Dietary Analysis Project: Estimation and Analysis of Your Dietary Requirements

The purpose of this dietary analysis project is to provide you with practical experience in estimation and analysis of your dietary requirements. Each student will create a nutritional profile, based on individual data such as height, weight and daily food consumption. By applying concepts learned in class, students will compare their personal profiles to the current U.S. dietary recommendations and will identify possible areas of improvement relating to diet and health.

You are going to keep track of everything you eat and drink for 3 full days. Choose 2 weekdays and 1 weekend day. Be sure to include beverages and snacks. But do not include vitamin pills or pill supplements.

1. Use the “Food Record Table” (found on Canvas in the Nutrition Assessment Assignment folder) to record your food and beverages for each day. I recommend writing down what you eat at the time that you eat it to avoid forgetting things.

a. You need to write down the exact amount of food you eat. For example: 1 cup cereal, 8oz orange juice, one medium banana, 6 oz turkey breast, 1 teaspoon mayonnaise, 2 slices rye bread. Be very specific when filling out the food record (e.g. write “Cheerios” not cereal; “fat-free milk,” not “milk”; “2 ounces of ham, 2 slices whole-wheat bread, 1 tsp mayonnaise,” NOT “a sandwich”, 8-ounce glass of water, 16 oz can of diet Sprite, etc...)

2. Go to https://cronometer.com and click “login.” Either set up a new profile by entering in your own information or use your Facebook or Google/ Gmail account to login.

a. Enter your food intake for each of the three days from your Food Record Table in the “Diary Section”. Make sure to put the right foods on the correct dates - you can change this by clicking the green button under the website title. You do not need to enter the time of day. The time of day is included with the paid verion of Cronometer.

b. On the top, go to “Trends” -> “Nutrition Report”. Select the appropriate timeframe for Daily Averages (Last 7 days/ 2 weeks) to include the three full days of your food intake. Don’t forget to show only the Non-Empty Days. This report will give you a complete list of your total calories, macronutrients, vitamins and minerals for the 3 full days that you entered.

c. Take a screenshot of the results and put screenshots into a MS Word document to submit via Canvas.

Task

3. Go to https://www.choosemyplate.gov/myplateplan to get your MyPlate plan.

a. Click on “Start” in the graphic and enter in your data to calculate your plan.

b. Choose the calorie level that best matches your health goal (either achieving a healthy weight or maintaining weight).

c. You will then be taken to a summary page for each food group. Click on “View as PDF” on the right. The second page of the PDF is your “MyPlate Plan”. Using your Food Record Table, complete the “MyPlate Plan” for each of the 3 days by categorizing what you ate into each of the food groups and compare to the recommendations. 

4. Complete a reflection of your results from the Cronometer Nutrition Report and the MyPlate Plan. In no more than 2 pages, using 1.5 spacing and 12 font, write short answers to the following questions. Feel free to cut and paste these into another document and answer underneath the questions.

a. Discuss your actual intake compared to the Nutrient Report and MyPlate Plan recommendations.

Which food groups do you need to eat more of?

Which food groups are you meeting the recommendations?

Which food groups are you getting too much of?

b. Discuss your actual intake compared to the “Nutrition Report” recommendations. (Use the minimum value of the target range for comparison to your actual intake.) Focus on the following nutrients: calories, total fat, saturated fat, protein, carbohydrates, fiber, sugars, sodium,

potassium, calcium, iron, vitamin D, vitamin A and vitamin C.

What vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients are you low in?

What vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients do you consume too much of?

c. Discuss the quality of the foods you ate.

Are you getting enough variety within each food group?

Are you eating several different colors of fruits and vegetables?

Are you eating whole grains?

Are you eating low-fat dairy and lean meats instead of higher-fat versions?

Are you including nuts, seeds, and beans in your diet?

Are you limiting added sugars?

d. Discuss the portion sizes of the food that you ate.

Did you find that you had difficulty estimating your portion sizes?

Did you find that you were eating more of less than a typical serving size?

e. Discuss the quality and number of snacks that you ate.

Are they contributing to the overall quality of your diet?

Are they providing extra unnecessary calories?

Are they providing unnecessary added fats (or the wrong type of fats) and sugars?

f. Discuss the quality and number of beverages that you drank.

Are the beverages you drank contributing to the overall quality of your diet?

Are they providing extra unwanted calories or added sugars?

Are they providing other unnecessary substances, such as caffeine, alcohol, too much vitamins and minerals, etc.?

g. Provide specific and realistic recommendations about how you can improve the overall quality of your diet.