Diet Analysis

Paper details:

Detailed Directions: Now that you know a lot about nutrition, it’s time to analyze your diet. This will be hard work for a few days, but it will be fun and interesting. Record and analyze your food intake for three 24-hour periods (computer analysis is required). If you have access to MindTap, you can use the “Diet and Wellness Plus” program that is included (see the note below); if you do not have access to MindTap, you can use the website www.cronometer.com (Links to an external site.). There are other analysis websites available but be sure to use one that provides information about all of the nutrients needed for the assignment. Please also be sure that you are comparing your intakes to the DRIs. Some websites do not utilize the DRIs (this includes cronometer). There are two goals for this project: 1) learn the analysis process and 2) gain some personal insight about yourself and your food intake. As usual, the more diet analysis information available the better in terms of drawing conclusions. Be sure to suggest specific dietary changes you can make to improve your health and longevity. Suggestions should be given for each dietary component found to be deficient or in excess. A good rule of thumb is to discuss each nutrient that had an average intake of <80% or >120% of the DRI. Please do not turn in your food intake lists or the diet questionnaire – we will only be grading the nutrient analysis paper. Two example papers can be found below. NOTE: If you have access to MindTap, you can use the “Diet & Wellness Plus” tool listed on your Dashboard (green apple icon Diet & Wellness Plus). Use the directions BUT go to: https://play.vidyard.com/GC4yZnmQ9me8nXtTKyXFji (Links to an external site.) first to watch a video explanation In MindTap, enter your diet into the analysis program (green apple icon Diet & Wellness Plus ) and analyze your results. It works! Give it a try. Scroll over to “Reports” and find “DRI” and “3-day Avg” for the paper you will write. It may be helpful to utilize this questionnaire downloadwhen analyzing your intake and writing the paper. Please use this table downloadto complete your analysis. Two example analyses are given for you to see. paper.gif SampleDietAnalysis.docx download Example of a good diet analysis – female. Yours may be different – this is just for ideas. paper.gif Sample diet analysis male.docx download Common Questions/Concerns How do I estimate how much I ate? View the video below titled Portion Sizes. Is the food I ate in the analysis program? You might be able to search for foods by brand names. If you are eating in the dining halls or a restaurant and the specific food is not available, just choose the food that most closely resembles what you ate. You might need to break the meal down by components. For example: a grilled chicken sandwich may be broken down to hamburger bun, grilled chicken breast, lettuce, tomatoes, and mayonnaise. Be careful about serving sizes. If you are eating a sandwich, you’ll want to make sure to enter “2 slices” of bread instead of “2 loaves” of bread. There’s lots of estimating. That’s normal. Just make your best guess! How do I know what nutrients to include in my table? There is a table below for you to utilize. All you have to do is add in the DRIs and your intakes that the analysis program provided. Be sure to include units (e.g., kcals, grams, mg) and that you are using the correct units. How many pages should my paper be? 4-6 pages is a suggestion. Your paper may be shorter or longer, and that is okay. Just be sure to discuss each deficiency or excess that you found from the analysis. What should I be comparing my intakes to? You should be using the DRIs. The following is a good place to check out: https://www.dietaryguidelines.gov/sites/default/files/2020-12/Dietary_Guidelines_for_Americans_2020-2025.pdf (Links to an external site.) Please be sure to use the recommendations for your gender and age. For protein, you may use the DRI or the AMDR. THE AMDR shouagnld be used for carbohydrates and fats.