diet analysis

Running Head: Diet Analysis 1

Diet Analysis

PART 1: My Plate Diet Analysis

Introduction

I am Zainab and a female. I am currently 23 years old and I am 5 ft 5 in height. My current weight is 145 pounds. My Body Mass Index (BMI) is 24.1 and it is well the normal range of 18.5 – 25. But I would like to stress on the fact that it is in the critical normal range, as a slight increment in BMI would be sufficient to classify me as overweight. I have a amily of six and all of them are healthy individuals. I am not aware of any chronic ailments plaguing the health of my family members. They all lead a moderately active lifestyle and consume , what I think a proper diet with adequate proportion of meat, dairy and green leafy vegetables on regular basis. I believe I am perfectly healthy. My nutritional concern at this moment is that my calorie intake is not adequate to maintain my current weight. My calorie expenditure far exceeds my intake and as a result it is creating a calorie deficit that is not too good for me. Moreover, my protein, carbohydrate and fat intake is not up to the desired level that can turn into a worrisome matter if left unattended for long. Hence, I want to find out ways of healthy living and try to implement the same in my daily routine.

Food Habits and Behaviors

With reference to my food diary, where in I recorded my daily food entries, I have come to assess that I eat at fairly regular intervals of time. Reviewing my entries, I found that my meal timings are somewhat fixed with very few occasional deviations. I observed that my meal portions and size was significantly lower when I was having it at school. This can be well attributed to the fact that I often tend to rush at school, due to paucity of time and at times resources. Hence I resort to eating whatever is easily available and can be consumed quickly.

I normally eat on an average of 5 meals a day. Out of such five meals, two meals are mostly snacks and light food and I eat proper meals about three times a day. My proper meals that are lunch, dinner are usually long and last for about forty minutes on an average, whereas snack session are usually short and I spent about eight minutes on an average. As I stay with my family, I make sure that I eat at least one proper meal with my family and another with my friends. I like having my meals with near and dear ones, as I view eating as a rather quality time spent with close ones. Hence, I like having my meals in a relaxed and comfortable setting, this is probably the reason why lunch and dinner usually tend to last more than forty minutes, as it is part of our tradition to sit together, pray and have a ‘family’ time. Our family totally believes in ‘A family that eats together, stays together’. My average hunger fluctuates between hungry, starving to famished depending on lot of factors like my time elapsed since the last meal, fatigue level or at times, taste of food. It is bit strange but a tasty food sometimes makes me appetite grow bigger. On a typical day, breakfast is a light affair, as I do not feel much hungry in the mornings. But as the day progresses, I start feeling hungrier and by the time I have my lunch, I usually tend to get very hungry (starved) and have quite a sumptuous meal. College tends to make more starved as it gets very hectic and demanding and leaves no room for leisurely activities and as matter of fact ‘indulging in a meal’ is counted as one. My preferred method of cooking is bake, grill and toast as I tend to shy away from oily, greasy food. Mood has little to do with my hunger level; it is more based on my actual need to have food.

My Plate

After analyzing my plate reports, I have come to realize that there are many areas that I need to work on as there is a considerable gap between my normal intakes versus the recommended one. My fruit consumption is close to recommended 2 cups, but still there is scope for improvement. It is at present standing at 1.87 cups a day. I usually tend to have quite a variety of fruits, such as strawberries, Apple and banana. I consume fruit juices as well and it is often the orange juice, as it is my favorite, I am a big fan of its tanginess. I make sere that I do not drink, the canned and packaged fruit juices as I am well aware of the fact that they contain added sugars and at times preservatives. Though the companies market the juices as 100 % natural and healthy, often these claims are bogus; hence I like to have freshly extracted juice at my home. I usually consume fresh fruits and steer away from canned or frozen fruit. I feel that the fruit is deprived of most of its essential nutrients if they are not consumed afresh.

My vegetable consumption was second most alarming thing to observe in my plate report. It is 1.8 cups as opposed to recommended 3 cups on a daily basis. I do not consume much of green, leafy vegetable and occasionally I eat orange vegetable. I have analyzed that I have a more meat oriented meal and hence the vegetable consumption is really poor. I do not consume a variety of vegetables and but the ones I consume are usually fresh. The vegetables are usually boiled or grinded to make juices. I drink vegetable juices quite often, but it is not quite sufficient to compensate the required vegetable intake. I feel that overindulgence in meat based dishes is the prime reason why vegetable intake remains abysmally low.

My grain intake is just 2.6 cups as opposed to recommended 7 cups. I do not consume recommended amount of whole grain per day. The all purpose flour used to make muffins, pastry is refined and pasta I consume is whole durum wheat pasta. I can tell that the pasta contains 100 percent whole grain ingredients as it is mentioned on its label. I have a very limited intake of grain and it is mostly plain boiled rice and processed wheat in the form of pasta and muffins.

My protein was 3.3 oz than the recommended 6.0 oz. In general, milk, cheese, soya, tofu, meat provide a good dose of protein. I consume protein mainly from dairy products such as milk and Yogurt and meat based dishes. I often opt for lean protein as my meat dished are usually baked, boiled or grilled. I do not like to be deep fried or cooked heavily in oil. It is important to consume lean protein as excess fat is not a good thing, it can lead to many weight and health issues.

The foods that contributed to fat in my meal are beef burger and yogurt mutton. The average fat consumption is 8 tsp a day. I think that my choice of fat can be healthier if I start incorporating dried fruits and nuts in my meals.

My diary consumption is only .5 cups a day, much lower than the desired 3 cups a day. I do not consume much of dairy products other than occasional consumption of milk and yogurt. Hence, I need to start taking more milk and cheese on a daily basis.

Calories from added sugar or solid fats are referred to as empty calories as it does not add nutritional quotient to food but just plain calories. The pastry and muffin could possibly be adding empty calories to my diet.

Dietary Guidelines for Americans

Using the My Plate report and my three day food diary, I have concluded that I am not meeting the principles mentioned in the Key Recommendations of the dietary guidelines. I will have to have more protein, whole grain and green leafy vegetables in my diet.( Key

Elements of Healthy Eating Patterns, 2015).

Energy Nutrients

Carbohydrates: The percentage of calories consumed by the means of carbs is 110. This is well above the AMDR goals of 55g . The top 3 sources of sugar in my diet are milk and yogurt that contains natural sugar and processed food items such as pasta, pastry or muffins that have added sugars. My goal is to maintain my intake of carbohydrates and sugar. My dietary fiber intake is 15 g that is considerably below the required value of 31.18 g. I consume both soluble (1.75g) as well insoluble fiber (5.10 g). Fiber is extremely essential as it aids the digestion process. To increase the fiber intake, I must eat a good quantity of fresh fruits and vegetables on a daily basis.

Fats: The percent of calorie consumption from fat is 47 and is significantly lower than the DRI goals of fat consumption that is 69.29 g. I take 10.57 g of saturated fat, 0.11 g of trans fat, 5.47 g of mono fat and 5.34 g of poly fat. I am lagging behind the DRI goals as it is 24.74 g and 22.27 g for mono and poly fat respectively. The main oil content in my meals come from natural fat present in beef , meet and cooking oils used such as sunflower and canola oil. In order to increase my fat intake, I should start taking more of dried fruits and nuts. My omega-3 content is 0.53 and omega-6 is 3.04 which is I feel I need to reduce.

Protein: 160 percent of my calories come from proteins. My current consumption of 44.11 g is slightly lower than the desired goal of 52.62 g. I chose this level of goal of protein consumption as I lead a moderately active lifestyle. I am not very athletic but I walk a lot and occasionally indulge in dance practices.

RDA FOR PROTIEN is 0.8 gm/kg body weight for most grownup adults.

Conversion of weight (pounds to kg) = 145 / 2.2

RDA = (145 / 2.2) * 0.8 = 52.73 g of protein needed daily.

Actual protein consumption = 44.11/ 65.9 = 0.67 gm/kg which is slightly lower than the desired level. Hence, I should according increase my protein level moderately.

I do not eat sea food hence; I do not my sea food consumption requirements. However, I feel I should start eating oysters; shell fish as sea food are extremely rich in minerals. The 3 food that are rich in protein but low in fat are yogurt, boiled eggs and chicken breast. I think, should make slight changes by start consuming sea food and soy based products, as they too are low in fat but high protein content for instance, I could substitute, cheese by tofu.

Alcohol: Due to religious restriction, I do not consume alcohol.

References

Key Elements of Healthy Eating Patterns. (2015). Retrieved March 20, 2018, from https://health.gov/dietaryguidelines/2015/guidelines/chapter-1/key-recommendations/