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Five Day Diet Analysis

Joshua Hardesty BCS-130-102 11/6/2009

My five day diet analysis was done between the weeks of October ninth through the twentieth. The days that I had chosen to record are ones that I thought would be the best representation of what I normally eat and drink in a day. I was again quite shocked at the results of my diet thinking that I had gotten better with my diet; there were still many things that I was lacking or went over on. For my carbohydrates for the five days I was recommended to have 372g most days I was able to meet that. The days that I did eat my recommended amounts I ate 384g to 460g of carbohydrates, on two of the days though I was only consumed 199g and 241g of carbohydrates averaging out over the five days of 92% of my recommended amount. It was recommended that I eat about 38g of dietary fiber, I did not eat nearly enough on any of the five days the closest that I came to eating that much 33g. Three of those days I did not even eat 20g and the other day I ate 24g of dietary fiber. Generally my carbohydrate consumption is fine I just need to eat more on some days than others and ensure that I consume more fiber every day with my carbohydrates. The effects of eating not enough carbohydrates can be not getting enough energy for the body because carbohydrates are the number one energy source for the body. My daily recommended fat intake was 84g on average of the five days I ate 122g of fat. Two of the five days I only ate 73g and 50g of fat. On the other three days I ate 123, 134, and 232g of fat. Of the different types of fat that I ate I consumed more saturated fat than any other kind especially on day five with 109g with only 27g being the daily recommendation. It is recommended that I should only have 300mg of cholesterol for three of the days I did only eating 220, 251, and 94mg but on the other two days I had much larger amounts with 762 and1405mg of cholesterol. Those two days I ate more than double and quadruple the amounts of the daily

amounts. To become healthier I need to reduce the amount of fat and cholesterol that I consume or run a risk for a greater chance of becoming obese and cardio vascular diseases. The amount of protein that I calculate I should have is [(150lbs/2.2)*.8]= 54.5g. Each day of my five days I ate over the amount that is recommended for me. The amounts that I ate were 113, 134,105, 72, 192g of protein most of which is close to double what I need for a day. I should cut the amount of protein in half. The main source of my protein is from meat. Problems that come from eating too many proteins are, like fats, high cholesterol, heart disease, and kidney disease. Not eating enough protein can lead to diseases like Marasmus and Kwashiorkor. Over the five days my vitamin and mineral consumption was not where it should have been. I lacked in several vitamins including Vitamin A, Vitamin C, and Vitamin E although I did consume the recommended amounts of all my B vitamins, Vitamin D and Folate. On the mineral side I did not have enough Magnesium or Zinc, but I did have enough of my Iron Phosphorus and Sodium. Though with the Sodium a person should have only 2300mg a day, every day that I recorded my sodium intake was over 5000mg with two of the days going over 8000mg. One thing I should do is eat much less sodium in a day and eat more fruits and vegetables so I can get some of the vitamins I am missing in my diet. I drank water every day but I did not drink enough over the five days. With 3700g of water being recommended I came close once with 3678g the other days were much less at 1711, 2253, 2463, and 1456g. With those numbers I should be drinking, almost twice as much water, as I am now. Overall I would say that my diet is bad if not horrible. I need to change a lot of things; like not spiking one day and then not eating enough the next, I need to get more fiber into my diet, I seriously need to cut the amount of fat, protein, and cholesterol that I consume, along with

the Sodium that I eat. Also another thing that I should do with my diet is to exercise; I live a very sedentary lifestyle so if I change that then some of my diet choices would not be as bad as they are. If I dont change my habits then it is quite possible that I will develop some type of heart disease, that I could become obese, and complicate my diabetes more.