Dietary Fat Lab

 

This exercise is designed to help you gauge your dietary fat intake.  You will need to keep track of all foods & liquids you ingest for 3 days.  Because the RDA’s are set on 3 day averages, we will track diet diaries for 3 days and then average results. 

 

  1. On the grids – keep track of all food and flud consumed for 3 consecutive days.  One of those days must be a weekend day.  Use appendix in back of book, labels and / or on-line sources; find each item and its kcal, total fat, saturated fat, unsaturated fat [mono & poly] and cholesterol content.  Remember to total each day’s values on grid sheets.
  2. Answer the following questions on a separate sheet of paper. All answers must be typed.
    1. Assess your diet diary.  Did you meet/exceed or fall short on daily caloric needs?  Was your fat intake approx. 30% or less of total caloric intake?  Looking at the breakdown of your dietary fats, what % are saturated fats? Unsaturated fats? Remember the goal is to have more unsaturated than saturated fats – but not in the form of trans fats [partially hydrogenated fats] What was your cholesterol intake – was it 300mg or less/day?  If you were within the dietary guidelines for each of the categories – CONGRATULATIONS. If not, what recommendations can you make to help bring your diet closer to theses goals?
    2. Advertisements often claim that fats are bad.  Your classmate, Zak asks, “If fats are so bad for us, why do we need to have any in our diets?”  How would you answer him?

    3. Jasmine loves to eat hamburgers, fries and lots of pizza.  She rarely eats any vegetables or fruit, but instead snacks on cookies and ice cream.  She insists that she has not problems with her health, is rarely ill, and doesn’t understand how her diet can predispose her to future health problems. How would you explain to Jasmine that despite her current good health, her diet could predispose her to future health problems?  
    4. David & Dean are identical twins who like the same games, sports and foods.  However, David likes to chew sugar-free gum and Dean doesn’t.  At their last dental visit, David had no cavities, but Dean had two. Dean wants to know why David, who chews gum after meals, doesn’t have any cavities and he does.  How would you explain this to him?
    5. Barbie begins a new diet program in which she eats unlimited amounts of carbohydrates and proteins but only a very small amount of fat.  Barbie belileves that if she eats no fat, she can gain no fat.  Is this true?   How would you explain the body processes that relate to this diet theory? 
    6. What do lipoproteins do?  What are the differences among chylomicrons, VLDL, LDL & HDL?
    7. What is a ‘free radical’?  What is an antioxidant?  What is their importance in relation to fats/oils?
    8. What methods are used by the food industry to inhibit rancidity of the unsaturated lipids in foods?