Healthy Diet Plan Essay

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Assignment: Healthy Eating Plan Alexander Ingram SCI241 1/26/2011 Instructor Lisa Goodson, Ph. D. Balancing nutrition is one of the most important things to do in one’s day besides hygiene. I have had my current eating habits analyzed and read the nutrition of them. I have read the good and poor aspects of my diet. On food diet websites that share links, I have found the food guide pyramid that is a tool for diet planning.

The Food Guide Pyramid is a guide for planning diets that meet nutrient requirements and recommendations for health promotion and disease prevention.

It was designed to help consumers make food choices that together add up to a healthy overall diet. University of Phoenix (UOP 2011) My current eating habits have been documented on a somewhat food diary that I keep track of on a United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)(2011) website called http://www.

mypyramidtracker. gov . On this food pyramid tracker, I can compare my nutrition to my activity and see the health of what I already eat. On this web site, I enter my diet for each day and my each activity and the time of each for the day I am logging to the tracker.

Mypyramidtracker.gov

After processing all this information, I can how my activity counters the calories I have consumed on that day. For the activity and time entered for it, one will receive a rating on their activities.

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With these results, I can build my own custom Food Pyramid that meats the nutrition I should have. The Pyramid is built around five food groups: Bread, Cereal, Rice, & Pasta; Vegetable; Fruit; Milk, Yogurt, & Cheese; and Meat, Poultry, Fish, Dry Beans, Eggs, & Nuts. Foods within each of these food groups supply similar nutrients. For example, foods in the Bread, Cereal,

Rice, & Pasta Group provide carbohydrates and B vitamins; those in the Milk, Yogurt, & Cheese Group provide protein, calcium, riboflavin, and vitamin D. By choosing a variety of foods from each group according to the serving sizes and selection tips provided with the Pyramid, you can get adequate amounts of all the nutrients you need in the proportions recommended for a healthy diet. UOP (2011) With my current activity and diet I have found the best of the nutrients of my daily diet on Pyramid Tracker. USDA (2011) My daily activity time of 360 minutes of construction work, xpends a total calories of 2783, with a grading of 100 good. I currently, already have a daily balance for food of 1 cup of green, black and kidney beans each. I also have 2 cups of white long grain rice, 3 cups of whole wheat noodles, 1 large potato, 1 cup of potato soup, and for dinner or swapped between which is lunch, ? lb hamburger with mayo and tomato on a bun and 2 links of polish sausage. The Nutrients of my current eating habit are of an intake of 3734 calories, the recommended calories are 3662. With the other nutrients, I have high Protein, Sodium and

Carbohydrates compared to the recommending. Almost all of my vitamins are low in the comparison, so with more research, I will find a way to decrease my high good nutrients to counter the raise in which vitamin nutrients I am lacking on. I may be able to hold my current diet and counter the low vitamins with vitamin pills a good grocery store may contain. The nutrients in food provide energy, structure, and regulation. There are six classes of nutrients that we need to stay alive and healthy, to grow, and to reproduce: carbohydrates, lipids, proteins, water, vitamins, and minerals.

The amount of each we need varies. Water, carbohydrates, lipids, and proteins are needed in large amounts. These are considered macronutrients. Macronutrient requirements are measured in grams (g) or liters (L). Vitamins and minerals are needed only in microgram or milligram (mg) amounts. They are considered micronutrients. Although we tend to think of carbohydrates, lipids, and proteins as single nutrients, there are actually many different types of molecules in each of these classes. Carbohydrates include starches, sugars, and fiber. Some high-carbohydrate foods like potatoes, asta, and white bread contain mostly starch; some, like oatmeal, berries, kidney beans, and broccoli are high in fiber; and others like cookies, cakes, and carbonated beverages are high in added sugars. Foods that are high in fiber and low in added sugar tend to be higher in nutrient density, containing more vitamins and minerals per calorie than low-fiber, high-sugar foods. There are several types of lipids that are important in nutrition. The ones we hear most about are cholesterol and saturated and unsaturated fats. Consuming a diet high in cholesterol and saturated ats, from foods like butter, meat, and milk, increases your risk of developing heart disease. Consuming a diet high in unsaturated fats from foods like vegetable oils, olives, and avocados lowers your risk. Protein is also not a single substance. There are thousands of different proteins in your body and your diet. All of these are made up of units called amino acids. Different combinations of amino acids are linked together to form different types of proteins. The amino acids we eat in animal products better match our needs than do the amino acids from plant proteins such as those in rains and legumes. However, both plant and animal proteins can provide all the amino acids we need if the diet is chosen wisely. Water, unlike the other nutrient classes, has only one member. Water makes up about 60% of an adult’s body weight. We can’t store water so body losses must constantly be replaced by water in the diet. In the body water acts as a lubricant, a transport fluid, and a regulator of body temperature. Vitamins are small organic molecules that must be consumed in the diet to maintain health. There are 13 different vitamins.

Each provides a unique function in the body, from maintaining vision to helping blood to clot. Minerals are inorganic elements. Like vitamins, they are needed for a variety of diverse functions such as keeping our bones strong and transporting oxygen in our blood. We consume vitamins and minerals in almost all of the foods we eat. Some foods are natural sources of vitamins and minerals: oranges contain vitamin C, milk provides calcium, and carrots give us vitamin A. Other foods have vitamins and minerals added to them; breakfast cereals often have almost 00% of the recommended intake of many vitamins added to them. Dietary supplements are also a source of vitamins and minerals for some people. UOP (2011) I intend to use this entire nutrient and diet information to gradually balance my personal diet to almost match the recommended nutrition I found through these resources. I am using measuring tools for food and reading the nutrition info on most foods before preparation. I will eventually blend good nutrition into my natural days. References: United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) (2011) MyPyramid. ov is your access point for the USDA food guidance system. http://www. mypyramid. gov/pyramid/ and http://www. mypyramidtracker. gov for tracking my eating habits. University of Phoenix (UOP)(2011) University of Phoenix is accredited by The Higher Learning Commission and is a member of the North Central Association (ncahlc. org). Retrieved January 29th of 2011 from https://ecampus. phoenix. edu/classroom/ic/classroom. aspx, week 1 reading materials I have gained some of the strongest information. (Chapter 1 and 2) http://www. ehiedu. org/flash/pdfs/w68761c2. pdf