NameInstructor

Course

05/08/2019

Nutrition

Abstract

In this particular assignment, I was required to carry out an experiment on my eating habits and nutrition by tracking general food consumption for three days. I tracked my eating habits from Friday, 2nd August 2019 to Sunday, 4th August 2019. I used an app from Google play store, my diet coach app, to create a diet profile and log in every other food I consumed for the three days. I used the information from the NAS to resolve the daily percentages of the macronutrients I consumed for the three days. Apart from that, I used two websites, www.eatright.org, and www.consumerlab.com.

Nutrition covers both the quantity and the quality of what one consumes. It is safe to say that one is what he or she eats since the human body depends on whatever we eat to make up the composition of the elements, molecules, and other important components in the body. As humans, we barely think of the effect whether negative or positive certain foodstuffs we consume have on the body and its whole system. And what is more, it is hard to constantly monitor what goes into our systems in terms of food since not all foods are healthy yet they are edible. For the past 3 days, I tracked my nutrition and eating habits, I was sure to monitor the macronutrients absorption and kept tabs with the recommended nutrition values while observing the changes I would have to make in order to keep my diets nutritious and thus beneficial to my body system.

Preliminary view

Prior to tracking my eating habits, I was afraid that I would miss on recording some events since I tend to love snacks and I figured it would be hard to record all my snacks and even interpret its nutritional implication. Mostly, I would prefer to eat out or do snacks instead of cooking at home. However, the idea of learning about my eating habits and being able to come up with a report which explains my body count pushed me to make this experiment a success. Through this assignment, I was able to learn to find out so much about nutrition.

Findings

Through this experiment, I greatly learnt more about nutrition. In order to determine the nutritional value of any food and drinks I consumed, I used two reliable websites and an application (www.eatright.org, www.consumerlab.com and my diet coach App) I was able to track my macronutrients intake and make a comparison between my figures and those recommended by the national academy of sciences. A balanced diet which is deemed to be nutritious should be comprised of carbohydrates, proteins and fats (Taşğın 16). In as much as fats are important, one is advised to keep its intake low which is where I was wrong all alone with the junk food I always eat. This experiment literally opened my eyes and cleared my ignorance when it comes to food and nutrition.

Personal consumption analysis

For the three days, I tracked my diet, I only ate homemade food the last day (4th August.) I noticed that from the past two days I kept eating out and snacking, my macronutrients were quite different from the last day I ate a homemade meal. My sodium and calories intake was over 3500 mg for the days I ate out and toned down to 1000 mg when I cooked at home. It is safe for me to say that my eating habits are quite unhealthy and common for many people my age. My calories intake, in particular, turned out to be so astonishing as reported from the two days, 2nd and 3rd August. However, the day I cooked seemed fair of a diet which is why I intend to eat homemade food more often as I work on improving my entire dieting generally. I would recommend anyone with same eating habits as me to use my diet coach app which has proven to be of great help in tracking the value of the foodstuff consumed since I started using it.

Comparison to NAS guidelines

According to the Dietary Reference Intakes, (Ryan-Harshman and Aldoori 179) the standard amount of macronutrients an average adult is expected to take is as follows; the carbohydrate calories intake should range between 45 and 65 percentages, the fat calories intake should range from 20 to 35 percentages while the protein calories intake should range from 10 to 35 percentages.

On 2nd, August the percentage of my carbohydrates intake was 57, the next day on 3rd of August it dropped to 53 and on the last day, 4th August it dropped further to 47. For the proteins the percentage on the first day, 2nd was 17, the next day the percentage dropped to 12 and on the final day it rose to 23. My fat calories intake percentages were as follows; the first day the percentage was at 37, the next day it rose to 40 and on the last day the percentage was at 32.

Application to body composition

Generally, ones physical fitness is a result of the overall body composition. My eating habits are considered quite unhealthy and in as much as I still look healthy and in good shape, my calories intake needs to be closely monitored. I intend to cut on the consumption of junk food and better focus on homemade food. According to my experiment on my personal nutrition, 4th August was the healthiest day in my entire diet for the three days. My diet needs so much work and I intend to match my nutrition values to those of NAS so as to stay healthy and balance my macronutrients intake on a daily basis. From the comparisons with the recommended values by NAS, my percentages of each macronutrient on the different days kept shifting while it needs to be within the same parameters. I intend to keep on tracking those percentages of micronutrients on a daily basis for better results as I learn to eat especially when it comes to sugars and fatty foodstuffs.

Works Cited

BIBLIOGRAPHY Milly Ryan-Harshman, Walid Aldoori, “New dietary reference intakes for macronutrients and fibre.” Can Fam Physician (2006): 177-179.

Taşğın, E. “Macronutrients and Micronutrients in Nutrition.” International Journal of Innovative Research and Reviews (2017).