Nutrition Diet Analysis
Step 1: Plan a One-Day Ideal Diet Create an ideal, healthy 1-day diet which meets your nutritional needs. In a Word document, on a piece of paper, or using the Diet Journal template Diet Journal template – Alternative Formats , plan your breakfast, lunch, dinner and any snacks for one day (including your fast food items). Remember to include your water/liquid intake. Remember that a healthy diet is adequate, moderate, balanced, and varied. Our text reads “A healthy diet is one that favors whole foods” (meaning not processed foods). Focus on including vegetables, legumes, fruits, and whole-grains in addition to protein and dairy. Do not include multi-vitamins or supplements (e.g. meal replacement shakes such as Ensure or protein bars) to meet your dietary needs. The goal of this project is for you to learn how to select a wide variety of foods and create an ideal diet for one day. Avoid including “junk” foods! Include only nutrient-rich, healthy food options. Step 2: Enter Information in Cronometer to get percentage intakes if needed Go to a “new” day – one that doesn’t have any information entered. Exercise Click the “Add Exercise” button at the top of the window. In the search box, look for any type of exercise you wish. While this is hypothetical, meaning you don’t have to do the exercise, pick an exercise that you would be likely to do. Add enough exercise so that it will burn at least 200 calories. If you typically burn more that 200 calories exercising, then include the typical exercises & number of calories you burn. Food Click the “Add Food” button at the top of the window. Enter all the foods from your one-day ideal diet plan created in Step 1. Step 3: Check Your Intakes After you enter all the foods and drinks into Cronometer, review your percent intakes. Nutrients which should be within 80-120% Calories Protein Carbohydrate Fiber Total fat Cholesterol Water Most of the vitamins and minerals Nutrients which can be below 80% (minimal risk of deficiency) Saturated fat Cholesterol Vitamin D (if you have regular sun exposure) Sodium Nutrients which can be above 120% (minimal risk of toxicity) Water Fiber Water-soluble vitamins Step 4: Modify Food and Drink as Needed If many of your nutrients are out of range you will want to add, subtract, or modify your food list. For example, if your plan is too low in potassium you can research and add potassium-rich foods. Total protein should be within 80-120%, but you do not need to meet any specific goal for each amino acid. It’s nearly impossible to perfectly match all nutrients. The very few nutrients which are outside of these recommended ranges should be discussed in your evaluation of this diet plan. Save your ideal diet as a pdf document. In the Chrome browser, right click on the page and select “Print.” Instead of printing, select the option to “Save as PDF” and save the file to your computer. Name the file so you know what the file is (e.g. ideal diet) Step 5: Analyze and Explain You will write a 1.5-2 page paper (Times New Roman, 12-point font, double spaced) evaluating your ideal diet plan and reflecting on the course. Use Microsoft Word to create your document. Your paper should consist of at least 4 paragraphs following this format: Introduction Paragraph: Summarize the purpose of the paper. Discuss what prompted the choices you made for food and exercise (no more than ½ a page). Evaluation of Diet Paragraph: Evaluate how this 1-day diet and exercise plan is ideal for your health. Discuss specifics benefits and how this plan is an improvement compared to your actual diet. Discuss any downsides to this plan and how it could be improved (if improvements are needed). Discuss whether any nutrients are too high (risk for toxicity) or too low (risk for deficiency) according to the percentages, in Cronometer if used. Reflection on Course Paragraph: Reflect on what you learned during the class. Do you think you need to make any modification to your current diet and/or exercise routines? If not, why not? If so, why and how? Be specific. Conclusion Paragraph: Summarize 2-3 key points that you connected with during this course. What influence did these points have on your daily diet and overall daily life (no more than ½ a page).
