For this assignment, you will be recording your dietary intake for 3 days. You will enter your food intake into a nutrient analysis program (Many of my students used happyforks.com Links to an external site.in the past, but if you have another option you would like to use, feel free to–just be sure to include your results in your report). For free iPhone/Android apps, check out this article Links to an external site..
Next, you will analyze your dietary intake for that day based on your nutrient analysis results. Therefore, this assignment has 2 parts: 1) Food Record, and 2) Nutrient Analysis.
General Guidelines:
You must enter at least 10 items into each day’s food log. On happyforks.com Links to an external site.they call this “Your List.” If you do not have 10 items, then use a different day in which you ate enough to constitute 10 items. This should be fairly easy. For example, if you had stir fry, it might contain rice, broccoli, onion, bell pepper, soy sauce, sriracha, chicken breast, green onion, and chopped almonds (so that would be 9 items just for that one dish). Therefore, entering all food items in a given dish may take awhile, so give yourself ample time.
Use your best judgment when it comes to matching what you ate to what is in the software. For example, I tried to add “unsweetened almond milk” but that wasn’t an option so I had to use “sweetened vanilla almond milk.”
Use your best judgment when it comes to measurement. For each item added, you can use the dropdown menu to change the units (e.g., grams, ounces, cups, etc.). If you use a different website or app, do your best to estimate the quantities of each food using their options. I’m not familiar with all of the sites/apps, but I’ll do my best to help if needed. This can be tricky, so reach out if you need help with this.
Don’t forget beverages, sauces, snacks, etc. EVERYTHING you ate for the day should be entered into the food record.
Be sure to enter your sex, age, height, weight, and physical activity level accurately (different websites/apps may ask for more or less personal information). This is simple on happyforks.com because your profile is on the left side directly under “Your List.” Just click “Edit Profile” to add your personal information.
Screenshot your results, or copy/paste into your writeup so that I can see the results. (I have included screenshots below as an example).
For the analysis, remember that critical thinking is key. I’m looking for you to analyze your results through the lens of PUBH 350 and all that you have learned this semester.
Instructions:
Part 1: Food Record
If you go to happyforks.com Links to an external site., you can simply type your first food item into the search bar in the middle of the page. Once you do, the site will take you to the search results. Pick the one closest to the food you ate, then select the amount (1, 2, 0.5, etc.) and the measurement type (cups, grams, ounces, etc.). Then click the orange “Add to list” button. This will add the food you just entered to “Your List” on the left side of the screen. “Your List” is your food record for the day.
Once you are finished entering all food items for the first day, click “Nutrition Report” on the left side of the screen just below “Your List” food items. Doing so should display your results similar to my screenshots shown below…
***Please note that you’ll need to do this for 3 days, so run the analysis and take screenshots for each day.***
Part 2: Nutrient Analysis
This is the written portion of the assignment, and should be 3-4 pages of total written content, double-spaced, Times New Roman, font size 12, 1-inch margins, and should follow APA format (citations/references not required for this assignment).
First, discuss your overall results in 1-2 paragraphs, discussing overall calories, calorie breakdown (percentage of calories from carbohydrates, fat, and protein) and why or why not you met these macronutrient goals. If not, what are some ways you could improve on the overall intake or caloric intake? Also, discuss how typical these days were for you. Were these fairly typical days as far as eating patterns and amounts? Or were these days atypical in some way?
Next, spend 1-2 pages analyzing your results based upon which nutrients were lower or higher than your recommended amounts. Explain why certain nutrients were too low or too high, and give recommendations for improving these results. For example, if your iron intake was low for certain days, what would be 1-2 foods/drinks that could improve this result? For nutrients that were too high, what would be 1-2 foods that should be limited in order to reduce this nutrient (or which foods contributed to these high amounts and should be reduced)? For example, if sodium was too high, what are 1-2 foods that could have been reduced in order to lower your sodium intake for that day?
Then, spend 1-2 paragraphs discussing other aspects of these days that may have affected your eating habits. For example, was it a stressful day? Was it a quiet, relaxing day? Were you with other people? Were you mostly alone that day? What were you feeling before, during, and after eating? What mood were you in? What was your physical activity like this day? Active? Sedentary? Use this section to analyze any other factors that may have contributed to your food intake for these days. Please note this will vary greatly for each person!
Lastly, provide a brief conclusion (1 paragraph) about what you gained from this assignment, and how this might inform your eating habits moving forward. Do you think you would find it helpful to keep a food diary of some sort? If not, what is something that would help you to develop/keep healthy eating habits and other healthy behaviors like physical activity?
