Quantative analysis of your food diary Essay

You need to write up your analysis of your food diary. State how long you have kept your food diary for, and write about the following points: 1. Consider how you have recorded your information. Where have you got your information from that will be analysed – how useful are these sources of information? (e.g food labels, weighing portions, recipes etc) 2. Research the Recommended Nutritional Intakes for your age and gender on http://www.food.gov.uk/multimedia/pdfs/nutguideuk.pdf . Choose 3 whole days of your food diary how does your food intake compare to the recommended Nutritional Intakes. Remember you need to break the food composition down into the main food groups including vitamins (in particular vitamin C) and the energy from fat in your food. What are the strengths and weaknesses of your food intake? Consider other recommended food intake sources such as five a day and food standards agency eatwell plate. How does your food intake measure up to this? 3. You may find it useful to research how many calories you should be intaking for your lifestyle. (a useful site http://www.nhs.uk/Livewell/loseweight/Pages/understanding-calories.aspx ) 4. Consider the amount of activity that you have done over the course of the week – what are the strengths and weaknesses of this level of activity? (another useful site http://www.nhs.uk/Livewell/fitness/Pages/physical-activity-guidelines-for-adults.aspx ) 5. Finally in the analysis consider any Lifestyle influences: as relevant, eg personal food preferences, cultural, economic, social, availability of 6. time; day-to-day variations, e.g week days/weekends Once you have done this you need to move on to part 2 of the assignment task! Part 2 1. Provide a 7 day nutritional plan to improve your nutritional health. 2. You should include a meal plan which addresses all of the issues analysed in your food diary analysis. This includes what you are eating and how it relates to social policy as stated above. 3. Consider the change for life campaign (http://www.nhs.uk/change4life/Pages/change-for-life.aspx) what can you include in your nutritional plan that changes your life? 4. What about your activity levels? In your plan you need to consider your levels of activity analysed in your food diary. How can you improve these? (remember it is not just about joining a gym, you could consider walking up the stairs instead of taking the lift!!) 5. Finally look again at the issues that you have highlighted in terms of lifestyle factors that influence – what can you do to change them? (think outside of the box here, and be realistic). Include these changes in your plan. 6. You may design and present this information in any format you wish, however, you might want to consider some kind of template or grid to present your information on. 7. Remember your nutritional plan must be SMART 8. In your plan you should assess how the plan will meet and improve your nutritional needs – you need to relate your information to social policy (five a day, change for life, RNI, the eatwell plate) (M3) 9. You should also evaluate how the changes that you are making might improve your health and wellbeing. (D2) (useful sites http://familydoctor.org/familydoctor/en/prevention-wellness/food-nutrition/healthy-food-choices/nutrition-tips-for-improving-your-health.html http://www.nhs.uk/LiveWell/Goodfood/Pages/Goodfoodhome.aspx http://www.gosh.nhs.uk/children/general-health-advice/eat-smart/food-science/improving-your-diet/ Remember all of the sites that you use must be referenced! That is both in the text using Harvard referencing and by including a reference sheet!