Evaluation and Feedback for Other Blogs

Sinead Tan Jia Na [23]

One thing I noticed is that she takes in a lot of protein – every single main meal is meat-based, with many mentions of pork, chicken, beef and fish. Perhaps she should cut down on meat and increase her carbohydrate intake, as her carbohydrate intake is below the recommended amount at 39% versus the recommended 55%, while her protein intake is above the recommended amount at 22% versus 15%. Her sodium intake is also ridiculously, ridiculously high at 900% - she definitely should cut back on salt, sauces, and other condiments!

Gao Wen Xin [9]

Her diet is full of fast food from KFC and Pizza Hut and she should definitely try to cut back on this, as fast food is very unhealthy compared to prepared food and will lead to higher cholesterol levels. However, asides from that, her diet has a good balance of carbohydrates and calories, and she takes an appropriate amount of vegetables and fruits [more than me, at least]. She also drinks healthily, drinking things like tea and fruit juice. All this balances out and leads to a semi-healthy diet, although she really does need to do something about the fast food.

Pang Yen Siang [21]

Her diet is ridiculously unhealthy, consisting ONLY of fast food and junk food from the very start of the day [chips for breakfast] till night [chips again], with main meals like cheeseburgers and cup noodles and hot dogs, all of which are full of cholesterol, fat, sodium, and almost everything you don’t need much of. It’s also seen that she constantly skips meals, missing out lunch on the first day and substituting it with 2 Ferrero Rochers, which is a terrible eating habit. She also drinks huge amounts of Coca Cola and Pepsi [a litre!], which is very unhealthy, especially as soft drinks contain large amounts of sugar which could lead to diabetes. However, in the food intake assessment, it shows that she lacks many things. This is because although her diet is full of these missing things, the fact that she misses meals or eats very little of main meals balances it out and leaves her equally as unhealthy, except with a lack of energy.

Reflections

1) What have you learnt about your eating habits?

2) Do you consider your diet a healthy one? Why?

3) Are the suggested nutritional tools useful? How?

4) Why is your suggested one-dish meal healthy?

I have learnt that my eating habits are definitely not healthy - I realised that I do eat a lot, having an average of 5 meals a day on weekdays and 6 or 7 on weekends, which is due to the I’ve also inordinate amount of snacks I eat [on average a packet of chips per day]. Given this incessant snacking, I was actually surprised at the fact that I had not exceeded the recommended allowances by very much except for my sodium and fat intakes, which is common in almost everyone. However, even if my results weren’t as bad as I thought they would be, I definitely need to improve upon my eating habits. Secondly, I snack constantly and eat a lot of junk food, even late at night and early in the morning, and also at very strange timings – the three day analysis was conducted on weekdays, therefore meal times are pretty average, however, on the weekends, I find myself having midnight snacks [or in this case, post-midnight snacks] at 2 or 3 am in the morning. As expanded on below, I also hardly ever drink plain water. Thus, I am lacking in calcium, which is especially essential to me because A) I am still growing, and B) I am fairly short and therefore need all the calcium I can get. Although it is not surprising that I lack calcium, this project has really reinforced the fact that I need more through data and numbers, and has inspired me to start drinking milk everyday [like I am supposed to be doing anyway]. All these small [or not-so-small] issues with my diet are only exacerbated by the fact that I do not exercise regularly [despite my father having a major in P.E. – it’s pretty embarrassing] and actually dislike physical exertion as well as my family’s past medical history, which consists of at least 6 cases of cancer and 3 cases of heart disease, placing me at much, much higher risk of contracting either of these [or, God-forbid, both]. I’ve also realised that the only reason I am not overweight is because of my extremely lucky inheritance of my father’s ridiculous metabolism developed from his years of P.E. His waist is thinner than mine. On a whole, I’ve learnt to understand the importance of proper eating habits and diet, neither of which I currently possess.

No, because for one thing, I do not eat fruits at all and hardly ever eat vegetables. This is quite hard to notice in my both my RDDA analysis and Meal Diet Record, especially since firstly, some of the food indicated [e.g. beef hor fun or roast duck noodles] invariably contain vegetables of some sort and it is thus assumed I eat them [I don’t], and secondly, that it is not reflected in my RDDA analysis except for a lack of dietary fibre. I also eat a lot of junk food, as shown in my 3 Day Meal Record, in which I eat [an approximate amount, it’s probably greater] at least half a packet of potato chips per day. I find that there is always a packet of chips in my room [though I hardly ever know how they got there], and thus, I am always eating them. Never have I given a thought to how unhealthy it is. One last thing that is very obvious is that I do not drink plain water. This is probably one of the most ridiculous things about my diet, and I honestly have no excuse. I do not bring a water bottle to school, and I usually just buy bottled drinks from the canteen [100 Plus and Ice Lemon Tea], leading to an exorbitant amount of non-plain water drinks in school alone. It only gets worse from there – when I go out, I always buy or order Coca Cola or its equivalent, when I’m at home, I either drink canned Coca Cola [or various variations thereof] or F&N juice drinks of varying flavours. These drinks are very high in sugar and extremely unhealthy, especially in such large amounts.

The tools are helpful in the sense that they give numbers and data and use a set standard that is consistent and official to compare our current health with what we can attain. The tools can be trusted, because they are created and set-up by our government, and thus are more likely to provide accurate and objective information on health standards. The tools are useful in keeping track of how you are managing your own health with data that you can update and change.

The meal of brown rice is healthy due to its unmilled nature. To produce white rice, hte outermost layers of the rice are removed until the endosperm is revealed - which is white. Many vitamins and minerals are lost during this polishing and removal, such as Vitamins B1, B3, iron, fibre, fatty acids, bran rice oil [useful in lowering LDL cholesterol] and magnesium - thus this brown, or unpolished rice, is much healthier than white rice as it contains all these vitamins and minerals in its outer layers.

A Healthy One-Dish Meal

I would like to suggest a meal of brown rice instead of white rice, as it has more dietary fibre than white rice, due to its unmilled nature. One healthy method of cooking brown rice involves soaking the washed brown rice for 20 hours in warm water (38 °C or 100 °F) prior to cooking it, activating enzymes, resulting in a more accurate and complete amino acid profile.

Analysing my Diet

A) Food Intake Assessment

Food Intake Analysis

Energy (kcal) Carbohydrate (g) Protein (g) Total Fat (g) Saturated Fat (g) Cholesterol (mg) Calcium (mg) Dietary Fibre (g) Sodium (mg) Average intake per day 2,106 303.2 60.8 73.3 32.6 119.2 326.8 14.6 3,425.5 Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) 1,860 279.0 56.3 62.0 20.7 186.0 1,000.0 18.6 1,240.5 % of recommendation met 113 109 108 118 158 64 33 78 276

As you can see, my daily energy requirement is estimated to be 1,860 kcal. However, my average intake per day goes over this by 13%. Graph of actual nutritional intake compared against RDA Energy 113% Carbohydrate 109% Protein 108% Total Fat 118% Saturated Fat 158% Cholesterol 64% Calcium 33% Dietary Fibre 78% Sodium 276% 0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 % RDA Met

I can also see that I have an excess of things like energy, carbohydrate, protein, fat, and a huge excess of sodium. However, I am lacking cholesterol, calcium, and dietary fibre.

Table showing the % of total calories of diet versus recommendation
% of total energy intake Your diet Recommendation Total Carbohydrates 58% 55 - 65% Total Protein 12% 10 - 15% Total Fat 31% 25 - 30%

Although I have an excess of total fat, I am just barely over the recommended about of 30%. I am somewhere in the middle of the recommended amount for carbohydrates and protein.

My Energy Intake
My energy intake is higer than what is recommended for me, and this may cause excess calories which would then be stored as excess body fat if I do not excercise or physically exert myself enough. This excess could lead to blood pressure, stroke, diabetes, and cancer. Personally, I am at an extra risk due to past family history of stroke, and cancer.

My Sodium Intake
My sodium intake is much greater than the recommended amount - in fact, it was 176% over my recommended amount, which is almost twice the recommended amount. Sodium increases blood volume and hence blood pressure, thus increases the likelihood of heart disease and strokes. I am also especially at risk of heart disease, as there is a clear family history of heart disease.

My Total/Saturated Fat Intake
Both my total and saturated fat intake levels were higher than the recommended amount. A high fat intake is commonly associated to obesity, high blood cholesterol, and heart disease among many other illnesses.

My Calcium Intake
In addition to all this excess, I am also lacking in calcium. Calcium is what strengthens our bones, and without it, I am susceptible to osteoporosis, where the bones are weak and brittle and can cause fractures.

B)Food Pyramid

C) RDDA

My 3-Day Diet

Day 1
The 1st Meal - 6.30 am

• Two slices of garlic bread
• One bottle of Yakult

The 2nd Meal - 9.00 am

• One 500 ml bottle of Pokka's Ice Lemon Tea.

The 3rd Meal - 3.00 pm

• One 500 ml bottle of Coca Cola

The 4th Meal - 6.00 pm

• One bowl of soba with silken tofu
• One 330 ml can of Coca Cola Zero

The 5th Meal - 8.00 pm

• Two scoops of Ben & Jerry's Smores Ice Cream
• Half a packet of Doritos - Nacho Cheesier
  

Day 2
The 1st Meal - 6.30 am

• One bottle of Yakult

The 2nd Meal - 9.00 am

• One packet of fried beef hor fun

The 3rd Meal - 11.30 am

• One plate of lemon chicken rice
• One cup of lime juice

The 4th Meal - 8.30 pm

• 6 pieces of salmon sushi
• One plate of maguro [tuna] sashimi

The 5th Meal - 9.00 pm

• Half a packet of Doritos - Nacho Cheesier

Day 3
The 1st Meal - 9.00 am

• One plate of brown fried rice with mixed vegetables [corn, carrots, peas]
• One 500 ml bottle of Pokka's Ice Lemon Tea

The 2nd Meal - 8.30 pm

• One plate of roasted duck noodles [dry]
• One bottle of Yakult

The 3rd Meal - 9.30 pm

• One 330 ml can of F&N Cheeky Cherryade
• Half a packet of Chipsters - Sour Cream & Onion Chips
  

:D

Welcome to my Food and Nutrition Module Performance Task 2010 Blog!

In this blog, you will find the following posts:

1) Trace Your 3-day Diet
2) Analyse Your Diet
3) A Healthy One-Dish Meal
4) Reflections
5) Evaluation and Feedback for Other Blogs

Hope you enjoy this blog!

Regards,
Tamisha Tan (26)