Diet Analysis

PHED 1010

Lab Activity 7.2

Diet Analysis – Part 1 Instructions

There is probably not one single person in this class who has not given thought to their diet.  There is sure to be variation; some of us are certainly more diet conscious than others – some of us might even elevate our diet and other health considerations to a priority level.  For others, it might not be a big deal.  However, everyone probably gives it a thought at least once in a while.

Before we can make well-informed, healthy changes to our diets we must first understand where the “problem areas” of our diets actually are. This requires a detailed and in-depth analysis of our eating habits, and this starts by keeping a food diary. If you are really serious about making changes in your diet, this must be done every day. It must be accurate, thorough, and complete so as to give you as much information as possible for you to make the necessary changes to shift your diet in a healthier direction. For this assignment, we will take a sampling of your diet, followed by analysis and assessment of that sampling.

Part 1 of this assignment requires you to keep a thorough food diary for 3 days.

Guidelines:

• The diary must be typed into the FOOD DIARY tables I have provided at the end of this document. DO NOT resize the tables. The cells will expand as you type. However, you can add as many rows as necessary. To add rows, highlight an entire row and then right-click. You’ll see an insert function. Choose the appropriate option.
• Each day should start in a new table. This is already done in the DIARY and page breaks assure it stays in the correct format. Do not change this. You should include your name & the date at the top of each page. Starting with breakfast, you must then document EVERYTHING (including alcohol) you eat and drink for 3 consecutive days, as well as any vitamins or supplements taken during this time.
• You should be as accurate as possible with each food entry. For example, noting that you had a bowl of cereal for breakfast is not as useful as stating you had 1 ½ cups of Frosted Mini-Wheats with ¾ cup of skim milk. It isn’t useful to say that you had a turkey sandwich. You should always break down the components of a meal as best you can. So, if you say you had a turkey sandwich, you should then say what kind of bread, how much turkey, condiments, etc. (See examples below) Your grade on this portion of the project, as well as your ability to accurately complete Part 2 of the project, will be adversely affected if your food entries are not as specific as possible. Often you can measure things once, and then use that as a guide for future reference. Many foods, especially snacks, drinks, and fast food, include serving information on their labels. This is important information to collect for Part 2 of this assignment. Finally, there are a number of websites that will help you estimate food serving sizes (How many of us really have a really good grasp on what 2 tablespoons of peanut butter looks like?). Here is a link to one of these sites: http://www.myfooddiary.com/Resources/ estimating_serving_sizes.asp, but you can find others by searching the web. Multiple studies have shown that Americans have lack an accurate grasp of serving sizes and often over-eat even when consuming healthy foods. Many dieticians agree that for many people altering serving size may be more important than altering the actual foods we eat. With that in mind, this step becomes even more important in getting a true evaluation of our diet.
• Each entry should include the time of day (as specific as possible), location of the consumption (at home, at McDonald’s, in the car, in class, etc.), what you were doing during consumption (such as watching TV, talking to friends, etc.), and whether you were alone or with others (you must indicate this even if you were alone). This information could shed light on bad or good eating habits you might have such as snacking excessively during your favorite TV show or eating better foods when you are eating with others as opposed to alone.
• Once complete, you will need to submit the document into the appropriate assignment folder in the Assignments section of D2L. Please contact me with any questions or concerns you may have as soon as they come up. You are welcome and encouraged to finish and submit this assignment before the due date. Late submissions are subject to a 50% reduction in their grade.
• You need to make sure you keep a copy of this information to help you complete the 2^nd part of this assignment. The more nutritional information you can find on each food item, the better. I suggest saving all nutritional labels of the foods you consume; copy them by hand, cut them off the package, photograph them with your cell camera, whatever it takes to have that information on file when you need it for Part 2.
• Always ask any questions you have before you put in all the work or submit the assignment. This will save you a lot of work. You cannot make changes to anything after you submit it, and it’s been graded.

Example of a GOOD food diary entry:

Monday February 7

Time	Food	Size	Brand	Where?	With?	Doing what?
7:00am				At home	Alone	Playing on tablet
	Whole wheat bread	58g (2 slices)	Nature’s Own
	Margarine	1 tbsp	Country Crock
	Scrambled eggs	2 large	Eggland’s Best
	Black coffee	2 cups	Folger’s
	Orange Juice	1 cup	Minute Maid

Example of a POOR food diary:

Monday February 7

Time	Food	Size	Brand	Where?	With?	Doing what?
	Tropical Punch Gatorade	1 bottle	Gatorade
	bagel & cream cheese	1
	Water	1 bottle	Dasani
	Pack of M&M’s	1
	Vegetarian patties (cabbage,carrots)	3

Problems

• What time? With whom? Where? What were you doing? Is this one or multiple meals.
• Gatorade How many oz?
• 1 bagel & cream cheese Size of bagel? How much cream cheese? Brands?
• 1 bottle of water How many oz?
• Pack of M&M’s What size pack?
• 3 Vegetarian patties (cabbage, carrots) Specific variety? What about cabbage & carrots?

Other things to avoid: (all of these will result in a deduction from your final grade)

• Don’t use the term “cup” unless it was an actual cup by volume.
• Don’t just indicate a “snack size Snickers”, “half a PowerBar”, “small bag of Doritos” and other things along these lines. ALWAYS include an actual measurement.
• Even though diet drinks, water, and related beverages are zero calories, you still need to include a volume amount. Don’t just tell me a “bottle” or “can”. Always be as specific with measurements as possible.
• Always include fruit sizes. Such as “small apple”, “large banana”, etc. This also applies to potatoes and some other vegetables.
• Don’t assume that certain items are standard. Always include a size/amount whenever possible. Surprisingly, slices of bread, slices of lunchmeat, hot dogs and other items that have many different producers actually vary in size and caloric value from one brand to another.