Diet Analysis Project

Diet Analysis Project

1. How does your daily caloric intake stack up compared to what is recommended? Unfortunately, after completing my diet analysis, I found out that my daily caloric intake is 1,5 times higher than it is recommended. According to the USDA website my caloric intake should be 1880 per day, by in reality it is 2972 (about 3000 per day). Now I understand why I started to gain weight, even though I don’t eat much or often. 2. What nutrients do you consume the most? Does this pattern reflect a healthy diet? Compare your results to dietary recommendations provided on the website. After reviewing my nutrient intakes, I discovered that I consume too much carbohydrates, cholesterol and sodium. While acceptable range of carbohydrates is 130, I consume about 300 per day. Similarly, instead of recommended <300 of cholesterol I consume 443. The worst situation is in my sodium intake – instead of acceptable 1500-2300 I consume 6634. As I clearly see now, my diet can not be considered as healthy, as I thought before completing this assignment. 3. Look at your results on the food pyramid. What are the sources of your calories? Should you be on the high or low side of recommended serving sizes in the categories? And why? According to My Food Pyramid I consume, I am mostly on the high side of recommended serving sizes. My protein intake takes the highest place, what I believe is not healthy because my intake is 3 times higher than it is recommended. My vegetables and fruits intake is almost equal to the recommended serving size, but it is a little bit higher. I am glad that I do a good job with these products. My grains intake is also on the high side, but I think that it is a good thing for me. The only food I am on a low side is milk intake. However, it does not affect my calcium intake which is 962.6 while the recommended range is 1000. 4. Make 4 specific dietary recommendations based on these reports. **For each recommendation, include a diet change that is based on sound nutrition. The true value of this assignment comes when your initiate your recommendations. Suggest changes that would work for you.
1) I would recommend myself to increase milk intake, to increase my calcium and Vitamin A level (which was half of what is recommended) by making milk shake with fruit juice, which use to be my favorite when I was a child.
2) I need to decrease carbohydrates (which are now 3 times higher than it is recommended) in my diet by using sweeteners with my morning tea and sugar free products, such as sugar free yogurts, candies and pies.
3) I need to decrease protein intake by decreasing quantity of meat in my diet.
4) Definitely, I need to eat less salty food such as chips, pretzels and french-fries because my sodium intake is 3 times higher than it is recommended.