Is it possible to get your nutritional requirements on a busy day? Imagine this is a day about you. You are going to read some questions about a busy day. In your day there will be no time to sit down and have any regular meals. However, a large variety of snacks will be available for you to eat throughout the day.

 

 

The Task

This is an overview of everything you will be accomplishing in this project.

As you read the questions below, you will make food selections from a list of foods that are available. After all your food choices are made you will research and find the nutritional information for each food. The information will be totaled. Next you will need to find out what your personal nutritional requirements are. You will compare your personal nutrition requirements to the totals of the day of snacks to see if your snack choices are close to what you actually need. You will next work with another student and prepare a list of snacks to get as close to the recommended daily requirements as possible. You will present what you have learned.

Here we go...........

 

Read the questions below and record your food choices. Try to make choices as close to what you would really choose. BE HONEST!

 

 

YOUR BUSY DAY

 (You may want to go to the photos/documents page of my web site to print a copy of the following questions)

Early in the morning, you fell back to sleep after your alarm went off so you got up late. You only had time to grab something from the kitchen table before you left for school. Write down your choice(s). On the table were:

 

____Juice, Fruit item, Yogurt Raisins

____16 oz. bottle of Gatorade

____6 doughnuts

____6 bagels, cream cheese container

____A bowl of candy that includes 5th Avenue Candy Bars, Chocolate Bar

       with Almonds, Other, your choice

 

Before lunch, your mother picked you up for a dentist appointment. On the way back to school, your mom gave you a packed lunch to eat in the car. You only had time to eat 3 of the items in the car. You had room in your pockets to take 2 of the foods with you. What did you eat and did you take any with you. Record your choices.

 

____A bag of potato chips

____A ham and cheese sandwich

____A hard-boiled egg

____A bag of pretzel sticks, thin

____A bag of green pepper strips

____A carton of Reduced Fat Milk,2%

____A can of soda (your choice)

____Cupcakes

____Apple

 

After you arrived at school you had time to eat the snacks in your pocket during an afternoon break. When school was over you went home but missed dinner because you wanted to go the school basketball game. At the game, the concession stand had food. You had enough money to buy 5 items. What did you buy? Write it down.

 

____Candy

____Hamburger, Large

____French Fries

____Soda

____Milk, 2%

____Cupcakes

____Pizza Slice

____Ice Cream

____Buttered Popcorn

____Hot dog on bun

 

When you got home it was late but your brother was in the kitchen having a snack. Did you join him? Pick your snack choices.

____Cheese

____Pretzel sticks, thin

____Orange Juice

 

Using this link, http://www.principalhealthnews.com/topic/nutritiontoolbox/86

and the list of food items that you selected above, prepare an analysis for each item. Include the following information:

• Be sure to use the correct serving sizes. Use serving sizes you would really eat.
• Total fat
• Saturated fat
• Protein
• Carbohydrates
• Sugars
• Fiber

After you have found the nutrition information for your food choices, click on the following link.

http://www.principalhealthnews.com/topic/macronutrient

to gather information about the daily nutrients your body actually needs. Just fill out the Macronutrient Calculator. Print your results.

 

Compare your personal needs (from the macronutrient calculator print out) to the results from your day of snacks. Think about the following questions.

• Were you close?
• What do you need to improve?

Working with a partner, go back to the food choices and reanswer the questions trying to get better results. Both of you do not need to make selections. You need to agree on what you think are the best choices.

If you need additional information on macronutrient requirements go to http://www.weight4me.com/nutrients/nutrients.htm.

 

Plan on presenting what you learned in a report. The report can be an oral presentation, a power point presentation or a simple written report. Make sure you cover the following points:

 

1. What is the percentage of fat in your original snack food list. How does it compare to your new list? Is there room for improvement?

 

2. How do the calories per day from the snack list compare to your suggested amount?

 

3. How much sodium (salt) do you need per day? How much sodium did you get in both lists? Was one list better, which one? Is there room for improvement for sodium intake?

 

4. Was getting the required protein hard? Explain your protein results from the lists.

 

5. Give your opinion on whether it is possible to get nutritional requirements from a day of snacks.

 

6. List foods to avoid as snacks. List foods to include in your diet as snacks.

 

Conclusion

Hopefully, this project has sparked a lifelong interest in paying attention to your daily food choices and your personal nutritional needs. You should take the next step and analyze for micronutrients. Go to http://www.allaboutfoodnutrition.com/content/micronutrients.html  to learn about micronutrients and go to http://www.dietitian.com/the Healthy Body Calculator to see a more complete personal analysis of the nutrients you need. Compare to your snack day or do an actual day.