Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Food & Exercise Analysis - Day2

1. recommended daily food intake and caloric needs


2. Input Foods consumed



3. Input Activities done


4. Report: Calories Chart

5. Report: Nutrition



6. Report: %-RDA/AI Graph


7. Report: Calorie Balance



ANALYSIS



1. Nutrients (including fats) from the nutrients pie chart on FitDay
On the second day, I had 79% of carbohydrates, 11% of fats, and 10% of protein. In total, the food I had consumed had 1619 calories and most of it was largely because of carbohydrate which had 1281 calories.

2. Daily allowance in relation to what you ate (largely from the food group recommendations on MyPyramid)
According to MyPyramid, 16 year old female should have 6 ounces of grains, 2.5 cups of vegetables, 1.5 cups of fruits, 3 cups of milk, and 5 ounces of meat and beans. For this particular day, I did not eat any meat, beans, and milk because it was the first day of IAS bronze expedition which we had to go to Ulu Langat to camping and hiking. However, I ate rice with grains as my breakfast and vegetables and fruits for my snacks instead of eating chips, chocolate, or candies. My daily food plan says to eat various types of vegetables every week but I couldn’t eat them on this day. However, I exercised a lot by hiking with my friends.

3. Identify three nutrients that you consumed close to 100% of RDA
l  Protein
l  Riboflavin (Vitamin B2)
l  Phosphorus

4. Identify three nutrients that you either over-consumed (far above 100%) or under consumed (very low) irregularities you might have (too high or too low)
l  Vitamin D
l  Calcium
l  Manganese

5. Use the internet to research what the nutrients in #3 and #4 and identify the following:

vitamin D
a.        -Regulates the concentration of calcium and phosphate in the bloodstream
-Promotes the healthy mineralization, growth and remodeling of bone, and the prevention of hypocalcaemia tetany
-Defends our body against microbial invaders
b.       fatty fish, eggs, meat, mushrooms
c.        Vitamin D insufficiency: thin, brittle, or misshapen bones
l  impaired bone mineralization
l  bone softening diseases such as rickets and osteomalacia
Vitamin D sufficiency: prevents rickets in children and osteomalacia in adults,
l  modulates neuromuscular function
l  reduces inflammation
l  influences the action of many genes that regulate the proliferation, differentiation, and apoptosis of cells
d.       I will have to eat more food such as fish and eggs that can provide me with vitamin D
Manganese
a.        The functions of manganese are that it is necessary for the functioning of band. It also metabolizes our body energy and the amount of calcium. Manganese is needed to build proteins and nucleic acid in our bodies
b.       Cereals, tea, green leafy vegetables, whole wheat breads, liver, vegetables and nuts
c.        If you had not consumed manganese at a recommended level, you will have poor memory, problems metabolizing carbohydrates, blood sugar problems, fragile bones, and joint problems.
d.       I will not try to only eat the ones that I like to eat and try to eat some other healthy food that can provide me lots of manganese.
Phosphorus
a.        It forms the structure of teeth, bones and cell membranes. It also acts as a cofactor for many enzymes and activates the vitamin B complex. In addition, it forms RNA and DNA and increases endurance.
b.       Meat, fish, wholegrain, cheese, soy products, nuts
c.        Long term imbalances between calcium and phosphorus can cause osteoporosis. If you do not have enough phosphorus, your body will become weak and have debility, anemia, osteomalacia, mental confusion, and speech problems.
d.       Because there can be a serious problem if I continue eating meals like this every day, I will try to eat foods such as nuts and cheese for my healthy body.

6. Identify long term concerns that you will need to be aware of (e.g. a high fat diet would result in higher risk of heart attack) and how you might alter your lifestyle and choices to be more healthy in the future.
Some nutrients that consumed close to 100% of RDA are not the ones that we have to worry about. If I would keep eating food in this manner, I would have quite few mineral and vitamin deficiencies. Because of these deficiencies, I might have worse memory, weak bones, and some diseases. Once I find out that my eating habit is not that good, that is going to be too late to change my diets. Since today, I will try to eat variety of food with different colors which would provide me with many different vitamins as well.

7. Compare your food and exercise data to what is recommended for your age, weight, gender and exercise from MyPyramid.gov.
MyPyramid.gov. informs me that I have to eat at least 3 ounces of whole grains, 3 to 6 cups of different colored vegetables(dark green, orange, dry bean & peas, starchy, and other vegetables), and 5 teaspoons of oils. For normal day, I think I can fulfill all recommendation of how much of food and vegetables I have to eat. However, I barely had any vegetables on that day because the vegetables would become rotten so easily. Although, I might have not eaten nutritious meals for a day, I have exercised very much more than usual school days.

8. In your analysis identify ways that your exercise and diet might affect you in the future. In particular, what "health concerns" do you have for your future? What changes would you have to make in your lifestyle to become healthier? How easy/difficult would these changes be for you and why?
 Exercise and diet will definitely affect me in the future because how healthy I am is based on what I eat for my main food and how much I exercise everyday. If I often eat junk foods instead of eating healthy meals with large amount of nutrients. As I have researched before, I might have some metabolic issues if i do not change my diets and try to balance out the nutrients that I eat. Therefore, I will eat more vegetables and fruits as well as nuts, meats, and fish. It might not be easy to change my eating habit because I might not have everything to eat what I want, which has sufficient amount of vitamins or minerals in it. However, it does not seem that difficult because I can eat anything except those that are really disgusting like fried insects.

9. Finally, identify any problem areas that you felt might have given a not-so-good idea of your actual diet and exercise patterns. What there a problem with the program's database in terms of information input? Was the diet and exercise indicative of your normal weekday lifestyle choices? Note any problems in your blog.
 Since it is a program that tells us how much nutrients I have consumed for a day for few days, it might not give you exactly correct values. The program approximately gives us the feeling of what we  need or don't need to eat a lot. Except the fact that we cannot put in every single details for what we ate during one specific day(I could not find some of the food I had in my house because it was a Korean dish), it gave me good idea of what I need to improve on.

Monday, March 7, 2011

Food & Exercise Analysis - Day1

1. recommended daily food intake and caloric needs




2. Input Foods consumed


3. Input Activities done


4. Report: Calories Chart


5. Report: Nutrition




6. Report: %-RDA/AI Graph


7. Report: Calorie Balance


ANALYSIS


1. Nutrients (including fats) from the nutrients pie chart on FitDay

The food I ate mostly were carbohydrates and it takes 65% of the calories I have consumed. Fat is 21% of the food I ate and it has the second largest percentage of the calories. I only ate 14% of protein and drank no alcohol.

2. Daily allowance in relation to what you ate (largely from the food group recommendations on MyPyramid)
For this day, I do not think I ate recommended amount of nutrients with recommended daily food intake. I did not eat much grains and beans. Although I ate quite a lot of vegetables and fruits, I did not drink milk at all that day and did not eat meat. So generally, I did not eat the right amount of food to gain right amount of nutrients that would make me more healthy.

3. Identify three nutrients that you consumed close to 100% of RDA
-Protein
-copper
-selenium

4. Identify three nutrients that you either over-consumed (far above 100%) or under consumed (very low) irregularities you might have (too high or too low)
-vitamin D
-calcium
-vitamin C

5. Use the internet to research what the nutrients in #3 and #4 and identify the following:
a. What the nutrient does for the body (what is its function?)
b. What foods you can find the nutrient in?
c. What are the long-term concerns of over or under consumption of this nutrient
d. What adjustments, if any, you will need to make to your diet in order to reach a health point of consumption for this nutrient

vitamin D
a.        -Regulates the concentration of calcium and phosphate in the bloodstream
-Promotes the healthy mineralization, growth and remodeling of bone, and the prevention of hypocalcaemia tetany
-Defends our body against microbial invaders
b.       fatty fish, eggs, meat, mushrooms
c.        Vitamin D insufficiency: thin, brittle, or misshapen bones
l  impaired bone mineralization
l  bone softening diseases such as rickets and osteomalacia
Vitamin D sufficiency: prevents rickets in children and osteomalacia in adults,
l  modulates neuromuscular function
l  reduces inflammation
l  influences the action of many genes that regulate the proliferation, differentiation, and apoptosis of cells
d.       I will have to eat more food such as fish and eggs that can provide me with vitamin D

calcium

a.        It maintains total body health and keeps our bones and teeth strong over our lifetime. It can also ensure the proper functioning of muscles and nerves, as well as keeping the heart beating. Moreover, it helps regulates blood pressure and metabolizes iron in our body.
b.       foods that are rich in calcium: whitebait, sardines, tofu, milk, anchovies, almonds, milk chocolate, spinach, bread, broccoli, legumes, green vegetables, lentils
  1. calcium deficiency: rickets - affects bone growth and causes bone deformities in children
l  in adults, it will cause osteoporosis - caused by a combination of factors: loss of bone mass as people get older, poor diets, lack of sunlight
l  insomnia
l  tetany
l  premenstrual cramps and hypertension
d.       To prevent calcium deficiency, I will try to eat dairy products.

Vitamin C
a.        It is necessary for normal growth and development. It helps the growth and repair of tissues in all parts of our body. Also, it absorbs iron and stimulates the activity of the immune system. Furthermore, it can heal wounds, and for the repair and maintenance of cartilage, bones, and teeth.
b.       Green peppers, citrus fruits and juices, strawberries, tomatoes, broccoli, turnip greens, leafy greens, sweet and white potatoes, cantaloupe, papaya, mango, watermelon, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, winter squash, red peppers, raspberries, blueberries, cranberries, and pineapples
c.        large doses of vitamin C can cause skin irritation, stomach upset and diarrhea. It may predispose premature infants to hemolytic anemia due to the fragility of their red blood cells.
d.       Although, consuming a lot of vitamin C is not as bad as not eating any of vitamin C, but I should try to eat proper amount of fruits to balance out the amount of vitamin C.

6. Identify long term concerns that you will need to be aware of (e.g. a high fat diet would result in higher risk of heart attack) and how you might alter your lifestyle and choices to be more healthy in the future.
If I try to eat pineapple every day, I might not be feeling very good because it would cause stomach upset. Also it might influence premature infant when I grow up. With my daily diets, I might not be able to balance out the nutrients that I have eaten by getting low amount of vitamin D and calcium. Then it would make my body weak and not healthy.

7. Compare your food and exercise data to what is recommended for your age, weight, gender and exercise from MyPyramid.gov.
According to MyPyramid.gov, the people of my age and gender should aim for at least 3 ounces of whole grains a day and about 3 – 6 cups of different types of vegetables weekly. It said that it is also good to consume 5 teaspoons of oils a day with 30 minutes moderate or vigorous physical activity a day. However, I do not exercise at all recently. I exercised regularly during the previous semester but now, I hardly do any of them. I think I eat many different types of vegetables and fruits and grain rice. I am not sure if I eat at least 5 teaspoons of oils a day but I think I do.

8. In your analysis identify ways that your exercise and diet might affect you in the future. In particular, what "health concerns" do you have for your future? What changes would you have to make in your lifestyle to become healthier? How easy/difficult would these changes be for you and why?
I might get fat and become lazy as I do not try to move and stay in one place. As I gain fat, it will increase the chance of getting other diseases. To prevent gaining weights, I will try to exercise at least 30 minutes three times a week to become healthier. It sounds like a easy plan but it will be difficult for me to change, because I usually do not like to move and I do not usually keep the promise with myself.

9. Finally, identify any problem areas that you felt might have given a not-so-good idea of your actual diet and exercise patterns. What there a problem with the program's database in terms of information input? Was the diet and exercise indicative of your normal weekday lifestyle choices? Note any problems in your blog.
It was very hard to find the exact food that I ate because the fitday.com did not have every single lists of food that we ate. Since I was not American, I had to choose most of the Korean food. They had many types of American and European food rather than Asian food. Because of this, the results I have got from the website might not be fully correct.