Diet Analysis: to Achieve a Healthy Lifestyle

Introduction

A healthy lifestyle (diet and activity) improves many basic functions of the human body. It improves cognitive processes, energy levels, even mental health. By recording my diet for three days (Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday), I have decided to do a diet analysis because it will highlight what I need to change in my daily diet and activities to obtain a healthy lifestyle.

I will review the results of my diet and compare it to the Canadian daily recommended value to see what needs to be adjusted. I predict my current lifestyle isn’t healthy and needs to be changed. I believe my diet contains too many calories and not enough nutrients including calcium, water, and vitamin D. I believe my activity levels are low, with my current diet, I feel I should be doing more activities to burn off the excess calories.

Method/Materials

To carry out the diet analysis I needed to record my diet on three consecutive days. Generally one's diet will change from the weekday to the weekend so I recorded one day of the weekend and two weekdays for assurance, as well as a more precise and accurate representation of my diet. I also recorded my activity levels for each day and recorded how long each activity took place. These activities were then inputted into the “Nutrition Calc Plus” software. I then used Nutrition Calc Plus to generate reports from my diet and activities throughout the three days.

Results

Carbohydrates, fats, and proteins are considered macronutrients because the body needs large amounts of these daily. These nutrients are a source of energy for the body (Stephenson, Tammy J. , and Wendy Schiff. Human Nutrition: Science for Healthy Living. )

In the final result, I am eating too many saturated fats (120% of the DRI), this is resulting in many calories derived from these saturated fats (120% of the DRI). I am also eating too much protein (100% of the DRI, 45. 43g when the AMDR is 42. 8g), also resulting in a high calorie intake through these proteins (137% of the DRI). I am also eating too much fat (91% of the DRI, 53. 4 when the AMDR is 45g a day) also resulting in a high calorie amount (126%). My carbohydrate intake exceeds the AMDR by 50. 1g. I am not drinking enough water (30% of the DRI).

Micronutrients are vitamins and minerals. The body needs little of the nutrients to function normally. Micronutrients are not sources of energy (Stephenson, Tammy J. , and Wendy Schiff. Human Nutrition: Science for Healthy Living. )

I am eating too much Vitamin B1 (104% of the DRI), Vitamin C (245% of the DRI), as well as sodium (89% DRI). I am not eating enough Vitamin A (17% DRI), Vitamin D (5% DRI), Vitamin E (21% DRI), Folate (33% DRI), and Calcium (33% DRI).

Discussion

My intake of carbohydrates, fats, and proteins all exceed the AMDR (upper range). I could adjust my diet by reducing my meat intake (sandwich meat, bacon, sausage breakfast sandwiches). Health issues that could develop from a high intake of these macronutrients could be heart disease and type 2 diabetes (Stephenson, Tammy J. , and Wendy Schiff. Human Nutrition: Science for Healthy Living. )

I need to focus on drinking more water as well (will be elaborated on in the next paragraph). Micronutrient My Vitamin D level is low. Health issues that can occur from a low value o fthis vitamin is diabetes, low blood pressure, and osteomalacia (Vitamin D Deficiency. [2017, November 06). I would go about correcting this by eating 3 ounces of salmon daily. This would increase my levels by 3. 7mcg/3 ounces of salmon (baked). My Vitamin C intake levels are too high. This can lead to vomiting, insomnia, abdominal pain, heartburn, and headaches (L. D. , K. Z. (2018, February 08).

Too much vitamin C: Is it harmful?). I could correct this in my diet by not eating so much citric fruits and things that contain them (tomatoes, spaghetti, orange juice). I am going to focus on switching my orange juice for water to stop eating too much citric foods and start increasing my water intake as well (e. g instead on drinking 500ml of orange juice, I will switch it out for 500ml of water).

Activity Levels Due to my diet, the activities I should be doing to maintain my weight is enough to burn off 1. 785 kilocalories. The amount I burn on average daily is 1. 109 kilocalories. I can improve my physical habits by running for 30 minutes a day, this will burn 197 calories. I can also adjust my diet to control the amount of calories going into my body as well as the calories being burned to insure I am burning the proper amount to maintain my weight.

Conclusion

My diet does not support a healthy lifestyle and neither do my activity levels. I am not eating enough nutrients or doing enough exercise, in result it is affecting not only my weight but my mental health, cognitive processes, as well as my energy levels. The data gathered does support my hypothesis but it also adds on to it, not only am I not getting enough vitamin D, calcium, or water, I am not getting enough of other nutrients and I am getting too much of other nutrients.

To adjust my diet I am going to stop eating too much citric foods and I am going to drink more water (e. g. switching orange juice for water). I am also going to reduce my meat intake (to decrease my protein intake). I am going to try to eat more fatty-fish to increase my vitamin D levels (e. g. 3 oz of salmon a day). I am also going to jog for 30 minutes a day to improve my activity levels and maintain my weight. I am going to watch my calorie intake versus the calories I’m burning to insure I am maintaining my weight. These are the adjustments I will make to achieve a healthy lifestyle.