Diet Analysis (Part II)
3 Day Diet Analysis Project:
Diet Analysis (Part II)
Complete the corresponding assignment utilizing the MyDietAnalysis reports from Part
1. In each answer, state the standard (Dietary Reference Intakes), your results
(numbers) and your evaluation. Use specific food choices to support your answer.
Write a paragraph specifically addressing each of the sections of questions given in
the following categories. Your paper should be written in essay form, rather than
simply listing questions and answers. Your assignment must be typed and legible,
and follow the correct rules of the written English language. A maximum of one
grade level will be deducted for excessive grammatical errors and misspelled words.
Evaluate the Balance and Variety of your Diet
Compare your food choices to the MyDietAnalyss recommendations. Be specific and
provide examples for the following questions in paragraph form.
• Is your diet balanced?
• What weaknesses did you identify?
• How can you make your diet more balanced?
• What impact did your choices have on the overall quality of your diet?
USDA Food Guide
Evaluate your diet for variety using the USDA MyPlate Food Guide.
https://www.myplate.gov/myplate-plan. List the different foods you chose from each group
and the number of different food groups represented in your diet.
• Fruits: (Example: apple, banana, canned pears, fresh strawberries – 4 different types
of fruits)
• Vegetables: (Example: broccoli, carrots, corn, guacamole – 3 different vegetables,
which subgroups?)
• Grains: (Example: bread, pizza crust, hamburger bun – different grains)
• Protein: (Example: hamburger, steak, chicken, egg, Tofu – different proteins)
• Milk/Dairy: (Example: milk, cheese – 2 kinds of dairy)
• Oils: (Example: mayonnaise, ranch dressing, corn oil (to fry an egg) – different types
of oil)
• Solid fat and sugars: (Example: cream cheese, sour cream, Pepsi, Gatorade, beer,
cream in my coffee, butter (different types of fat/sugar foods)
• Did you choose a variety of foods overall or did you eat the same things every day?
• Did you choose a variety of foods within each food group?
• What specific nutrients might you be missing? • How can you make improvements in this area?
Evaluate your Calorie Control
• Using the “Actual Intakes vs Recommended Intakes” sheet, compare your calorie
intake to the DRI recommendations.
• If the DRI recommendations are correct, does this comparison show that you would
gain or lose weight?
• Consider your activity level. If your results predict weight gain, would it be fat or
muscle?
• If they predict weight loss, would it be fat or muscle?
• Do you expect this to really happen? Why or why not?
• Considering your answers to the questions above, what changes do you need to
make in energy balance? Do you need to increase or decrease your caloric
intake?
• Do you need to change the type or amount of physical activity that you do?
Evaluate Your Macronutrient Intake
Using the MyPlate and Calorie Assessment reports, find your percent calories from
carbohydrate, protein, fat and alcohol and then compare this to the Acceptable
Macronutrient Distribution Ranges (carbohydrate – 45-65%, protein – 10-35%, fat –
2035%).
• What goal within the ranges do you think is appropriate for you?
• How would you change your diet to be closer to these goals?
• Provide specific examples of what you would do.
• What would be most important to change?
• Why?
• Did alcohol significantly contribute to your calorie intake?
Carbohydrates
Simple Carbohydrates (Sugars) (Please reference your spreadsheets to answer these
questions)
• What is the difference between simple carbohydrates and complex carbohydrates?
• Give an example of each from your 3-day food record.
• What is your total intake of simple carbohydrates (sugars) in grams?
• What percent of your total carbohydrate intake does this number represent (grams of
simple sugars foods divided by total grams of carbohydrates)?
• Show your work.
• Do you meet the recommendation that you should consume no more than 50% of
your carbohydrate from simple sugars?
Add up the total carbohydrate (gm) from all carbohydrate containing foods for all
three days (e.g. 300 + 169 + 129 = 598 gm). Provide a list of all foods included
in the calculation. Add up the total sugar (gm) in each of the carbohydrate foods listed for all three
days (e.g. 42 + 53 + 87 = 182 gm)
Divide total gm sugar (182) by total carbohydrate (598) and multiply by 100 to
find the percentage (e.g. 182/598 x 100 = 30%). Show calculations.
This does not exceed the recommendation that less than 50% of total
carbohydrate should come from simple sugar
• What is your total caloric intake of simple carbohydrates (sugars) for the three day
period?
• Does your diet meet the recommendation that only 25% of your total calories come
from simple sugars?
• List the top 5 sugary foods and/or beverages that you consumed.
• Suggest some changes that would reduce the amount of added sugar in your diet.
• Suggest some change that would increase your intake of whole foods.
Add up your total grams of sugar using your Intake Spreadsheet. Multiply your
total grams of sugar by 4 calories/gram (442 gm x 4 = 1768 calories from sugar)
Add up your total calories for all three days (1750 + 2065 + 2595 = 6410 calories
total)
Divide your total sugar calories by your total calories. Multiply by 100 to get
percentage. (e.g. 1768 ÷ 6410 x 100% = 27.6%) Show calculations.
This exceeds the recommendation that less than 25% of total calories come from
simple sugars.
Estimate how many pounds of sugar you drink each year from sugary beverages. Add up
your total grams of sugar from all sugary beverages (Starbucks, Jamba Juice, Soda, fruit
juice, teas, etc.) and then multiple by 122 to get the total grams for the entire year. Then
take that number and divide by 454 grams to see how many pounds of sugar you eat each
year. (1 pound = 454 grams of carbohydrate).
Example: Total grams of simple sugars from beverages throughout the 3 days of
your diet analysis are 442 grams. Multiply that by 122 grams (which is 53,924
grams total for the whole year). Then take 53,924 and divide that by 454 grams
per pound. This equals approximately 119 pounds of sugar per year.
Fiber
Evaluate your dietary fiber intake.
• Was your dietary fiber intake below the recommended amounts?
• What kinds of foods (and in what amounts) could you realistically add to your diet to
increase fiber intake?
• If you met the dietary fiber recommendation, what foods contributed significant
amounts of fiber?
Fat and Cholesterol
Evaluate the percentage of saturated fat calories in your diet to the DRI
recommendation of ≤ 10%. Evaluate your cholesterol intake using the American Heart Association standard of
no more than 300 mg per day.
• Are there any areas of concern in saturated fat or cholesterol?
• What are the top 3 foods that contribute the greatest amount of saturated fat and
cholesterol to your diet?
• How could your eating habits be altered to control problem areas? Use specific
examples from your food choices to illustrate this concept, and discuss
each part separately.
Protein
Evaluate your protein intake using your intake spreadsheets. Most foods contain some
protein. Some foods have mostly animal protein, while other foods contain mostly plant
proteins (mixed foods such as pizza or casseroles are considered animal proteins).
Compare your intake of animal protein to plant protein by adding up the total grams of
protein you consumed from both plant food sources and animal food sources (2 columns—
one for plant protein foods and one for animal protein foods). Find the percentage for
each group. Example:
• Total animal protein (meat, fish, poultry, dairy and eggs) = 100 gm
• Total plant protein (beans, nuts, grains, soy, whole grains, other) = 150 gm
• Total protein = 250 gm
• 100 gm from animal foods ÷ 250 gm total = 0.4 x 100% = 40% animal protein 150
gm from plant foods ÷ 250 gm total = 0.6 x 100% = 60% plant protein
• What percentage of your protein intake is from plant foods and what percentage is
from animal foods?
• Are the proteins that you eat lean or high in fat?
• Are they cooked in a healthy manner (e.g. fried vs. grilled)?
• Are they fresh or processed?
• Evaluate the quality of the protein that you eat.
• Do the protein foods that you eat provide all the essential amino acids? Why or why
not?
• If not, do you eat complementary proteins to ensure you are getting all essential
amino acids?
• What specific changes can you make in your diet to improve the quality and nutrient
density of your protein foods?
• Use specific examples of foods from your diet analysis to support your
discussion.
Evaluate your Micronutrient Intake
Evaluate the following vitamins and minerals:
Vitamin A, Vitamin D, Vitamin E, Thiamin, Riboflavin, Niacin, Folate, Vitamin B6, Vitamin
B12, Vitamin C, Calcium, Iron, Potassium, Zinc and Magnesium.Make a table including all of the vitamins and minerals above listing:
The DRI for each
Your DRI percentage (%) for each
Identify those micronutrients that are in the deficiency or excess range.
Deficiency is less than 75% and an excess is greater than 150%.
Below the table, discuss how you would correct any deficiencies using foods you
would really eat.
• If you have vitamins or minerals on this list over 150%, compare them to the
Tolerable Upper Intake Level (UL) for that vitamin or mineral?
• Is your intake level a concern and do you think you are at risk for toxicity? Why
or why not?
• What foods and/or beverages contributed to your excesses for these vitamins and
minerals?
• You must address each deficiency (of less than 75% RDA) and each excess (of
greater than 150% RDA) separately.
• Are you currently taking any vitamin or mineral supplements? If so, list the RDA
percentage (%) for each nutrient provided by the supplement.
• Are the supplements necessary based on your findings?
• Are there supplements you should be taking? Why?
Sodium
• Compare your sodium intake to American Heart Association standard of 2400mg.
• What were the three highest sodium foods in your diet?
• Do you add salt to your food?
• Are you concerned about your sodium intake (consider family history of
hypertension, heart disease and other diseases affected by high sodium intake)?
• If you need to reduce sodium intake, how would you do that?
Evaluate your Fluid Intake
• Are you drinking enough fluid?
• Are you making healthy choices?
• List ways you may be able to increase fluid intake.
Evaluate your Health Risks
BMI
• Evaluate your BMI.
• Compare your BMI results to the standards in the text.
• According to your evaluation, do you need to alter your weight to meet the standard?
Why or why not?
• What diseases, if any, are you at risk for based on your BMI? Discuss BMI as a measure of disease risk. Is BMI the most useful method in
assessing health risk?
• What are the shortcomings of BMI as a marker of health?
• Is there another method that would give you more useful information?
Waist Circumference
• Evaluate your waist circumference in relation to the standards set.
• Why is central obesity more detrimental to health than lower-body obesity?
• List three health problems that are specifically associated with central obesity in men
and women.
• Do you have a personal or family history of any of these diseases?
• In addition to weight loss, what dietary changes could one make to decrease the risk
for these diseases?
Conclusion
• Considering the problem areas identified in your diet through this exercise, list
three specific changes you are willing to make to improve your personal nutrition
habits.
• Why do you want to make these specific changes?
• For each change identified, state one specific step you plan to take to achieve the
change using examples of food choices or eating habits.
• How soon do you intend to make each change?
• Set a time limit for each change, one should be implemented immediately, one
should be implemented in the next six months, and a third should be
implemented in the next year.
Extra Credit:
Write a realistic one day sample menu that incorporates all of the improvements in
your diet that you have suggested. The sample menu should take into account your
calorie needs, lifestyle .
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