Nutrition Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Nutrition - Essay Example A closer look at my daily diet showed that I was not consistent in meeting the food requirements that are set in the basic food pyramid guide (health.stateuniversity.com, 2009). My diet varied highly from day to day, with very high-energy intake on day 2, followed by day 1. On day 3, there was a very drastic reduction in my food and energy intake to less than half of what I normally take. This was due to my busy school workload, which made me neglect the preparation of food for that day. The third-day food intake was sufficient to lower my daily average to 2200 cal day-1. However, my food intake was much higher than what I really needed considering my very low level of physical activity. Being relatively young, I still do not have a medical condition that will require an immediate change in diet, however there is a major discrepancy in my diet compared to the set guidelines. The food pyramid sets the minimum and maximum levels of food servings that are required from each of the different food groups namely cereals, vegetables, fruits, meats, dairy and sweets and oils. Servings were calculated based on standard recommendation (Healthy Eating Guide, 2001). The average number of servings was calculated from my diet and is presented in Appendix Table 2, Table 1, and Figure 1. On a weight basis, the meat group contributed the most to the daily energy intake, followed by the cereals group. The least contribution came from the vegetables (Figure 2). This was in agreement with the very large number of servings obtained from meat. Figure 3 presents the percentage of contribution of the different major nutrients to my diet. Carbohydrates make up more than half of my nutrients, while proteins and fats have almost equal contribution to the other half. Analysis of foods and how they affect our metabolism and health should be done by taking an overall picture of the whole. However,