Riley Murray Health: Nutrition Analysis

Riley Murray Health 1 Live Oct. 28, 2012 Nutrition Analysis/Change Paper

Based on the Nutrients Report I created for my “Average Eaten” diet what I normally eat seems to be pretty healthy. I work at a Subway full time so I eat that a LOT which is a fairly healthy place to eat. I try to stay away from junk food and I don’t eat in large portions so I’m a healthy weight for my age and height. However, after analyzing all the food I ate in three days I realized apparently just eating fairly healthy and in moderation isn’t enough. You also have to pay attention to the nutrients you’re ingesting like how much protein or fiber is in your diet and make sure you’re eating enough of it. All the while also making sure you do not eat too much in carbohydrates or fats in the process. My report says that I should eat around 130 g of carbohydrates a day and on average I eat 138 so my status is okay, but I’m sure I don’t eat the same amount every day depending on what I decide to eat. Sometimes I do eat some unhealthy food high in carbohydrates especially during the holidays! So I’ll be sure to be careful not to eat foods like that in excess. My target for dietary fiber should’ve been around 25 g and my average eaten fiber was 8g. So I’m pretty far under where I need to be in that area, which doesn’t surprise me because I know I don’t eat a lot of food that is high in fiber because it doesn’t taste that great. So in the future I will be focusing more on foods that have a good amount of fiber in them and add more of those to my normal diet. I found that a lot of berries are high in fiber content and I love fruits like raspberries and strawberries so it will be easy to add more of those type of foods to my diet. For my target total fats I am in a good range too. It should be about 20-35% calories and my average percent was 31% calories. I do try to stay away from too many fatty foods because I know how bad they are for your health so I’m glad my diet shows that I eat an appropriate amount. However, the amount of saturated fats I eat are over the recommended limit. It should be under 10% calories but my average eaten was 11% calories. So I wasn’t too far above where I should be, but I will still be more care in the saturated fats I eat and start reading the labels on my food to see how much fat content it really has. The report also says I eat an appropriate amount of sodium on average. I know our bodies need salt to be healthy, but not a whole lot. I don’t really enjoy my food to be too salty so it’s easy for m to keep my sodium levels low. On average I eat 1970 mg and I should eat under 2300 mg. I am also surprised to find out that my average eaten protein levels are normal too. I don’t think I eat a whole lot of meat normally, which is really high in protein. I didn’t realize how important protein was for your body until recently though, so I am still going to try to add more of a healthy amount of protein into my diet.

After analyzing my diet I realize that the way I eat isn’t too bad for my health, but I know there is always room improvement. I would like to see my 90 th birthday eventually, so I think I will keep doing things like the super tracker to see how well I am getting the nutrients I need through my diet. I plan to start paying attention to the nutrition facts too to help figure out what I am actually eating. I also know that it is really important to incorporate exercise into your daily routine. I definitely do not exercise as much as I would like to. I played sports al through high school so I never really thought about how much exercise I was getting from those, but now that I’m in college I am not on any teams at the moment and its hard to find time to just work out between school, work, family, and friends. I plan to find a short effective work out routine I can do in my small amount of spare time to ensure I stay healthy and strong.