ARCHIVE - Diet Assessment

Diet Assessment This exercise is designed to help you analyze your diet for all of the macronutrients including water. You will need to keep track of all food, liquids & supplements you ingest for 3 consecutive days. Because the RDA’s are set on 3-day averages, track diet intake for 3 days and then average results.

1. On the grids keep track of all foods & fluids consumed for 3 consecutive days. One of those days must be a weekend day. Using appendix N [and/or any on-line source, food composition book on reserve in library], find each item and locate all indicated nutrients. If you use a packaged food, use the information from the label when available.

2. Answer the following questions - please type all answers on a separate sheet of paper.

Did you meet /exceed or fall short of your daily caloric needs? [Use calculations from previous assignment]
Count servings of Fruits & Vegetables. Recommendations are 5 – 9 servings a day, how did you do?
What was your total protein intake - describe it in both grams and % of calories.
What was your total fat intake - describe it in both grams and % of calories. If you included supplements in your diet, did these impact your intake? How?
What was your total carbohydrate intake – describe in both grams and % of calories. Estimate the % of carbohydrates as simple vs. complex.
Did you meet the recommended fiber intake?
Draw a pie chart depicting your daily average fat, protein and carbohydrate intake. Remember you are using 3-day averages for your data.
What was your daily cholesterol intake? How does it compare to the national recommendations? [If you are vegan, this should be 0 – as cholesterol is only found in foods of animal origin.]
Looking at the breakdown of your dietary fats - what % of total fats are coming from saturated fats? Unsaturated fats? - Remember the goal is to have more unsaturated fats in the diet than saturated fats. What was your saturated fat: unsaturated fat ratio? [Remember Unsaturated = polyunsaturated fats + monounsaturated fats] Please represent this using a bar graph. What does this ratio represent? What is the suggested ratio for a 2000-calorie diet?
What was your average water intake? Was it adequate for your lifestyle? Remember you need to consume a minimum of half of your body weight as ounces: 120 lb person = 60 ounces a day minimum water.

What information regarding fats can you expect to find on a food label?

Define Invisible Fats. Give 2 examples using foods.

All assessments are due on Wednesday March 3^rd. Early papers graciously accepted. Papers can be emailed – be sure to include all grids. NO LATE PAPERS - NO EXCEPTIONS!!!!