Sandra Chervenak

IPHY 3420
Diet Analysis Project

Getting propor nutrition has been something I’ve concerned myself with for
the last few years, and now that I’ve decided to become freegan, it’s bcome
increasingly difficult and increasingly important to get all the nutrients I
need. When I began to learn about the environemtnal destruction caused by
the meat industry, I changed over to a lifestyle of never buying meat or dairy
and only eating them if they will go to waste anyways. After entering all of
my food intake in to the My Diet Analysis program and doing a nutritional
analysis of my blood, I’m prepared to use what I’ve learned in nutrition class
to figure out where I can make improvements in my diet and lifestyle.
Beginning with analysis of my calorie and fat sources, I will start with the
macronutrients and work down to the micronutrients. I will analyse the
physiological effects of what I ingest and the physical activities I participate
in and find out where I can make changes to increase my overall health and
reduce my risk of diet-realted disease.
ENERGY BALANCE
The most basic component of any diet is the calorie intake, or more
accurately the kilocalorie intake (which is what any nutrition label or diet
book is referring to when they mention “calories”). According to my “energy
Balance Summarry”, I am in a negative energy balance, eamning I am
expending 546 more calories per day than I am intaking. This would be
consistent with the fact that I have lost approximately ten pounds in the last
four months. There are many different methods for measuring your daily
caloric needs. By calculating my needs using the six methods outlined in the
“Calculating Energy Needs” sheet attached, plus the “My Diet Analysis”
website, I found that my needs could be anywhere from 1,919 to 2,800 kcal
per day. If I use the average frm all seven methods I get________, leaving me
with an energy balance of -__________ if I subtract ny energy expenditiure of
2993 Caloires from the average. Thi is probably a healthy energy balance
for the time being, considering my Body Mass Index (BMI) is 24.8kg/m^2,
which is at the upper limit of the healthy BMI range of 18.5 to 25kg/m^2.
Then again, the BMI only measures health based on wight divided by hight,
completely discounting the variation in body composition and genetic
makeup that can also affect health. I have never had the amount of lean
body mass , as opposed to fatty adipose tissue, measured on my body, but
from the feedack that I get from friends and family, I am surprisingly
muscular for my body shap and size. Because ,muscle weighs more than fat,
the BMI ould easily mistake muscle weight for fat weight and underestimate
my good health. Working against me, however, is my genetic
predeisposition to gain wiehgt in an apple-shaped pattern, where the fat I do
store appearsunder my skin and around my middle where it encases my
internal organs. This is called subcutaneous fat and it is much more likely to
cause ype wo diatbetes, heart disease and hgh blood pressure. Therefore, it
would be beneficial to my ealth to watch my cholesterol, sugar and salt
intakes throught my life to avoid these problem that I am predisposed to
have.

Protien is a macronutrient I was particularly worried about getting

enough of when I reduced my meat and dairy consumption by about 75% by
becoming freegan. I was therefore shocked when my three day average
food consumption showed that I was getting 188% of the Reccomanded
Daily Allowance (RDA) of protien. AS far as the other two macronutrients are
concerned, I was even more surprised to find that I am geeetting slightly less
carbohydrates (97% RDA) and more fat (164% RDA) than is recommended,
since I rarely eat animal products of fatty snack foods. Looking closer, I
found that the majority of my protein comes from the small amount of soy
nuts I put on my daily salads. These small “nuts” must be packed with soy
protein, which is the most “complete” plant protein. This means that it has
all nine essential amino acids needed to synthesize new proteins so that they
can contribute to cell and immunity health, act as enzymes and hormones,
help keep fuids and aacids ancd bases balanced, and provide energy if there
are no carbohydrates or fats available to the body. Like many Americans, I
was worried that I wasn’t getting enough protein, but since our bodies are so
good at recycling amino acids, it turns out that I only need 10 – 35% of my
calories to come from protein. Looking at my “calorie and fat sources
report”, I am within this range, with 16% of my calories coming from protein.
My guess is that since my overall calorie intake is 133% RDA according to
the diet analysis program, it also caluculated my protein amount in grams to
be too high, disregarding the percentage of my calories coming from protein.
According to another measure, as an active peudo-vegetarian, I should be
getting between 0.8 and 1.3 grams of protein per kilogram of weight per day.
I’m ingesting an average of 95.45g of protein per day, and divided by 63.5
kg, that’s 1.5g/kg/day; much more than I need. The good news is that most
of the harmful effects of eating too much protein, like high cholesterol, bone
loss and kidney disease, are related to the intake of animal products, which I
have greatly reduced in my diet. Still to maintain a healtlty macronutrient
balance I should decrease my protein consumption and increase my
carbohydrate consumption. Although soynuts are the most abundant source
of protein in my diet, they are also the source of many of my nutrients.
Therefore, if I reduce my penut butter cnsumption, I could keep those
nutrients on my diet and reduce much iof the fat intake, which was the other
macron=turient excess that the diet analysis detected.
A pie chart of my calorie and fat sources indicated that 36% of my
calories are coming from fats. The Accepatble Macronutrient Distribution
Range (AMDR) for fats is 20-35% of one’s total calorie intake. Even more
worrisome is the fact that 41% (110% of the RDA) of that fat is saturated,
meaning that the fatty acids in it have now double bonds, so every carbom
atom is “saturated” with hydrogen atoms. These chains of fatty acids tend
to be less than twelve carbons long and all of them are in a straight line,
making them ideal for packing tightly in to arteries and clogging them,
blocking the flow of blood. These saturated fats are generally found in
animal products like beef, and butter and also in coconut. As a result of this
overabundance of saturated fat in my diet, I am slightly deficient in both
monounsaturated (87% RDA) and polyunsaturated (73% RDA) fats. These
fatty acid chains are defined by whether they have one (monounsaturated)
or more (polyunsaturated) double bonds in their long carbon chains. These
double bonds prevent hydrogen atom from dsaturating them and create
bends in the fatty acid chains, which prevent them from packing together
and cloggin arteries. These fats are found mostly in plant oils, which I always
prefer to butter when I cook at home. These fats are essential for energy at
rest, during exercize, and keeping in storage for body prtection and use in
the fututre during tpotential times of scarciy. I also need these unsaturated
fats to tranport fat-soluble vitamins, maintain the functioning of cells, and to
make food enjoyable and filling (since fat is the most energy dense of the
macronutirents). Although RDAs are not yet specified for essential faty
acids, it appears that I am getting a decent amount of omega-6 fatty acids,
which contribute to healthy blood transport. I found that I am getting very
little omega-3 fatty acids, which help to reduce cardiac disease by altering
the function of the heart itself. Getting too much of this fatty acd, however,
can increase risk of stroke. Not surprisingly, ice cream is the number one
source of saturated fat in my three day diet, followed by deep fired green
tomatoes and penut butter. Luckily, since I eat very few deep fried and
processed foods, I was found to have no trans fats in my diet. Trrans fats
were industrially produced to increase the shelf life of packaged fatty foods,
since fat spoils quickly. But, because they lower “good” cholesterol and
raise “bad” cholesterol, they have largly been taken out of most processed
foods. Still, saturated foods do produce the same effect, and if I continue to
consume such a disproportionally high amount of them, it will increase my
risk risk of cardiovascular disease.
As for the final macronutrient that provides the most easily accessible
energy for the body, my consumption is near the RDA for carbohydrates.
Yet, my Calorie and Fat Sources cahrt indicates that carbohydrates only
make up 39% of my total calorie intakes, whereas the AMDR for
carbohdrates is 45-65% of titoa calorie intake. If coupled with my caloric
intake of alcohol, it would just barely make the AMDR at 45% exactly, but the
calories from alcohol have none of the nutrients that carbohydrates provide.
On the plus side, the majority of the carbohydrates I do ingest come fom
fruits, vegetables and whole grains, giving me an almost overabundant
source of fiber (150% RDA). Because fiber binds to Iron, Zinc and calcium,
excessive consumtion could hamper my absorption of these nutrients.
Luckily, fiber also binds to water, so as long as I continue to drink plenty of
water*, I should absorb these nutrents sufficiently. While I am probably not
at risk for ketoacidosis ( when absence of carbohydrates increases the acid
content of the blood causing damage to body tissues), I could benefit from
exchanging some of my fat and protein caliories for carbohydrates.

*Note: My Diet Analysis shows mywater intake to be at a mere 45% of the

RDA, but this is only considering the water I obltain from food. Apart from
this I drink approximately 2 litres of pure water per day. Due to
circumstances of inadequate access to any one consistent computer with
internet service, I was not able to rectify this mistake in data entry and I
apaologize for that.

-Pyramd?
- Exercise?
Looking back on this examination of my own diet, it appears that mny
themes have come up over and over in the different components of overall
nutrition. This is just a testimony to the fact that everything that goes in the
the body is related and contributes significantly to the overa health of the
organcism, but only when taken together.