas. Some that were below 50 percent were: polyunsaturated fat, cholesterol, vitamin A, vitamin B12, vitamin D, folate, potassium, and sodium. The only one that I thought was too high was phosphorus. Day 2 was below 50 percent in: dietary fiber, vitamin D, vitamin E, and potassium. However, it was too high in about 12 areas.
When the two days were averaged, it about equaled out. I decided that Day 1 was actually better because it wasn’t too high in fats and cholesterol and I was only lacking in a few areas which I could easily improve on by adding more nutrient-dense foods like fruits and vegetables. However, Day 2 was high in a lot of areas which could lead to over nutrition and toxicity symptoms. I think the best would be somewhere in the middle of the two days.
Vitamin A
One thing that concerned me about my vitamin intake was
Some of these lacking percentages may be a real deficiency and will call for my need of increasing them substantially. Vitamins A (RAE); E; and D, where A and E are nine percent and then D, which is slightly higher with thirteen percent need some major work and I will have to find ways to get these values at least higher than seventy percent. I will have to begin eating more carrots, egg yolk, broccoli, cantaloupe and drinking milk while doing so, to increase my vitamin A (RAE) percentage. For my vitamin E percentage, milk and egg yolk will help but I can also increase my whole-grain foods and eat some sunflower seeds and nuts to get it up where it needs to be. For my lacking vitamin D percentage I need to seriously increase my fatty fish intake—which is not difficult, due to my love of fish. Whole egg and beef liver will also both help in getting more vitamin D in my diet.
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.
For the most part, I’m getting good amounts of vitamins and minerals. I was extremely
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.
Proper nutrition is important in maintaining a long and healthy life. Most Americans are rushed due to their busy work schedules, and do not take the time to plan their diets properly. Like me, most Americans are unaware of the importance of eating a healthy diet and consume too many foods without the proper nutrients. Throughout my life I have been fortunate. I have not had any major health problems, and have been able to consume most foods without having to worry about gaining weight. These last two years, however, I started to gain weight and have become concerned with my diet. Changing my poor eating habits has been difficult for me, however, having this assignment has taught me that it is not as difficult as I previously
The purpose of this assignment is to increase self-awareness of the student by analyzing personal nutritional intake and activity routine throughout the course. In turn, the student will be able to help others modify their diet and activity, and improve overall wellness. An examination of a personal food and activity assessment will provide the student with essential data from which to change their health and wellness behaviors.
The Dietary Analysis helped me become more aware of me current health. Because I am on the go most of the time, I find it very easy to pick up something fast to eat rather than making a full healthy meal. It was until things assignment that i noticed I eat a lot of more calories than I thought I did. I learned that I eat a lot of protein. Sometimes I eat protein bars because I think they are healthy. Before taking this class I never really payed attention to food labels. I am now a lot more alter while checking food labels. Before this class I would often just get frozen vegetables and then add them to my meals. I learned that refined foods lose all the nutrients. While doing this study, I noticed that I eat a lot more fast food than I should. The more red meat i eat the higher the risk for chronic diseases. The delicious double burger, chocolate cake, vallina shake, greasy fries are all foods that will increase the risk for chronic disease. I learned that I can inmpove my health by counting my calories. I have made changed in my eating habits to try to watch my calorie intakes.Due to this study I am now able to know what to look for in food labels. I now know that too much food containing more than 10% sodium or cholesterol are probably not the best option to chosse from.
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
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.
After the 4 days, I saw that if I ate a good breakfast and lunch nothing changed. I was still happy and my energy was high the rest of the day. But on Sunday, I didn’t eat a lot and I was using a lot of my energy over an extended period amount of time, my energy level dropped very quickly.
The three-day diet analysis was interesting. There were many positive attributes to it and definitely negative ones. Over the course of the three days, which were Friday, Saturday and Sunday: and figured this would give a good depiction of what I was consuming on a regular basis. In some places I was consuming more than I should be and in some I was consuming less than I should be. There were also those places were I was getting just the right amount. It is so interesting to me to be able to find out what I am consuming and how I am consuming it. Being an active male, it was most interesting of what I ate, what my average of the three days were, and the plan on how I would correct the way I eat to make it a more healthier lifestyle.
To maintain optimal health through a balanced diet it is important to keep the intake of macronutrients within the recommended ranges. The effects of eating too many macronutrients or not enough can cause under-nourishment or over-nourishment. “Over-nutrition occurs when long term human energy intake exceeds energy expended on basal metabolism, digestion, work and leisure” (Huffman, Huffman, Rickertsen, & Tegene, 2010, p. 5). Over-nutrition of any nutrient in some instances can create toxicity in the human body that may result in future morbidity. The macronutrient intake during the 3-day-diet ranges both inside and outside of the
When looking to open a nutrition consulting office, it is important to choose an effective dietary nutrition analysis program. I have recorded my own dietary intake for 24 hours and have entered the items into two separate programs that give you the nutrient profile for each food item entered. The two programs are the USDA’s Food List, which is a comprehensive list of 13,000 foods and their nutrients, and the CRON-O-Meter which is a daily food diary, activity log, and biometric log ("CRON-O-Meter User Guide", 2016).
felt better, lighter somehow. I now pay closer attention to my diet and take my vitamin