Food Record and Essay
Food Record and Essay
Project: Food Record and Essay
In this unit, you’ve been learning about the different food groups, the nutrients they provide, and the necessity of a “balanced diet”. For this project, you’ll take a look at your own diet and make some evaluations about what you may be doing well and where you might improve. Then you’ll compile that information, do a little research, and then write an essay about what you’ve learned.
Learning Goals:
•Students will record their diet over a 5 day week
•Students will classify their meals into food groups
•Students will quantify the serving sizes of foods they consume
•Students will evaluate their diets
•Students will research information about different food groups and nutrition
•Students will write a paper combining their research and diet evaluations
Vocabulary:
•Grains: Foods made from cereal grains including: wheat, rice, oats, corn, barley. Examples include: bread, pasta, oatmeal, or tortillas.
•Vegetables: Food made from various plant products, typically with lower sugar content and higher vitamin/mineral content. Examples include: carrots, celery, leafy greens, onions, potatoes, and peppers.
•Fruits: Food made from various plant products, often containing higher sugar contents and seeds. Examples include: apples, oranges, bananas, and berries
•Proteins: Foods made from meat, poultry, seafood, legumes (beans, peas), seeds, nuts, eggs, and soy products. Examples include beef, chicken, fish, pinto beans, almonds, peanuts, eggs, and tofu.
•Dairy: Products made from milk. Examples include, milk, cheese, yogurt, butter, and calcium-fortified soymilk.
•Oils: Products that include fats or oils, often found in or extracted from plants, fish, or nuts. Fats and Oils are NOT a food group, but are necessary in small amounts for a health diet. Often they are found in small amounts in the main food groups.
•Serving Size: The recommended portion of food to be eaten in a general meal.
Part 1: Tracking Your Diet
The first thing you need to do is start tracking what foods you are eating each day. Use the provided table provided below to help you know what information to provide. Make sure to enter all your information into the table and save it, because you will be turning it in for grading along with your essay.
How to Use the Table:
First, add your name, age, and sex to the top of the table. Then, you will need to find the Daily Recommended Amount for each food group based on your age and sex. We will be using the ChooseMyPlate.gov website to find most of the information you need for the table.
Go to the ChooseMyPlate.gov website here: https://www.choosemyplate.gov/ . Then, hover over the “MyPlate” tab underneath the banner (it should be first from the left). From the expanded tab, you will be able to choose from each of the 5 main food groups. Click on the food group that you want information about, for example, “Grains”. On the food group’s page, you will find a “How many [Food Group] are needed” section. Expand the table in that section to see how much of that food group you need to consume based on your age and gender. Record this amount at the top of your table (be sure to include the units because each food group might not use the same one). The ChooseMyPlate links for each food group have been added to the provided table, just click the column title to see the link to the ChooseMyPlate page for that food group.
Now you will track your diet for a typical week. After every meal or snack, record the food you ate in the proper food category under the “Food Eaten” column. Then, record the amount of that food you ate under the “Amount” column. At the end of the day, tally up the amount of each food group you ate and put the sum in the “Total” box. Then, underneath, indicate whether you ate enough of that food to satisfy the Recommended Daily Amount for that day.
Tips:
•Break down food items into their separate food groups and put the item into each category. A turkey sandwich might include the Grains, Proteins, and Vegetable food groups.
•Each ChooseMyPlate Food Group page contains a table that lists common items and their portion equivalents. Use it to help convert difficult food items into standardized portions.
•You don’t need to be exact. If you can’t find the exact food group or portion equivalent, make your best educated guess.
•If you need more space for a given day, you can add additional rows. Right click on the last completed row for the day. Under the option menu that pops up, click on the “Insert Row Below” option. A new row with the correct size and formatting will be added to the table.
•You will not be graded on your diet, just your ability to record your meals. Don’t feel guilty if you are eating too much or not enough of a certain food group.
Part 2: Essay
Evaluate your diet:
Now you will evaluate your diet. Take a look through each food group category and take note of how many days you did or did not meet the Daily Recommended Amount. Identify the 3 following food groups:
1.The food group you ate the most below the recommended daily amount.
2.The food group you ate the most above the recommended daily amount.
3.The food group you ate closest to the recommended daily amount.
These food groups will the be the three topics of your essay
Research:
Now do some research about each of your food groups. Topics might include:
•The importance of that food group and what nutrients it provides
•The types of vitamins or minerals that are commonly found in that food group
•The types of nutritional imbalances or disorders that may occur if not enough of that food group is consumed
•Cheap and easy ways to introduce more of that food group into your diet
•The best items to eat to fulfill the serving requirements (if you are eating too much of that food group)
Keep track of the sources you used to find your information because you will need to cite your information in your paper (at least one citation per body paragraph). Try to use reputable sources such as governmental organizations like the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) or nutrition or health companies. Try avoid nutrition blogs, especially if they don’t list their own sources.
Write:
Compile your research into an essay. Your paper should be at least 500 words long, and include an introduction and conclusion. It should have three body paragraphs. I recommend one body paragraph per food group, but as long as you devote equal time to each paragraph, you can organize your paper however you want.
Make sure to include MLA citations for all sources that you used to help write your paper. This includes using parenthetical citations in the body of your paper and a Works Cited page at the end of your paper.
What would you like to do next?
Work on questions
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