Diet Analysis - Research Paper Example

Dietary Analysis Due Food Intake A dietary analysis consists of many components that are consideredto determine if a person is eating properly, making healthy choices, and observing recommended daily food allowances that will help maintain the necessary body’s functions. Guidelines have been created to help an individual make good food choices that will promote a healthy lifestyle (Black, 2012). By comparing a person’s daily intake of food to the guidelines, assumptions can be made about nutritional content, vitamin and mineral values, and projected medical issues that have been studied.

How a person makes the choices of which foods to consume plays an important role in the dietary analysis. An analysis can pinpoint habits, knowledge levels, and needed improvement areas to guide the individual to better eating. Comparisons between actual and recommended food choices will be made and suggested changes to future dietary consumptions will be offered. Over a span of three days, a record of everything that was eaten was written down in order to perform a dietary analysis on one individual’s food consumption.

Each day was divided into three meals and snacks. The calories for each food item were included to provide more information for the final analysis. Caloric and fat calculations were taken from the Everyday Health website calorie counter. The following table itemizes the food consumption of this individual during this period. Table 1: Daily Food Intake Day 1 Breakfast Calories Snack Calories Lunch Calories Snack Calories Dinner Calories Snack Calories 2 Poptarts (cherry, frosted) 2 cups coffee with creamer and sweetener 2 Granola bars (single serve package) Whopper with cheese Large fries Large Dr.

Pepper 2 Nutter butter cookies (single serve package) Boneless, skinless chicken breast with stovetop stuffing and a slice of mozzarella cheese 1 baked potato with butter, sour cream, parsley, 4 blend shredded cheese 7 caramelized baby carrots Ice water Microwave popcorn (extreme butter) 400 calories, 5g fat 59 calories, 0g fat 180 calories, 6g fat 760 calories, 47g fat 640 calories, 36g fat 100 calories, 0g fat 130 calories, 5g fat 300 calories, 11g fat 448 calories, 22.1g fat 131 calories, 4.

2g fat 150 calories, 40g fat Daily Totals: 3298 calories, 154.2g fat Day 2 Breakfast Calories Snack Calories Lunch Calories Snack Calories Dinner Calories Snack Calories 1 Bowl Cheerios with 2% milk 2 cups coffee with creamer and sweetener 2 Fig Newton bars (single serve package) Fiesta Taco Salad Pintos and cheese Large Raspberry Tea Cinnamon Twista Medium cup chocolate frozen yogurt with fresh raspberries in syrup 2 Sloppy Joe sandwiches Tomato slices Ruffles potato chips (2 handfuls) Milk (8oz. 2%) 1 Bowl cottage cheese with Dole chunk pineapple 220 calories, 7g fat 59 calories, 0g fat 110 calories, 2g fat 906 calories, 49g fat 150 calories, 6g fat 130 calories, 0g fat 170 calories, 7g fat 221 calories, 6g fat 150 calories, 15g fat 560 calories, 22g fat 4 calories, 0g fat 320 calories, 2g fat 120 calories, 5g fat 134 calories, 2g fat Daily Totals: 3253 calories, 123g fat Day 3 Breakfast Calories Snack Calories Lunch Calories Snack Calories Dinner Calories Snack Calories 1 Bowl cooked oatmeal with brown sugar and cinnamon 2 cups coffee with creamer and sweetener 3 Chocolate Chip cookies with pecans (homemade) 3 pcs.

Extra crispy fried chicken dinner with cole slaw, mashed potatoes and gravy, biscuit with butter Large Mt. Dew Strawberry parfait Sunflower seeds (single serve package, salted) 1 plate Spaghetti with 3 cheese blend parmesan cheese 2 Garlic cheese bread slices Large glass peach tea with sweetener 1 bowl of Mint Chocolate Chip ice cream with hot fudge topping 251 calories, 6g fat 59 calories, 0g fat 190 calories, 4g fat 1273 calories, 70g fat 170 calories, 0g fat 210 calories, 7g fat 160 calories, 14g fat 284 calories, 15g fat 330 calories, 20g fat 80 calories, 0g fat 150 calories, 8g fat 130 calories, 4.

5g fat Daily Totals: 3157 calories, 148.5g fat Influence on Choices While balance, variety, and moderation, which are the three key principles of healthy eating were considered before each meal, accessibility, peer choices, and personal desires were prominent factors in food selections over the three days. The choices made for breakfast on all three days included personal desire and availability. Choices made for lunch included accessibility, peer choices, and personal preferences. Two choices were available for the noon meal, either bring food from home or eat at a local fast-food restaurant with co-workers.

For convenience, eating with co-workers provides food and camaraderie (Black, 2012). Dinner menus are planned a week in advance to ensure ingredients for meals were available. Snacks were decided simply on personal preference from the office vending machine. Black (2012) discussed the main influences on food choices and listed taste as the number one factor. She also included cultural traditions, social suggestions, convenience, price, habits, trends, and emotions. The reason taste was forefront in choice factor is because most people will not eat something they do not consider palatable.

Culture plays an important role in food choices because of availability. Foods that are grown in certain regions become a main staple. Peer pressure to eat specific foods allows an individual to feel acceptance into a group. Convenience, price, habits, trends, and emotions are lower influences, but remain decision factors just the same (Black, 2012). Diet Analysis A dietary analysis can help a person determine if they are receiving enough nutrients to sustain healthy weight and bodily functions.

Under nutrition, over nutrition, and malnourished are three phases that are seen during a diet analysis. When a body is under nourished it means that the consumption of calories, recommended daily food allowances, and essential vitamins and minerals are not adequate to support proper human body needs. The issues of a person who is under nourished may include substantial weight loss, loss of bone density, sluggish cell replacement, immune system deficiency, and stunted growth. Over nutrition is the opposite of under nutrition.

The human body is given more calories, excessive daily food allowances, and more vitamins and minerals than it can adequately process. The result is extreme weight gain, measured muscular movement, over-worked internal organs, and physical inabilities. Other medical issues sometimes emerge that may include diabetes, hypoglycemia, water retention, vision impairment, neuropathy, and unexplained cell reproduction. Malnourished is a term used to describe the condition of long-term, inconsistent eating habits that do not meet the human body’s nutritional needs.

Extreme cases of malnutrition result in death, as the body is unable to sustain life without specific nutritional needs. Some people do not realize that their food choices put them in this category. Others may know, but are unable to change their circumstances because of unavailability of nutritional food, or lack of funds to acquired nutritional food. Dietary Reference Intakes (DRIs) are the nutrient recommendations to maintain good health, prevent chronic disease, and avoid unhealthy excesses.

By following the DRIs of carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, minerals, and including copious amount of water, a person can decrease their chances of heart disease, cancer, strokes, diabetes, osteoporoses, and high blood pressure. Several reference values are used to determine DRI, which include Estimated Average Requirement (EAR), Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDA), Adequate Intake (AI), Tolerable Upper Intake Level (UL), and Acceptable Macronutrient distribution Range (AMDR). The average amount of nutrients needed to meet 50% of individuals in the same age bracket and gender and the starting point for determining the other values is the EAR.

The RDA is an average amount of nutrients needed to support 98% of all individuals. An estimate of proper nutrients to maintain good health is AI. The highest amount of nutrients that if consumed daily will cause harm or toxicity within the body is the UL. The recommended ranges carbohydrates, fat, and protein on a daily basis is the AMDR. The responsibility of assuring that food in the United States is nutritious and properly labeled falls upon the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) (FDA, 2012).

Nutrient and energy density information is found on most food labels. Each category of the food groups represented in the packaged food is itemized by calories, fat, carbohydrates, proteins, and percentage of recommended daily allowances of nutritional needs. Only a few groups are exempt from providing nutritional labels on food products. MyPlate Comparisons The five food groups that are included in the dietary guidelines include dairy, fruits, vegetables, proteins, and grains. Water is also necessary to maintain healthy bodily functions (FDA, 2012).

No nutritional value is assigned to water, but the human body requires it to properly hydrate cellular structure from the inside out (Black, 2012). The breakdown of how much of each food group is recommended is allocated by the division of a regular 8 inch dinner plate. One fourth of the plate should consist of grains, one fourth should consist of protein, one half should be occupied by fruits and vegetables, and 8oz. of dairy concludes the portion guidelines (USDA, 2010). Each meal, breakfast, lunch, and dinner, should contain items from each food group to be considered nutritionally balanced.

Some prepared foods try to incorporate more than one food group for convenience to the consumer. Information regarding prepared foods is located on the packaging label and itemized into caloric assignment, total fat, cholesterol, sodium, carbohydrate, and protein. The percentage of daily recommended allowances is provided to allow an individual to make healthy meal choices (FDA, 2012). According to the calorie chart (Black, 2012) males between the age of 21 and 40 should consume between 2,400 and 3,000 calories daily.

Females between 21 and 40 years of age should consume between 1,800 and 2,200 calories daily. Considering the amount of calories that were consumed and recorded over the three days, an excess of calories were eaten beyond the recommended daily guidelines for both males and females. The recommendation for dietary consumption of fats is between 20 to 35% of daily caloric intake (Black, 2012). The fat consumption from the recorded three days exceeds the dietary guidelines set forth by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) (Yaktine, 2012).

Suggested Changes The breakdown of each meal that was consumed during the three day period reveals the need for closer scrutiny on food choices. Some of the meals did not contain all of the recommended food groups. Most of the meals were missing fruits and vegetables. Not enough water was consumed for healthy hydration of the body during this time. Too many calories were consumed for either a male or female. Daily sugar intake could be reduced and in some cases eliminated by making healthier choices for snacks.

Fast food menus produced exorbitant amounts of calories for the items that were consumed. The suggested changes to the dietary consumption for future health would be more fruits and vegetables, less sugar, less fast food, and more water. Conclusion By comparing a person’s daily intake of food to the dietary guidelines, determining how a person makes the choices for which foods to consume, performing a dietary analysis, and making comparisons between actual and recommended food choices, suggestions have been made to promote better health and the well being of this individual.

References Black, Joan S. (2012). Nutrition and You. (2nd ed.). San Francisco, CA: Pearson Education, Inc. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) (2012). “Food Labeling Guide.” Retrieved from http://www.fda.gov/Food/GuidanceComplianceRegulatoryInformation/GuidanceDocuments/FoodLabelingNutrition/FoodLabelingGuide/default.htm United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) (2010). “Dietary Guidelines for Americans.” Retrieved from http://www.choosemyplate.gov/about.html Yaktine, Ann L. (2012).

“Research Methods to Access Dietary Intake and Program Participation in Child Day Care: Application to the Child and Adult Care Food Program – Workshop Summary.” U.S. National Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Medicine. Retrieved from http://www.iom.edu/Reports/2012/Research-Methods-to-Assess-Dietary-Intake-and-Program-Participation-in-Child-Day-Care.aspx