Directions for Personal Nutrition Paper

This project takes at least 3 days to accomplish. You will record the foods you eat for 3 days, enter them into a nutrition analysis program, and then write a 2-3 page reflection paper on based on the output analysis of your diet. You will turn in the output as well as the reflection paper. Use https://www.choosemyplate.gov/SuperTracker/default.aspx to analyze your diet. Should you have difficulties using this program you need to contact me immediately.

(1) Go to https://www.choosemyplate.gov/SuperTracker/default.aspx

(2) Look to the bottom right of the page where it says “get started”. You need to create your profile.

(3) Click on “Food Tracker”

(4) You will now enter the foods you ate. Look to the box that says “type your foods here” and type your foods in the search box. When the search is done, a list will pop up of possible matches. . Scroll down and look for whatever most closely matches what you actually ate. Click on the item. It will then appear on the left hand side of the page. Choose the appropriate quantity & meal time. Click on the ‘add’ button. This will take you back to the enter food item page. Continue to enter in all the foods you ate for one day.

(5) For each of the 3 days you track your diet, you must log into this account and enter the foods. Or you can manually click on the top date box to change the date & enter foods for the other days that you have tracked. DO NOT ENTER 3 DAYS WORTH OF FOOD INTO ONLY 1 DAY.

(6) Once you are done entering your foods, look to the right side of the page. Under the bar graphs there will be a clickable icon ‘nutrient intake report.’ Click on nutrient intake report.

(7) A new browser will open up. You want to adjust the dates that appear in the date windows so that you view the report from the first day of food you entered to the last day of food you entered. When you are done adjusting the dates, click ‘create report.’

(8) This will give you a nice report which gives the number of kcals, grams of protein, carbohydrate, types of fats, fiber, and various vitamins and minerals. If you click on the little + next to each item, it will expand the item so you can see how each of the foods you ate compares with recommendations & offers you tips how to improve.

(9) Take a look through your results.

(10) Now you must write a reflection paper. Things you want to include in it: Overall, how was your diet? Look at the breakdown of each of the food groups, individual vitamins and minerals, how does your diet compare to current recommendations, either discussed in class or as noted in your report? In what areas was your diet lacking? What areas where you in excess? Were the results what you expected? Were there any surprises about your diet which shocked, surprised, intrigued you? Are there any things you are going to change or reconsider in your diet based on these results? How were your sodium levels, fiber intake, saturated fat and/or cholesterol intake? Did you eat enough Calcium and/or vitamin D? What about your iron intake? Are there any conclusions you can draw from your diet to any possible health problems (e.g. excess kcals and obesity, excess sodium consumption and high blood pressure, high saturated fat intake and high cholesterol, constipation and low fiber intake, fatigue and low iron and B vitamins, osteoporosis and Calcium, etc.). Do you take any vitamins? After seeing your vitamin and mineral intake compared to recommendations, are you going to take a vitamin? Any other interesting things you want to mention, ask, talk about??