QUESTION: When designing a diet for yourself or another person, what

information would you need? How would you gather the data? How
would you compile it? Are there any paradigms you would follow?
ANSWER:

Designing a diet has always been a challenge for people with conditions,
even experts in nutrition field will encounter difficulty when making a
perfect diet. The reason behind this is mainly because people have
dissimilar health conditions and needs, so the perfect diet that fits
everyone cannot exist. In this essay below, I will elaborate on what I have
studied on how to create a diet and the paradigm that I would follow.
At the outset, there are six main questions to ask when creating a specific
diet for yourself or for any other person. First, it is important that one
decides how many meals to have in a day, making it easier to divide the
calories for each meal. For instance, a normal person needs at least 2000
calories per day to exist and if you want to have at least four meals, then
you need to distribute the calories in a reasonable way, so that the amount
of food will not be exceeded. The second question is how much time you
have to prepare a meal. If you do not have much time to cook every day
then the process should not take long, the meal can be simple, but it must
provide enough nutrition to generate energy for your daily activities.
Third, decide on how much support you will need, think about the things
that encourage you the most, such as cheering from friends or a
community that has the same conditions as you. Support from people you
love will have a great impact on your mental state when taking up a new
diet. Question number four is about your frequency of dining out, ask
yourself how many times you eat out in a week and then try to calculate
the calories of your favorite dishes, this will help you decide the number
of calories per meal. Question number five is whether you need treats on
a daily basis. From your total number of calories, you can spare out 100
calories for some light snacks, such as a cookie or some ice cream
because small treats can keep you up with the diet. The last question is
about the number of exercises that you can do. It is recommended to
exercise for 30 minutes every day, you can go for a walk, do Pilates or
yoga, just do not push yourself too hard.
If I were to design a diet for a specific person, I would make a survey
consisting of six questions mentioned above and give the respondent
some day to answer. After I have received the result, I will give the
respondent a table to fill out, including six criteria: nutritional needs,
health goals, food preferences, lifestyle, budget, availability of food. In
that way, I can dig further into things revolve around their life, creating a
more suitable diet.
A paradigm is a model of something, or a very clear and typical example
of something. In this case, there is a paradigm I would follow in the
process of conducting a diet: “Every symptom, craving or behavior
around food has a positive intention.” (Kristie, 2020). This paradigm
means that: Whenever the body shows any symptom or craving, the
intention is not negative, it just wants to feel better. Symtomps, cravings
or strange behaviors are signs of something malfunctioning inside the
body, and you need to come up with a solution to fix the problem.
Designing a diet is also a solution, it means that you face the fact that the
body needs changes. The reason why I chose this paradigm is because I
found out that many people are still struggling so much when taking up a
new diet, especially on the mental aspect. They feel guilty whenever they
crave something not included in the diet, feel unhappy because they think
that they have done something wrong. I want to design a better diet to
prevent people from being upset, because the attitude toward the diet can
decide everything.
In conclusion, to make a perfect diet that suits everyone in this world is
impossible, but to make one that fits a specific individual is easier. There
are numerous ways to create a diet, do not force yourself into other
people’s method because it might not be suitable for you. Dieting can be a
challenging process, but the fruitful result is worth a try.

References
Ana, C. S. (2023, June 6). Academy of Culinary Nutrition. Retrieved December
12, 2023, from How to Design Your Ideal Diet:
https://www.culinarynutrition.com/how-to-design-your-ideal-diet/
Elizabeth Ward, M. R. (2009, December 10). How to Design Your Own Diet.
Retrieved November 22, 2023, from WebMD:
https://www.webmd.com/diet/features/how-to-design-your-own-diet
Kristie, D. (2020, March 23). Top 3 Dietary Paradigms. Retrieved November
22, 2023, from Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/top-3-dietary-
paradigms-kristie-dutt