Nutrition Log Reflection

Nutrition Log Reflection

Before doing this nutrition log assignment, I had little to no clue about my eating habits, and how to go about eating “properly.” For instance, I always assumed that I had been consuming too much fat, and I was unsure of the difference between good (monounsaturated and polyunsaturated) fats, and bad (saturated) fats. According to the calculations for day one of my food log, only 16.5% of total calories from fat were being taken in, whereas I should have been consuming anywhere from 20%- 35%. In addition to the lack of fats that I was consuming on day one, my milk intake was sadly rather low as well. Although, this didn’t come quite as a surprise to me, because I tend to be lactose intolerant at times, and don’t always necessarily lean towards foods containing dairy.
However, since I have learned the importance of the vital nutrients found in dairy products such as calcium, potassium, Vitamin D, and protein, I have decided to take calcium supplements as a start. Also, I have decided to incorporate more lactose- free alternatives into my diet such as low-fat cheese, and low-fat yogurt. In contrast to my seemingly deficient intake of total fats on day one, I seemed to have made up for my lack thereof by surpassing my recommended intake by 24.6% on day two.
Needless to say, that could not have been good for my health, considering that the majority of the fats ingested that day were the non-good ones. My intake of total calories from saturated fats was supposed to be less than 10%, I exceeded the recommendation by 3.6%. In order to decrease the amounts of saturated fats that I consume from now on, I am going to choose foods with less or no saturated fat thereby helping myself maintain blood cholesterol levels within a normal range, and decreasing my risk for heart disease. In spite of all of the negative aspects of the foods that I had consumed during the three days of logging, I am happy to say that there were a few areas that I met the recommendations of. For example, on day three, my sodium intake was only (and I say only loosely) 1882 mg, even though the upper limit recommendation for me is 2300 mg. This was more of a personal triumph for me, considering that I am well aware of the fact that I only need 500 mg of sodium a day to survive. Nevertheless, I always thought that I was consuming well above the upper limit recommendation, and was quite pleased with my findings regardless. In addition to my lower sodium consumption, I was also happy to discover that my diet was well under the recommended limit for cholesterol, not only on day three, but all of the days. In conclusion, I found that this assignment was highly beneficial not only for my health, but also because of the extra knowledge it helped me obtain to help me create and maintain a better lifestyle for myself. What stood out to me in particular were my fluctuations of total fat and saturated fat intakes. One of my goals is to try and sustain a healthy balance of the two, and making sure that I include more of the good fats that help lower LDL cholesterol, and help raise HDL cholesterol. I also realized that I have no sort of regimen when planning my meals during the weekend, and this surely can contribute to any type of negative foods that may be consumed. Therefore, I intend on trying very hard on being consistent with incorporating more healthy choices during the weekend, even if it means packing wise snacks for on the go. With this in mind, I am sure that I will achieve my necessary goals to maintain a healthy but reasonable diet style.

NUTRITION LOG ASSESSMENT