Download Ulster County Community College

SCF HUN # 2201 Fundamentals of Nutrition
Class 7 Diet Analysis
Diet Analysis is done in two parts:
1. * Looking at your food intake by how many calories you eat each day
2. *Looking at your food intake by how many nutrients you eat each day.
Nutrients like proteins, lipids and carbohydrates
and vitamins & minerals and maybe fiber, cholesterol and sugars
So, regarding calories, if you know the calories for your foods, add up the calories you
ate for three days. If you don’t know the calories, look up the foods you ate in the back
of the textbook appendix H pages 1 through 77. Calories are listed under Ener for
energy. Look at the foods you ate for breakfast, lunch, snacks, and dinner .
Add up all the calories for 3 days. Then divide by the number of days for the average
calories to represent one day. *This is the Three Day Average of a diet for a week, to
see if your foods are healthful, to see of there are nutrient deficiencies and to see if
someone might need supplements.
Another Method - Extra Credit
If your foods are not listed, or you want to figure out the number of calories you ate for
just protein, fats or carbohydrates, you can do that too.
To find protein calories, find the grams of protein for the amount of food you ate, either
from the tables or on a label. Write down the foods you ate for 3 days. Add up the
grams of protein you ate for three days. Then divide by 3 to obtain the three day average
protein grams to represent one day.
Multiply that answer by four and that equals the protein calories for one day.
To find lipid calories, Add up the grams of lipids in foods you ate for three days. Divide
by three to calculate the three day average. Then,
Multiply by nine and that equals the fat calories for one day.
To find carbohydrate calories. look up the fruits and vegetables the same way in the
tables of Appendix H. Add up the grams of carbohydrates you ate for three day.
Divide by 3 to calculate the three day average. Then, Multiply by 4 and that equals the
carbohydrate calories for the day.
Some foods have combinations of carbohydrates and fats like in a batter or coating.
Some foods have protein, carbohydrates and fats like in a sandwich or casserole. They
should be separated out and then added in to your total calories or nutrient calories .
Others are listed as, i.e. a “ham & cheese sandwich on whole wheat bread” = 247 calories
Percentage of calories - Optional
To calculate the percentage of a kind of calories as compared to your total calories
for one day: Add the lipid, protein or carbohydrate calories consumed in three days.
Calculate the three day average. Then, divide by the total calories. Fat calories The
total number goes on the bottom of the fraction.
Total calories
The result is a decimal number to be converted into a percentage.
1
SCF HUN # 2201 Nutrition Class 7
Compare - required
Compare the average calories you eat to something. You could compare your calories
to those recommended for the average person, to maintain their weight as the
percentage of the RDV listed on food labels. *This is 2000 calories per day.
Or, compare your calories and nutrients to diets during pregnancy + 300 calories to =
2300calories and during lactation +500 calories to = 2500 calories per day. Each of
these amounts are on the inside front cover of the textbook. Pregnancy and Lactation is
also assessed for grams per day for Protein, Lipids, Carbohydrates and Fiber.
Or, compare your percentages of Protein, Lipids or Carbohydrates to the Acceptable
Macronutrient Distribution Ranges (AMDR) as discussed on page 19 of the textbook:
*Or, the websites programs will compare it for you to the RDA. See page 3 for the
addresses of the websites.
Measurements
Remember that 1 gram of alcohol = 7 calories.
In calculating liquids or solids into grams weight – one ounce = 28.4 grams
.04 ounces = 1 gram
See the Aids to Calculation in Appendix G
Nutrients - Required
Check the charts and see if your foods add up to the U S Recommended Dietary
Allowance RDA or, the Recommended Daily Values RDV or possibly, the Upper Limits
of Vitamins A, B, C, D, E, and Folate . What about Cholesterol? You could check your
diet for cholesterol.
Foods are listed in the tables of Appendix H. The minimum recommended amount for
adults in one day, the RDA, is in the chart on the inside front cover and the following
page. Minerals are reported for Sodium, Potassium and Magnesium. Iron and Zinc are
listed, other Trace minerals are not.
Compare - Required
Compare your foods with those amounts on the inside of the back cover of the
textbook. These amounts, the RDV are based on a 2000 calorie diet, on page Y, across
from the inside back cover of the textbook. If you eat less than that, you still need those
amounts of nutrients. Although, I suggest that some people * need more B vitamins than
the RDA and some people need more B vitamins than the RDV if they are very *deficient
or are under great stress. Both the www.myplate.gov intake patterns and the Diet
Analysis Plus access code to the website are calculated to the RDA, the amount of
nutrients to prevent minimum deficiency.
Or compare your protein, lipid or carbohydrate intake to the recommended percentages of
amounts. These are listed on page 20 of the textbook. You can create a chart something
like on page 47 to show how close or far from the recommended amounts your intake is.
Or compare your nutrient amounts to the fruit, vegetable and grain intake as appropriate
to your height, weight and Activity level in www.myplate.gov.
2
SCF HUN # 2201 Fundamentals of Nutrition
Recommended: You can enter data through the website:
https://www.supertracker.usda.gov
*The website software will calculate your 3 day averages for calories and nutrients and
compare it to RDA amounts.
You can compare your intake to the recommendations in the Dietary Guidelines for
Americans (Whitney p. 39) or to the USDA www.usda.gov. patterns on page 42 to 44.
Or compare your calorie and nutrient intake to that recommended on the website
www.fitnesspal.com, or that recommended for a diabetic diet or a pregnancy diet or a
weight loss program. For these amounts, see the handout about diet analysis.
Exercise
You can also, subtract the calories you use in exercise to see if then you are closer to a
number of calories that maintains weight . See appendix F for further information
about your level of activity. See page 238 of the textbook for the calories of specific
activities. You may determine that if you work hard or exercise a lot, that you may need
to eat more calories. Or maybe you will need to eat less or exercise more to lose weight
to be in an appropriate body mass index.
Save and then send the diet information and any graphs and charts, but especially the
*three day average information to the Diet Analysis Drop Box. Attach it into the Drop
Box. Or, calculate a three day average for calories and nutrients by looking the foods up
in the tables in Appendix H in the textbook. Send/attach your Word document into the
Diet Analysis Drop Box.
*Add a Summary and Commentary - Required
Summary: What did the results show?
Commentary: Do you need to eat more calories? Do you need to eat more servings of
certain foods to get more of the B vitamins? Vitamin A or C or D or ? Was this a
meaningful project?
Handouts – Sample of a listing of foods for calories and nutrients. This is a beginning,
a way to start your diet analysis. More detail will complete it.
Diet Analysis - Due at Class 8
Hand in earlier if possible.
You can be creative in how you design or print out your diet analysis.
Hand in something – it is 10% of your grade.
*There is a special Drop Box into which you send or attach the Diet Analysis Class 8 in
Canvas.
3