HLTH 640 Meal Observation-
Crownover
The subject (“Faith”) is a 30-year-old female who is 23 weeks pregnant with her first
child. Faith is 5’3 and 170 pounds. According to MyDietAnalysis Recommendations, she is
considered overweight with a BMI of 30.1. Since she has become pregnant she has actually lost
weight. She stays active and works out about four to five days per week and tries to move for a
consecutive 20 minutes a day (I.e. walking). Faith also does at home workouts from Beachbody
called Pre and Postnatal Barre Blend. The program combines elements of ballet barre, Pilates,
and cardio interval training in 20+ simple workouts that help maximize results through low-
impact moves. She eats plenty of fruits and vegetables throughout her day as well as lean meats.
Faith and I became close friends 2 years ago at a gym we attended. Each month we plan a meal
to share with each other at our houses with our significant others. I had Faith and her husband
over for some pool time and dinner at my house. I prepared vegetable pasta noodles, ground
turkey, with a nondairy Alfredo sauce. While at the pool, Faith consumed rice cakes.
Her total macronutrients for this meal was 38 grams of protein, 55 grams of
carbohydrates, and 15.5 grams of fat. A pound of lean ground beef comes in four servings each
serving is 4 ounces. The brand is Cybele’s Free To Eat SuperBfood (found at Kroger) made with
just four ingredients: green lentil, kale, broccoli, and spinach. Per 3.5 ounces serving you will
consume 25 grams of plant-based protein and more than one full serving of vegetables. Since
four people were eating we each had 2 ounces of the pasta noodles. Her fat intake was a little
higher because the sauce was made with avocado oil.
Faith is doing everything she can to make her first pregnancy as healthy as possible.
Since she she conceived being “overweight”, her doctors recommended her only consuming an
additional 300 calories. In addition, pregnant woman should seek to increase their nutrient intake
HLTH 640 Meal Observation-
Crownover
by about 50%, especially nutrients such as folate, iron, zinc, and copper1. It is recommended to
consume around 71 grams of protein, and at least 175 grams of carbs. Faith specifically needs
around 2340 kilocalories per day, 36.2 grams of fiber, 57.2-100 grams of fat, and 291-420 grams
of carbohydrates. Overall, this meal met her nutritional goals.
This meal provided the Faith with plenty of vitamins and minerals since it was rich in a
wide variety of vegetables. It would be beneficial to to incorporate a healthy dessert such as
apples and cinnamon in the air fryer to fully consume a well-balanced diet. Seeking the aid of
public health nutritionist can aid her in finding ways to improve protein intake without
consuming any meats and reduce her daily sodium intake, which can aid in avoiding risk such as
gestational diabetes1. The nutritionist could also teach her how to increase her vitamin D and
calcium intake, which is crucial during pregnancy.
In an interesting analysis by Dr. Redman, a professor and director of the Reproductive
Endocrinology and Women's Health Laboratory at Louisiana State University's Pennington
Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, she suggested that women with obesity be advised
simply to not increase their calorie intake during pregnancy but to “The message is: Focus on
improving diet quality rather than increasing calories,"3. Contrarily, the Presentation, “Life Cycle
Nutrition-Pregnancy through Infantry,” states obese women should still gain up to 15 pounds as
it would be problematic to restrict nutritional intake2. As Faith moves into her final trimester, a
public heath nutritionist would guide her to continue making quality food choices and staying
away from unnecessary weight gain.
References:
HLTH 640 Meal Observation-
Crownover
1. Blake JS, Munoz KD, Volpe S. Nutrition: from science to you. Boston: Pearson; 2016.
2. Presentation: Life Cycle Nutrition-Pregnancy through Infantry [Presentation]. Module 7.
Liberty University. (2011).
3. Zoler ML. WEIGHT GAIN: Women with obesity need not boost calories during
pregnancy. Ob. gyn. news. 2019;54:1.
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