Aspects of Diet Plan and Nutrition - Essay Example

Healthy eating does not encompass strict nutritional philosophies or depriving the body of certain foods. A healthy diet plan must, therefore, provide energy, give a feeling of greatness, keep the body healthy and stabilize the mood. This report consists of a range of the healthy food choices and provides a plan for a healthy and tasty diet. The report comprises of five major sections; introduction, methods, results, discussion and conclusion. As presented in this report, eating healthy normally encompasses a healthy diet rather than elimination of foods normally enjoyed since the long term goal is to reduce risks of diseases and give energy to the body. This forms a critical component in day-to-day eating habits. Introduction Most people often consider healthy eating as a key foundation towards moderation of a healthy diet. Moderate amount depends on the overall eating habits. Therefore, healthy eating enhances development of a diet that can maintain a person for life (McCrory & Hajduk 2002, p. 873). Despite the certain diet beliefs, a healthy diet must ensure balance of the proteins, fats, carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals and fibres. For most people, moderation or balancing the diet means eating less of the amount normally taken. More specifically, this means feeding on far less of unhealthy stuff such as saturated fats and refined sugars, and feeding more on healthy foods such as vegetables and fresh fruits. For instance, feeding on 100 calories of chocolate at lunch time may be balanced by deducting 100 calories from the dinner (Maycock & Benford, 2007). The current report provides a seven day menu, with each day comprising diet specifications for breakfast, lunch and dinner. For breakfast, the snacks and drinks considered include wheat cereals, milk, oat meal, calcium and vitamin D fortified juice, scrambled egg and grapefruit juice. For lunch, the various diets considered for the seven days ranged from veggies and tossed salad through guacamole and chips to bagel melt, and Cole slaw (Nelson & Atkinson 2006, p. 873). Finally, dinner comprised of chicken fajita, pizza broiled halibut and bran muffins served along baby greens, apple butter and broccoli florets and drinks. This ensured that the food remained balanced in terms of nutritional values for proteins, calories, fats, cholesterol, carbohydrates, saturated fats, sodium minerals and fibres (Otter 2011, p. 45). The pricing up of the shopping list based on low income perspective of £30 set up by Low Income Diet and Nutrition Survey (LIDNS), commissioned by the Food Standards Agency in UK to provide the nutritional status and dietary habits for the materially deprived/low income population (LIVESTRONG.COM, 2014). Methods The data was collected using secondary data collection techniques where the recommendation by the Department of Health (DoH) 1991 was reviewed, and the dietary plan developed (Holmes & Nibhrolchain 2002 p. 179). The documents set the good practice principles relevant among the practitioners as well as normal citizens from independent sectors and other Health and Social Services Boards. The principles contain flexible and well coordinated systems and policies for addressing the needs as well as assessing the holistic human needs. The prices for the different foods were obtained from the ASDA website. http://asda.mysupermarket.co.uk/ Results Day 1 Meal Food types Nutritional Value Breakfast Apple juice unsweetened and 1 cup of calcium- and the vitamin D-fortified juice 1 cup whole milk 94 g pro, 1,787 cal, 51.5 g fat, 93 mg chol, 237 g carb, 14 g sat fat, 1,393 mg sodium and 37 g fiber, Lunch Brown boiled rice with pasta with meat and tomato sauce Dinner Potatoes boiled in salted water and chicken breast without skin meat Table 1.0: Nutritional information for day 1 Day 2 Meal Food types Nutritional Value Breakfast Corn flakes with low fat yoghurt 1,803 cal, 72m g pro, 270m g car b, 48m g fat, 10m g sat fat, 77 mg chol, 33m g fib and, 1,689 mg sodium mineral Lunch Swordfish grilled with potatoes boiled in salted water Dinner Bananas with unsweetened orange juice Table 2.0: Nutritional information for day 2, Source: Nelson & Atkinson (2006) Day 3 Meal Food types Nutritional Value Breakfast Brown bread with edam cheese and low fat yoghurt 127 g pro , 1,807 cal, 62 g fat , 185 g carb, 18 g sat fat, 34 g fiber, 160 mg chol and 1,929 mg sodium Lunch Unsweetened apple juice with raw pineapple Dinner Boiled brown rice with grilled chicken breast Table 3.0: Nutritional information for day 3, Source: Fujii & Yaeko (2007) Day 4 Meal Food types Cost Nutritional Value Breakfast Porridge made with whole milk £0.9 76 g pro, 1,790 cal, 5.5 fat , 269 g carb, 8 g sat fat, 2,171 mg sodium, 115 mg chol and 50 g fiber Lunch Bananas with grilled swordfish £1.3 Dinner Boiled brown rice with beef stew £1.2 Table 4.0: Nutritional information for day 4, Source: Fujii & Yaeko (2007) Day 5 Meal Food types Nutritional Value Breakfast Toasted brown bread with unsweetened apple juice 6 g pro , 1,794 cal, 46 g fat, 278 g carb, 95 mg chol, 12 g sat fat, 2,298 mg sodium and 30 g fiber. Lunch Raw pineapple with yoghurt Dinner Potatoes with meat and tomato sauce Table 5.0: The nutritional value for day 5 Day 6 Meal Food types Nutritional Value Breakfast Cornflakes with whole milk 99 g pro, 1,794 cal, 52 g fat, 233 g carb, 42 mg chol , 23 g sat fat, 2,017 mg sodium and 30 g fiber Lunch Bananas with grilled sword fish Dinner Low fat yoghurt and a fruit Table 6.0: Nutritional information for day 6, Source: Eggers & Herbert (2010) Day 7 Meal Food types Cost Nutritional Value Breakfast Toasted brown bread with whole milk £0.9 85 g pro, 1,797 cal, 44 g fat, 261 g carb,127 mg chol , 8 g sat fat, 1,809 mg sodium and 32 g fiber. Lunch Potatoes boiled in salted water and raw tomatoes £1.1 Dinner Chicken breast grilled without skin meat and raw pineapple £1.2 Table 7.0: Nutritional value information for day 7, Source: Eggers & Herbert (2010) Meal Food types Cost Nutritional Value Breakfast A lemon-blueberry pancake Snack: 1 banana, sprinkled and sliced with a ground nutmeg, and a 1/2 cup of 1% milk flavored with almond extract £0.9 85 g pro, 1,797 cal, 44 g fat, 261 g carb,127 mg chol , 8 g sat fat, 1,809 mg sodium and 32 g fiber. Lunch A chili-topped sweet potato with a 1/2 cup of low-fat vegetarian chili Snack: A 1 cup of snow peas dipped in 2 tablespoons of low-fat ranch dressing £1.1 Dinner Chicken fajita with a 2/3 cup of cooked brown rice Snack: 1 ounce almonds with 2 teaspoons of semisweet chocolate chips and 4dried apricot halves £1.2 Table 7.0: Nutritional value information for day 7, Source: Eggers & Herbert (2010) Discussion The seven day dietary plan recalled the different amounts and types of food consumed linked to nutrient databank to allow for calculation of nutrient intakes. The average energy requirements translated to the total carbohydrates taken. The energy intakes, especially for the low income persons presented in the current report included mostly cereals and other cereal products. The major source of vitamins included veggies, salad and fruits. Calories and minerals formed the largest composition of nutrient value. The intake of saturated fats and fats in general must be considerably lower compared to other nutrients (Deshpande et al. 2009, p. 145). However, for low income groups, the mean intake for almost every nutrient remains considerably low. For instance, due to probability of low protein intake, low income people may have low intake of zinc, magnesium and iron (Balanced Diet, 2014). Also, the low income persons may experience challenges in getting income for food expenditure, receipt for school meals and healthy eating habits among others. People with low income may consume food less in vegetables and fruits. Such differences in amounts of food consumed depend mostly on level of income. Also, low income may be associated with low energy intakes (Dean 2002, p. 1006). Conclusion The report above outlines the dietary requirements for a seven day period for a low income person. This provides a comprehensive survey on nutritional status and dietary habits, as well as the impacts of low income to the healthy eating habit of a population. From the results, low income people consume diets with low levels of energy and vitamins. This relates directly to the level of purchasing power of the population. Such information may be critical to agencies and government bodies in their determination of the barriers affecting the uptake of healthy balanced diet among the low income groups. Research shows that that uptake of fruits and vegetables remain considerably low while saturated fatty acids remain far above the UK recommendations. Therefore, the research in reasonably affordable foods with equal amounts of energy as most expensive foods must be emphasized to ensure easy accessibility to people with low income levels (Beking & Amandio 2010, p. 79). References List Balanced Diet (2014). hat Is a Balanced Diet?" What Is a Balanced Diet? Accessed From: www.nhs.uk/chq/Pages/1127.aspx? Beking, K., & Amandio, V. (2010). An Assessment of Dietary Flavonoid Intake in the UK and Ireland. Accessed From: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/.../20858155 Dean, M. (2002). UK Opposition Tempts Public with New Health Plans. Accessed From: www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/...9/fulltext? Deshpande, S., Michael, B., & Debra, B. (2009). Factors Influencing Healthy Eating Habits Among College Students: An Application of the Health Belief Model. Health Marketing Quarterly 26(2), pp. 145-64. Accessed From: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/.../19408181‎ Fujii, K., & Yaeko, K. (2007). A Study of Ideal Way of Cooking Practice to Form a Healthy Eating Habit. Journal for the Integrated Study of Dietary Habits 18(4), pp. 362-69. Heart-Healthy (2014). 2,000-Calorie Diet Plan. Accessed From: http://www.ivillage.com/heart-healthy-2000-calorie-diet-plan-1/4-b-317379 Holmes, N., & Nibhrolchain, C. (2002). Case Mix Presenting to Paediatricians in a UK District. Accesed From: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/.../12082601 LIVESTRONG.COM (2014). 3000-Calorie Meal Plan. Accessed from. http://www.livestrong.com/article/91775-3000calorie-meal-plan/ LIVESTRONG.COM (2014). 4000 Calorie Meal Plan. Accessed from: http://www.livestrong.com/article/82949-calorie-meal-plan/ Maycock, B. J., & Benford, D. (2007). Risk Assessment of Dietary Exposure to Methylmercury in Fish in the UK. Human & Experimental Toxicology 26(3), pp. 185-90. McCrory, M. A., & Hajduk, C. L. (2002). Procedures for screening out inaccurate reports of dietary energy intake. Public Healh Nutrition 8(5), pp. 873-882.. Nelson, M., & Atkinson, M. (2006). Food portion sizes: a photographic atlas of food portion. Public Health Nutrition 2 (3), pp. 873-882. Otter, C. (2011). Hippophagy in the UK: A Failed Dietary Revolution. Endeav 1(4), pp. 45-9. Appendix: Foods Price List Food Cost Brown bread, toasted £2.30 Corn Flakes £2.40 Tomatoes, raw £1.50 Cheese, Edam £2.00 Apple juice, unsweetened £2.40 Porridge, made with whole milk £2.10 Pineapple, raw £2.00 Swordfish, grilled £2.20 Bananas £2.00 Beef stew, homemade £2.43 Brown rice boiled £1.30 Yogurt, low fat, fruit £1.95 New potatoes, boiled in salted water £1.90 Pasta with meat and tomato sauce £1.80 Orange juice unsweetened £1.35 Chicken breast grilled without skin meat £2.35 Read More