Food Journal/Calorie Count Exercise, Essay Example

In keeping with the class assignment, I kept a food journal for one entire day. In the food journal I recorded all food and beverages I consumed for one single day. I categorized my food intake into four categories: breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks. To complete the food journal, I added up the totals for all calories, carbohydrates, protein, fats, fiber, and sodium consumed and then figured the percentages of my daily allowance for each. Here is a summary of my food journal.

I’ll start with an account of my food intake. For breakfast, I ate a banana, an English muffin, and a large coffee with cream and sugar from Duncan Donuts. Lunch was a Subway 6” spicy Italian sub. For dinner I ate a Healthy Choice Herb Chicken frozen dinner and a green side salad. My snacks for the day were an Orville Redenbacher’s smart pop mini bag and one small bowl of rice pudding. In all, I consumed 1520 calories, 213.7g. carbohydrates, 65.7g. protein, 41.2g. fats, 20.1g. fiber, and 2984mg. sodium. Calories from carbohydrates made up 56% of my diet and were pretty evenly split between simple and complex carbs. The total calories from fat were only 24%, below the maximum 30% level, and mostly saturated, considering the chicken, popcorn, and sub sandwich bun. There is a more than adequate amount of protein in my diet at 65.7g. My fiber intake was low, only 20.1g compared to the recommended daily allowance of 33g. The amount of sodium consumed for the day was 2984mg, 584mg. over the recommended daily allowance.

This exercise helped me to closely evaluate my diet and see where I am making good food choices and what areas I need to make changes to. As evidenced by my food journal, I need to consume more fiber in my daily diet and cut back on my sodium intake. I can accomplish this by switching my bread choices to whole grain and preparing fresh dinners instead of prepackaged meals. Becoming familiar with the levels of different categories in everyday foods will help me in my role as a nurse. This information will allow me to help identify nutrition problems in my patients and to be able to give reliable advice.