nurtiton part3
Nutrition Analysis
Introduction of subject
Currently, there is a major problem with issues concerning obesity and being overweight in the United States. This problem is significant and affects many individuals negatively. Obese people are, for example, exposed to the risk if chronic diseases like heart diseases and diabetes. One of the main ways through which people attempt to combat this condition is through the change of diet to food stuff that do not increase too many calories in their bodies which will make them obese. Diet analysis has, therefore, become extremely important to many American individuals, since it provides them with the most appropriate food contents that they should consume daily, in order to remain healthy. In this paper, I will provide a personal diet analysis, which will explain the amounts of food that I should consume for different contents of nutrients. I am a twenty-five years old female who involves in numerous activities on a daily basis. My weight is140 lbs and the high 5.3 feet. I also do not have any risk factors for a chronic disease. The most common diseases in my family history is debates and hypertension.
Food habits and behaviors
On a daily basis, I ensure that my food taking sessions are regular. I take three meals in a day, which include breakfast, lunch means, and suppertime meals. Friends, family members, and class sessions significantly affect my eating patterns. To begin with, I am required to prepare the meals that I feed on. Due to this reason, therefore, I need some time to involve in the preparations and cooking activities. When I have enough time, therefore, I have the freedom to prepare any meal that I feel like eating without pressure. Sometimes, however, I lack sufficient time to prepare meals mainly due to the aspects of having to attend classes by certain sessions. In such times, my meals are significantly affected. Since the hunger still occurs regularly during lunchtime, breakfasts and supper sessions, I am forced to purchase cooked food in order to save time, which in many cases does not contain the diet contents that I would have preferred.
People on the other hand significantly affect my meals and their contents. To begin with, when my friends visit, they may sometimes request to have some certain types of meals cooked for them. Since they do the same to me when I visit them, I decide to change the meal contents that I had planned to cook and change the diet to their preferences. This aspect, therefore, causes me to change the content of the diet that I had planned to cook on a certain day. On other occasions, friends inform that they will be coming and thus I cook large amounts of food. In many cases when they inform about their will to visit, they ensure that they visit and we eat the food that I had prepared. In some occasions due to certain reasons, however, they do not manage to visit even after reporting that they will be coming. This leaves me a large amount of food, which I have not eaten, and an amount that is difficult to finish in a single meal. I am thus forced to eat the same meal the next day in order to avoid food wastage. My friends and people significantly affect my food intake.
After assessing my hunger for a number of meals, I attained an average of rating three, on a scale of 1 to 5, 1 representing occasions when I am not hungry and 5 representing occasions when I am famished. This implies that I have a good appetite for food, an aspect that influences my eating habits significantly. The food contents of my diet also affect this rate. When I am feeding on my favorite diet contents, I am thrilled to eat and thus my hunger rating is high. The mood is another important factor in my diet. When I am not in a good med and thus do not feel energetic, preparing meals is the main issue that I face. In such occasions, I consider the meals that require less energy to prepare, despite their nutrient contents.
Food Groups Discussion
In order to assess my meals contents on a daily basis, I utilized the MyPlate Report method. This refers to a program that helps individuals understand their daily meal consumption and their contents and then help people to eat healthy meals by making suggestions of the changes that they should implement in their diet. One of the main contents of my meals is fruits. In almost every main meals that I take, I ensure that a fruit is present. The fruits help to ensure that I consume the right amount of minerals needed by the body per meal. In the fruits that I make, I have a number of choices, which I alternate between meals. I, for example, take bananas, apples or grapes among other types. I make choices concerning the fruit to consume according to a schedule that I have, through which I ensure not to consume a single type of fruit for long without consuming other types. In addition to consuming whole fruits, I also consume fruit juice. Sometimes, the juice is 100 percent while in other times I add supplements to make the juice sweeter. I also consume can fruit, which I purchase from fruit stores. I am however not conversant with the process through which this fruit is canned. From the calculation of my fruit consumption, the fruit that I consume are not adequate. This possibly occurs due to the specific days when my meals change and thus I do not consume a number of fruits that I have scheduled to consume.
Vegetables are the other content of my meals that I consume. The recommendation of consuming vegetables from MyPlate was 1.5 cup or any equivalent. I, however, consumed 0.8 cup on my intake. This implies that I did not attain my target for this meal content. I attempt to consume at least 3 dark green leafy or orange vegetables per day. It, however, becomes challenging because of my inconsistency with the diet and consumption of the planned meals. I, however, consume a variety of vegetables. I prefer consuming fresh vegetables to canned or frozen ones. I also prepare my vegetables. I take this as an important aspect because with personal preparation I can be certain of any product that I add to them in the preparation process. The main reason why I did not manage to consume the recommended amount of vegetable is my inconsistency with the meals that I arrange to consume.
Grains, on the other hand, are the meal contents that I also did not manage to consume amounts equivalent to the recommendations. I consume an amount that is 2.5 oz when the recommendation is consuming about 4 oz. I do not consume a variety of grains in my diet because I prefer only a certain type, which is the type I include in my diet all the time. The grains that I consume are refined and thus I do not consume whole grains, simply because I prefer grains when they are refined. A food whose content is completely grains without any other meal content added in it is the meal that contains grains 100 percent. Another content of my diet is meat and beans. These are the food stuff that provides me with proteins. My intake was 5.9 oz when the recommendations require that I consume about 3 oz or an equivalent amount. I always grilled my meat because I like to use less fat to I can manage my weight.
I also consume fats and oil within my meals. I consume an equally equivalent amount of fats and oil in my diet (4 teaspoon) like the recommendation of this content’s consumption. Almost all foods in my diet contribute to oil/fat contents because in the preparation stage I add cooking fat to add the flavor of the food. I consider my choices of the food and amounts of oil that I add as healthy, mainly because my consumption level compares with the recommended level. Another content of my diet is dairy. I consume 1.1 cups of daily intake when the recommended amount is 2 cups or equivalent. Foods like milk contributed to the availability of dairy in my diet. I also consume whole milk products in my diets. This is important to consider because, through these products, I attain dairy in my diet. The last content of my recommended meals is kcals, which are either empty or discretionary. I consume much fewer amounts of kcals in my diet than the recommended amounts. The term empty kcals refers to foodstuffs like solid fats or added sugars supplying, which supply food energy but provide little or no other form of nutrition in the body. Foods like fats and oil, cake, candy and ice cream contribute to empty kcals.
Discussion of the overarching principles
The overarching principles with regard to diet refer to guidelines through which if individuals utilize will manage to feed on healthy foods all the time. The first guideline provided by these principles requires an individual to assess his or her diet. By assessing the diet, one able to compare his or her meal contents with the content consumptions that are recommended. On the other hand, individuals are able to plot dietary goals through which they improve on the consumption of their meal contents. The next important guideline is formulating a meal schedule. The schedule contains the meals that the individual will consume on a daily basis, which contains the meal contents that will help in attaining the aimed goals of meal consumption. The other guideline is ensuring to follow this meal schedule completely and on a daily basis. These guidelines will help in ensuring that one consume the right amount of food (USDA, 2015).
References
USDA, (2015). Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2015-2020: USDA. Retrieved from https://health.gov/dietaryguidelines/2015/resources/2015-2020_Dietary_Guidelines.pdf
