nal Project: Analyze Your Diet with MyDietAnalysis

For the past 5 weeks, you have been learning how the science of nutrition affects the health of the human body. The MyDietAnalysis program provided the opportunity to analyze your own nutrition habits and apply the lessons from this course.

In this Final Project, you will provide a detailed analysis of your findings from the MyDietAnalysis program, correlate those findings to course information, and recommend modifications to your dietary habits to meet your daily nutritional requirements.

To prepare for this Final Project:

• Review your completed Final Project Milestones.
• Think about how you eat and what you eat.
• Consider what changes you could make to improve your health.

The assignment:

Final Project Steps:

Step 1: Record of everything you ate and drank for 3 days in a row.

• Record all the foods and beverages you eat during 3 days.
• Record the amount of food and beverages consumed, including water. Do not record any mineral or vitamin supplements. Do record protein supplements.
• Be sure to describe each food completely. This includes brand names, ingredients in a recipe, etc. For homemade items, be sure to record portions of all the components in your food, because you will input them separately if no comparable meal can be found in MyDietAnalysis.
• Record any exercise you perform.
• Note of how you felt physically and emotionally after eating a specific food or meal. Great insight can be gained by closely observing how your body reacts to foods.

Step 2: Organize your recorded information.

• Type each day’s food and beverages into the menu form: breakfast, snack, lunch, etc. Include everything from your food diary or lab notebook and record them separated by day.
• Label each item on your menu with the code or codes that indicate why you chose to eat that food or drink that beverage.
  

  Code	Motivation
  A	Personal Preference (I like it.)
  B	Habit or tradition (It’s familiar; I always eat it.)
  C	Social pressure (It was offered; I couldn’t refuse.)
  D	Availability (I was hungry and it was nearby.)
  E	Convenience (I was too rushed to prepare anything else.)
  F	Economy (It was a food I could afford.)
  G	Health value (I think it is healthy for me to eat.)
  H	Advertising.
  I	Other (explain)

Step 3: Enter your organized diet information into MyDietAnalysis program and generate new reports.

• By now, you should have already created a profile and entered the foods you ate into the MyDietAnalysis program.
• • If you have not already done so, refer to the Final Project Overview in Week 1 for instructions.
• Access the MyDietAnalysis program by clicking on the MyNutritionLab content item below Week 6.
• Click on the REPORTS tab.
• Download the Actual Intakes vs. Recommended Intakes and the Activity Summary reports as HTML documents. In this format, you can cut and paste the report information directly into your Final Project Report. Clickhere for instructions on how to generate and copy the report information.

Step 4: Analyze your diet in a formal report.

Include the following information:

1. List any vitamins and minerals that averaged less than 100% of the RDA.
2. For each vitamin or mineral that averaged less then 100% of the RDA, suggest two foods that would increase the amount of that nutrient in your diet.

• Why did you pick those foods? Are they realistic to your diet?
• Suggest ways you would incorporate them into your diet.
  

1. How many grams of fiber did you consume per day?

• What is the recommended intake per day?
• If you ate less than the recommended daily intake, how could you realistically increase your fiber?
• If you ate more than the recommendation, what are the foods in your diet contributing to this total?
• Describe the differences between soluble fiber and insoluble fiber.
  

1. How many different fruits, vegetables, and grains did you consume daily?

• Could your diet benefit from more diversity? Why?
• What are some of the reasons fruits and vegetables are hard to include in your diet? If you eat enough fruits and vegetables, why do think it may be difficult for others to do so?
• Discuss three major components of fruits and vegetables that make them nutritious and beneficial.
  

1. What have you learned about your eating habits? Pay attention to the codes you assigned to your foods.
2. Provide overall observations of your diet. Summarize your codes and reflect on what is your major driving force when it comes to food.
3. Describe any changes that you have made or plan to make as a result of this exercise. Provide a detailed plan to receive full points.

Directions for formatting your Final Project Report:

• Keep all data in ONE file (unless different formats do not allow them to be together in one file).
• Cite at least three APA-formatted scientific references. You do not need to reference your values from MyDietAnalysis (in other words if you consumed 5000mg of sodium, you don’t need to reference that).
• Be sure to complete the assignment in complete essay form (do not write the question and then the answer—use full paragraphs). The 4–6 pages are EXCLUSIVE of your charts and motivation codes.
• Use double spacing, 12 point time Times New Roman, APA format. Page count is 4–6 pages