Diet Analysis Plus 3-Day Intake Analysis

I.              Carefully record 3 days' worth of food and beverage intake.  Do not estimate amounts;  actually measure amounts using measuring cups and measuring spoons, as much as possible.  For meat, a piece of hockey-puck sized meat is approximately 3 oz.   Always measure accessory  sweets and fats: butter for bread, sugar for coffee, mayo for sandwiches, frying oil, etc.  For instance, scoop out a tablespoon of butter for bread, then use your knife to remove the butter from the tablespoon.  When you have enough butter on your bread,  see how much is left in the tablespoon.  This will help give you an accurate measure of how much accessory  sweets/fats you actually  use.

Do not eat at a restaurant during those 3 days, other than a common fast food restaurant.  The reason for this restriction is that you will have no way of knowing exactly what went into the food you ordered at a restaurant. DAplus does, however, have information about the common fast food restaurants. I am NOT suggesting that you eat at a fast food restaurant, I'm just saying they are the only restaurants you CAN go to during those 3 days. :)

Also, to get the most accurate average, choose 2 weekdays and one weekend day.

II.           Enter your information for the 3 days into the Diet Analysis program.  Common brand names of foods and restaurants are often available on the program.  If you type in a food, and the program doesn’t offer you an equitable option, type in another way of saying the food.  For instance, “hamburger,” “burger,” and “ground beef” will give you slightly different options to choose from.  The more general the food type you enter, the more choices it will give you (ex. “drink” rather than “mango juice”).

Use the "intake vs goals," "intake spreadsheet" and "macronutrient ranges" tools to answer the questions.

The "intake vs. goals" tool allows you to analyze your intake each day, but it also allows you to average your three days together. This is the most meaningful way to analyze your diet; to average it over a few days. To do this, when you click on "intake vs goals," you will notice at the top of the screen a choice that says "from date" and next to it a choice that says "to date." To analyze each day separately, simply keep the from date and to date the same (the date that you wish to analyze). To average all three days, enter the first day as the "from date" and the third day as the "to date." Phew.

III. Identify three nutrients which are lacking in your diet (less than 95% on the bar graph).  For each nutrient lacking, list 2 foods you could add to your diet on a daily basis to help increase these nutrients. Explain your choices: they should be good sources of your lacking nutrient without disrupting your overall nutritional profile too much. For example, if you are lacking in both calcium and total kcalories, and if your saturated fat intake is low, a small serving of ice cream would be a reasonable way to increase calcium. However, if you are lacking in calcium, but are already close to your kcalorie goals and saturated fat limits, ice cream would NOT be a good addition to your diet for those days.

IV.         Answer the questions on the question form and turn in!