Biology Food Chart
Project description
PERSONAL FOOD CHART
Assignment Due Date: Oct. 1 – Please turn completed assignment (it has 2 components: the Excel worksheet: the spreadsheet calculator and answers to the questions as a Word or PDF document) via the Carmen Drop box.

The information below should help with the assignment. Please feel free to contact us if any of this is not clear.

The food chart involves keeping track of what you eat for five days. You need to find the nutrient content of what you ate and then answer some questions. For one day you are to keep track of your physical activity. Here is an Example of what the food composition data might look like

There are a number of tools available to try to make this assignment easier for you. You do not need to use any of these tools, but you do need to do the assignment and turn in a spreadsheet/document which shows recorded food intake and calculations. The most important tool is a spreadsheet Spreadsheet Calculator. The spreadsheet probably contains more tabs than you can see at one time. (If you only see one tab try maximizing the spreadsheet.) You can use the arrows to the left of the tabs to view more of them. You should see five tabs at the extreme left that are labeled day 1 through day 5. The following tabs are also present and are necessary to complete the assignment. They are: weekly averages, nutrient data, % calories, % daily value, activity calculator, activities, more activities and question 8. If you link to the spreadsheet you may be asked if you want to open it or to save it to your computer. Select save. If you open the document, enter data and then try to save you will need a password to save to the web server. If you have the spreadsheet on your computer you will not need a password to save or manipulate the data. More food composition data can be found at Composition. You can also find the nutrient content of foods using the USDA’s super tracker website: USDA supertracker. Folic acid content is difficult to find on many food labels. You can find the folic acid (folate) content of selected foods in this link: Folic acid content of selected foods or using the USDA supertracker. A very large web page is at Big Table. This has over 8,000 entries. You can find horse meat and much more. Sometimes it is not intuitive. For hot dogs you have to go to frankfurter. The buns are found under rolls, hot dog. You can search it depending on how your browser is set up. You can also cut and paste the data into the spreadsheet. You may have to use paste special as text depending on the system and browser you are using. Most will not need this, but it does have some interesting foods.

The spreadsheet begins with 5 tabs labeled days 1 through 5. For each item you eat, you are to enter its name, the amount you ate, the number of calories it contained and the grams of protein, fat and carbohydrates in it. You are also to record iron, calcium, vitamin A, Vitamin C and folic acid content. You may get this information from any source you like. However, food composition tables are provided for you. You will notice that when you enter data, the spreadsheet will automatically total the nutrients at the bottom of the page. The data will also be transferred to the appropriate place on the weekly average tab.

A convenient place to obtain nutritional data is from the table labeled nutrient data. This contains data for almost 500 foods. You can simply cut and paste the information from the nutrient data tab to the day you are working on. Data from these tables is in the appropriate units. Some food labels express nutrient data as % Daily Value. This information should not be entered as such. There is a tab called % Daily Value that will convert % to the appropriate amounts and units. This must be used if you have data expressed as percent. There are also links to much larger databases. Sometimes you may find it is easier and close enough to substitute a food that is very similar to one that is hard to find data for. You can only enter numbers into the worksheet not letters or units such as grams (g).

The tab labeled % Calories takes data from the weekly average tab and automatically calculates what percentage of your calories were derived from fat, protein and carbohydrates. It also graphs the data for you. If you prefer, you may perform the calculations yourself. This data is the answer to one of the questions.

The activity calculator tab asks for your weight in pounds and asks you to enter a factor of either 11 or 12. The default setting is a factor of 12 (indicating a male) and a weight of 200 pounds. Enter your weight in cell B3 and 11 if you are female or 12 if you are male in cell F2. You then name an activity, a factor (found in the activity tabs) and the time in hours you performed the activity. For example, if you performed an activity for a half hour, you would enter 0.5. You cannot enter letters or units in these cells, only numbers. So, for example, do not enter 1 hour, enter 1 if you performed the activity for an hour. The calculator will determine how many calories you used up and add it to your other activities and to your BMR. The concept of BMR is explained more fully in the weight loss lecture. As is explained in this lecture, the value you get for BMR by using a single factor is not very accurate. It is close enough for this assignment. If you want a better estimate you can find one at BMR/BMI calculator.

The factors you need for activities can come from a number of sources. The spreadsheet has two tabs labeled activities and more activities. These contain the factors for about 400 activities. If you cannot find the exact activity, chose an activity that is similar and use that factor. More details on activities are available at BMR.

If you are not sure about the factors that affect BMR and how it is calculated, you should visit the BMR file prior to the first exam.

Answer the following questions:

1. Does your dietary intake meet the RDA for your age group and sex? If not, in what areas are you lacking? Does failing to meet the RDA in several categories mean that you are headed for nutritional disorders? Explain briefly. What foods could you add to your diet to increase your consumption and bring you up to the RDA? If you do not meet the RDA for a nutrient, list some foods you could add to your diet.

2 What foods in your diet are the major contributors of Calories? Protein? Carbohydrate? Calcium? Iron? Vitamin A? Folic acid? Vitamin C? (Answer for all of these nutrients)

3. What percentage of your calories was derived from each of the following: From fat? From protein? From carbohydrate? This is calculated for you on the % calories tab of the spreadsheet.

4. If you wanted to lose one pound per week (approximately 3,500 calories), what specific changes (what food would you omit from your diet) would you make in your diet? Do this even if you think you are too thin and do not eat enough as it is.

HINT You should provide a list of foods and amounts that add up to 3500 calories. Find (on the average) 500 cal per day from what you eat now and delete it. You don’t really have to consume the resulting diet. We want you to see what it would take for you to lose 1 pound per week by dieting. You only did the chart for 5 days so you only need to list 2,500 calories.

5. Using the data supplied, approximate your caloric needs for a typical day: BMR + Activity. (Show calculations in your report). See Question 5-BMR for more information – the activity calculator does this for you. You should include things like sitting, watching TV, etc to get 14 to 20 hours of activity. Do not including sleeping – BMR is adjusted for this.

6. How does the value you calculated in question 5 compare to your average caloric intake for a day? If they were not identical, what would happen to your weight if this continued for several months? Why do you think the numbers did not agree?

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