Carly Barton

HLTH 1020 – Foundations of Nutrition

DIETARY ANALYSIS ASSIGNMENT

My three-day baseline food logs indicate that my calories were low as well as nutrients
such as potassium, vitamin D, vitamin E, and calcium. I did not have any excess nutrients which
could be correlated to my lack of calories. Food isn’t the only source of vitamin D. When I am
outside more often and the sun is out, I am not as concerned about my vitamin D intake. The
cold winter months makes it harder to give our bodies the needed vitamin D. I may consider
taking vitamin D supplements in the winter like I have done in previous years. Vitamin E
deficiency is rare in humans. I have 69% of the recommended daily allowance. This is borderline
risk for being low but not enough for me to have a significant focus on vitamin E. Calcium’s
function include: cell metabolism, blood clotting, transmission of nerve impulses, muscle
contraction, and bone support. To increase my calcium intake, I eat more leafy greens, almonds,
broccoli, etc.
This assignment was very eye opening for me. According to the My Plate report- I am
lacking in almost every area. The days that I recorded my diet were busy days when I did mostly
graze. This happens often as I work and go to school. Getting caught up in a busy schedule
usually leads to meals on the go and snacking rather than eating full meals. I am best at
breakfast.
Some of the benefits of keeping this food log was it made me more aware of what I was
eating, I found myself paying more attention to serving sizes, and each day I found myself
improving a little more on calorie intake. I feel like I improved on eating carbs and protein the
most. If I were to instruct someone to do this for a number of days, I would help them find a
digital way to track their food. I found an app in the Apple Store that could log your food based
on taking a picture. The app would process the picture and tell you how big of a serving size,
what you were eating, and the nutrition facts about everything on your plate. This encourages
eating meals not snacks, paying attention to serving sizes, and it’s very easy/fast. The biggest
reason why people don’t food log is probably because it is inconvenient. This app made tracking
food easy and fun for me.
I didn’t feel like my behaviors changed when I started to track my food. My lifestyle is
already very active and conservative with food. There are many things that I could see changing
if I did this long term. I feel like I would cook more often and eat less on the go. Right now, my
lifestyle is pretty hectic so food is not as big of a priority as it maybe should be. I would be
interested to see what changes I would be able to notice in my physiology as I was more aware
of what I was eating.