Nutrition and Food Diary Activity

Introduction:

You will be recording your food and water intake for 3 days. One of the days that you record should be during your busiest weekday. Another recording day should be on a weekend, and you can choose any other day to record your 3rd day. The days do not have to be consecutive days.

To help you define terms or answer questions you can use the American Heart Association (opens window) website.

Pre-Activity Questions: (Worth up to 5pts each)

1. What is a nutrient?

 

2. Chemically, what is the difference between a saturated fat and an unsaturated fat? Why is one worse for you than another?

 

3. What is a Trans- fat? Why is it bad to eat too many foods with Trans-fat? What can they do to your health?

 

 

4. List three examples of

a. Carbohydrates

b. Lipids

c. Proteins

5. Are all cholesterols bad? Explain?

 

6. John ate a cube of sugar (disaccharide), trace that sugar through the digestive system, make sure to mention what happens in each structure, including mechanical and chemical digestion, where absorption occurs and now absorption occurs.

 

7. How will John’s sugar be stored?

 

Activity 1: Tracking Your Meals (worth up to 20pts)

Directions: Using the template below record you nutritional intake for two typical days! For each meal include the quantity (i.e. cup, oz. etc.) of each item, the calories, carbohydrates, fat, and protein. On the last row, you should total your daily calories, carbohydrates, fat, and protein.

 

Meal	Quantity	Calories	Carbohydrates	Fat	Protein	Sodium
Breakfast
Lunch
Dinner
Snacks
Totals	N/A

 

Table 1: Record of Meals on Day 1

Meal	Quantity	Calories	Carbohydrates	Fat	Protein	Sodium
Breakfast
Lunch
Dinner
Snacks
Totals	N/A

Table 2: Record of Meals on Day 2

After recording your meals, go to the Dietary guidelines (opens window) and use Appendix 3 to do the following:

· Look for the column that contains your sex and age (use next column at the top to see the columns to the right)

· For each day answer the following (Worth up to 15pts total)

· Did you meet the calorie level? How much more were you over?

· Did you meet the Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) of proteins?

· Did you meet the Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) of carbohydrates?

· Did you fall into the acceptable range for total fat?

Analysis

1. Analyze your nutritional diary and explain any observations you have. I.e. if your caloric intake was too high, which of the other nutrients may have caused this. Are there any patterns to your eating habits? I.e. do you eat more in the evening than in the morning or more on the weekend? Lastly, how can your eating habits be changed to create a healthier lifestyle change? The information you obtained during analysis of your results should be added into your conclusion paragraph below.

Conclusion (Worth up to 30pts)

Write a paragraph to summarize your food diary days. Include all the following:

· Explain which days you chose, your schedule or routine, and how it affected your eating habits.

· After your 2 days, what do you conclude about your 1) calorie intake 2) carbohydrate intake 3) total fats intake and 4) total sodium intake.

· (Choose 1 options) Include if there are changes that you think should be made to your diet and offer at least 2 realistic changes that you think you will make regarding your food intake. If you feel no changes are needed, then offer 2 realistic reasons why.