Dieting or Eating a Healthy Diet - Essay Example

I must say that I have never considered myself a person that worried much about dieting or eating a healthy diet. I tend to eat foods that I like to eat and avoid foods that I do not enjoy, just like everyone else. I was pleasantly surprised to find that my diet is much healthier than I ever though in some areas. The areas of unhealthy foods that were revealed in this research are not surprising to me. I have always had a weakness for some types of food, and this exercise helped to confirm that.

The first part of my diet that I examined in this exercise was the number of grains I take in. The suggestion from MyPlate said I should eat about 7 oz. of grain each day. The footnote said that I should try to make at least half of these grains whole grains. I did meet my target total of 7 oz. of grain each day for the two days that I tracked my diet. I eat rice with almost every meal other than breakfast. Other sources of grain were pita wraps and a baguette. The only problem that I had with getting enough grains was the whole grain aspect of the recommendation.

I dislike while grain rice and a good French baguette are never made with whole grain flour. As a result, I learned that I get enough grain, but it is not whole grain. The second group of food I needed to analyze is my vegetable intake. Again, I learned that I eat plenty of vegetables. I eat vegetables raw in salads and stir-fried every day. I needed to eat three cups of vegetables each day but found that I am exceeding this total for the two days by two full cups. I was raised eating mostly vegetables and rice, so I guess this habit has just stayed with me.

My favorite vegetables are snow peas and broccoli, both of which I learned are very healthy. I next analyzed my fruit intake and found that I was deficient in this area. I do not really have any fresh fruits that I enjoy eating. The texture of the fruit in my mouth is not pleasant. I do occasionally drink fruit juice if it is fresh, but that is not always available this time of the year. I was deficient one cup of fruit. I should have two each day but I only had three cups for the two day total.

Finally, I needed to look at my fats and protein foods. This is where my diet needed the most help. I like to eat chocolate and that put me over for fats. And I found that I did not eat enough protein. I will work on balancing this part of my diet. I also learned that I do not eat too many calories. Actually, if I did not eat so much chocolate, I would have fewer calories than I need.