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Cohen Diet Analysis
Cohen Diet Analysis
This project is an initial step in learning how to evaluate the nutritional adequacy of a diet.
Students will analyze their own food and beverage intake for nutritional adequacy against
recognized standards.
A. Dietary Intake:
The Three Day Food Record
1. Keep a complete record of your food and beverage intake for 3 days using Eating Logs.
Use as many pages as necessary, but always begin a new day’s intake on a new form.
Submit these forms with your final project.
2. The three days must include 2 consecutive weekdays and one weekend day:
Thursday/Friday/Saturday or Sunday/Monday/Tuesday
3. List all the foods and beverages you consumed during the three days you selected for
your project. Be sure to include all items such as salad dressing, butter on toast, oil used
in cooking, condiments and flavorings.
a. Identify the amount of each food consumed using common household measures
i.e., 3 oz., 1/2 cup, 1/2 tsp. Also include the quantity of the oil, salad dressing,
butter, etc. used on your food.
b. When you identify the food you consumed also identify the method of food
preparation used such as fried, boiled, baked, etc. and any descriptive
information about the food items.
EXAMPLE:
FOOD ITEM AND PREPARATION AMOUNT
Whole wheat toast 1 slice
Grape jam 2 tsp.
Milk, 1% fat 8 oz.
Baked Chicken breast with wing and skin 4 oz.
With canola oil and spices 1 tsp (oil)
Mixed green salad-iceberg lettuce 1 cup
Shredded carrots 1/8 cup
Sliced tomato 1/8
French salad dressing, regular 2 tbsp.
Italian herb croutons 1 tsp.
Black Beans 2cups
With Oil and spices 2 tsp (oil)
Onions 1 tbsp
Rice, white 11/2 cups
With butter and spices 2 tbsp. (butter)
Snapple iced tea, lemon flavored, sweetened 20 oz.
B. Dietary Analysis:
The MyDietAnalysis computer program completes the actual analysis of your diet.
Students will “input” the food and beverages consumed into the computer, and print
out the assigned documents.
The information or data obtained from the computer analysis must be interpreted by
students to determine the strengths of their diet and opportunities for improvement of
their current dietary intake.
Students’ interpretation of the computer dietary analysis should be based on the
information and knowledge students gained during this course.
All of your narrative answers must be supported by sound nutrition information.
The Narrative:
Each question and part of each question must be answered in complete sentences.
1. My DRI’s:
A. What does DRI stand for and what are they used for?
B. Compare your intakes to the DRI are appropriate for your age & gender.
1. For how many nutrients analyzed did you meet requirements?
2. How many nutrients and which nutrients were less than 80% of
requirements?
3. How many nutrients and which nutrients were greater than 120% of
requirements?
2. MyPyramid:
A. What is the purpose of MyPyramid?
B. Using the nutritional assessment previously completed, students should note the
MyPyramid information provided by their diet analysis software and answer the
following questions:
1. Do your intakes meet recommendations for each food group?
2. What food groups are you high in?
3. What food groups are you low in?
4. What changes can you make in your diet to more closely meet the
recommendations of MyPyramid?
3. Fiber:
The health of the GI tract depends to a great extent on the foods we eat.
A. Using the nutritional assessment previously completed, students should review the
information provided by their diet analysis software and note the following:
1. What is your fiber intake? Do you meet the recommendations for fiber
intake?
2. What is your water intake? Do you meet recommendations for water intake?
3. If you have any GI difficulties, can you correlate them with any of the foods
you consume?
4. What changes could you make in your diet, specifically your intake of water
and fiber, to improve the health of your GI tract?
4. Carbohydrates:
A. Explain: what dietary carbohydrate is and the difference between simple sugars,
natural sugars, complex carbohydrate, and dietary fiber. Identify food sources of each.
Explain the role that each type of carbohydrate plays in a person’s health.
B. Using the nutritional assessment previously completed, students should note the
following based on their average intake:
1. How many grams of carbohydrate do you consume?
2. What percentage of your calories comes from carbohydrate?
3. How many grams of sugar do you consume?
4. What percentage of your calories comes from sugar?
5. Compare the % calories from CHO with the AMDR. Does your intake meet
the recommendation for CHO?
6. What three foods did you consume that contain the highest level of sugar?
How many grams of sugar were in each food?
7. What changes can you make in your diet to more closely meet carbohydrate
and sugar recommendations?
5. Lipids:
A. Explain: what dietary fat is and the difference between saturated, polyunsaturated,
and monounsaturated fat. Identify food sources of each. Explain the role of each type of
fat in the body.
B. Using the nutritional assessment previously completed, students should note the
following based on their average intake:
1. How many grams of total fat do you consume?
2. What percentage of your calories comes from total fat?
3. How many grams of saturated fat do you consume?
4. How many grams of trans fat do you consume?
5. How many milligrams of cholesterol do you consume? Compare your intake
to the recommended intake of cholesterol.
6. Compare your % calories from fat with the AMDR. Does your intake meet
the recommendation for fat?
7. What three foods that you consumed contained the highest level of fat? How
many grams of fat were in each food?
8. What specific changes can you make in your diet to more closely meet fat
and cholesterol recommendations?
6. Protein:
A. Explain: what dietary protein is, why the body needs it, the difference between
complete protein and incomplete protein, and food sources of each.
B. Using the nutritional assessment previously completed, students should note the
following based on their average intake:
1. How many grams of protein do you consume? Is your intake more than 2X
your RDA value for protein?
2. What percentage of your calories comes from protein?
3. Compare your % calories from protein with the AMDR. Does your intake
meet the recommendation for protein?
4. What three foods that you consumed that contained the highest amount of
protein? How many grams of protein were in each food?
5. What specific changes can you make in your diet to more closely meet
protein recommendations?
8. Antioxidants:
Using the nutritional assessment previously completed, students should note the following based
on their average intake:
A. Vitamin E:
1. How many milligrams of vitamin E do you consume?
2. How does your intake of this nutrient compare with the recommendation?
3. What specific changes can you make in your diet to more closely meet
recommendation?
B. Vitamin C
1. How many milligrams of vitamin C do you consume?
2. How does your intake of this nutrient compare with the recommendation?
3. What specific changes can you make in your diet to more closely meet
recommendation?
C. Vitamin A:
1. How many micrograms of vitamin A do you consume?
2. How does your intake of this nutrient compare with the recommendation?
3. What specific changes can you make in your diet to more closely meet
recommendations:
D. Selenium?
1. How many micrograms of selenium do you consume?
2. How does your intake of this nutrient compare with the recommendation?
3. What specific changes can you make in your diet to more closely meet
recommendations:
9. Phytochemicals:
Using the 3-day food record, students will identify which foods in their journal contained
phytochemicals. To help you with this activity, Figure 1 on page 352, can be used.
1. List at least 3 phytochemicals, their functions and at least 2 foods that contain each of
them.
2. If your diet doesn’t contain at least 3 phytochemicals, discuss what you would do to
improve your diet.
11. Blood:
Using the nutritional assessment previously completed, students should note the following based
on their average intake:
A. Folate:
1. How many micrograms do you consume?
2. How does your intake of this nutrient compare with the recommendation?
3. What specific changes can you make in your diet to more closely meet the
recommendation?
B. Iron:
1. How many milligrams do you consume?
2. How does your intake of this nutrient compare with the recommendation?
3. What specific changes can you make in your diet to more closely meet the
recommendation?
C. Zinc:
4. How many milligrams do you consume?
5. How does your intake of this nutrient compare with the recommendations?
6. What specific changes can you make in your diet to more closely meet the
recommendation?
14. Additives:
Using the nutritional assessment previously completed, identify a processed food that you
consumed, if you did not consume any, look at any packaged food:
1. Evaluate the ingredient list for this food and identify at least 2 ingredients that are
food additives.
2. Explain the function of each food additive you identify.
PROJECT MECHANICS: