Science Unit 7 Assignment Nutrition Paper

Unit 7 Sample Assignment

Name

Date

Many concepts have been covered and many skills practiced over the past seven weeks in NUTR 100. I learned how to maintain a food journal with emphasis on the amount of each item I was consuming. Completing a nutrient analysis was a first for me, as was comparing my intake to a tool like MyPlate. All these skills collectively informed me of the importance of paying attention to what I am eating. Thanks to these assignments and all our course readings, I now have a few plans for changes in my real diet to help lower my risk of chronic disease!

One of our first tasks was to complete a food journal. During this task, I learned the importance of measuring serving sizes. I never realized how much of each food I was eating before. My first change will be to continue measuring my foods and that includes measuring out ingredients in the dishes I make all the time. This can help me maintain a healthy weight and ensure I’m reaching my MyPlate goals daily. Meeting MyPlate goals can help me maintain a healthy weight (United States Department of Agriculture, n.d.).

While filling out my original food journal, and later in the nutrient analysis, I realized I was eating a lot of fat sources. My current intake is 39% of total calories, above the AMDR of 20-35%. While some of my fat intake is from avocado, a lot of it is from butter. To help keep my heart healthy, I will substitute avocado, olive oil, or nut butter for the original salted butter I had on my food log a few weeks ago (Callahan, Leonard, & Powell, 2020).

I also learned that I have a very limited fiber intake. This was demonstrated in the Cronometer Nutrition Report but also highlighted by my lack of vegetables and whole grains in the MyPlate assignment. Increasing my fiber intake could help with the constipation I occasionally experience and lower my risk of cardiovascular disease (Callahan, Leonard, & Powell, 2020).

Speaking of heart health, I am worried about the lack of unsaturated fats in my diet. Unsaturated fats can be helpful for lowering LDL cholesterol (Callahan, Leonard, & Powell, 2020), which I need to work on. I would like to add a serving of walnuts or pistachios every day to add in more unsaturated fats in an easy way.

One more change that I feel I should make is bringing snacks with me to work. Since I sometimes forget my lunch at home, I end up eating fast food more often than I would like to. To help combat the need to go out and get lunch from a nearby fast food restaurant, I would like to bring in snacks for me to use in place of lunch in a pinch. I think some easy, tasty options could be the nuts I mentioned in my discussion on unsaturated fats, freeze dried fruits, and whole grain crackers. These foods will help me add in more fiber and increase my unsaturated fat intake, which will be helpful for both heart and gut health, as discussed above. In addition, replacing the fast food with these items will help me decrease my saturated fat and sodium intake, which will be awesome as well!

Overall, I was most concerned about my fat and fiber intake while working on the course assignments. I could clearly see I was taking in more saturated fat than the recommended 10% of calories per day and not taking in enough unsaturated fat. It was also very evident that I was only taking in less than 30% of the recommended fiber I should be, with only 8 grams per day on average. These nutrients are being highlighted in the goals I have outlined above and together; I should notice a difference in my LDL cholesterol at my next appointment!

Callahan, A., Leonard, H. & Powell, T. (2020). Nutrition: Science & Everyday Application, v. 2.0. https://openoregon.pressbooks.pub/nutritionscience2e/

United States Department of Agriculture. (n.d.). MyPlate. https://www.myplate.gov