Health and Medicine Research Assignment: Food Intake (Essay Sample)

Food Intake
Name
University AffiliationFood Intake
The foods in my recorded daily intake that provide protein include peanut butter, Pizza Hut chicken wings, green beans, frozen yogurt, baked fish, shrimp, omelet, and tuna salad. Additionally, the foods which provide carbohydrates include French fries, Subway sandwich, wheat bread, and corn. Moreover, the foods which provide lipids include French fries, steamed shrimp, baked fish, frozen yoghurt, Pizza Hut chicken wings, as well as chunky peanut butter
My recorded daily intake was 105 grams protein, 182 grams carbohydrates, and 11.4 grams total fat. According to the Australia New Zealand Code, an average adult requires a balanced diet made up of 310 grams carbohydrates,70 grams fat, and 50 grams protein each day.Additionally,24 grams saturated fatty acids,30 grams dietary fibre,2.3 grams sodium,90 grams sugar as well as 8700 kilojoules of energy are required. These reference values are based on a diet of 8700 kJ (Gropper, Smith, & Groff, 2009). However, the intake of an individual depends on their lifestyle and energy needs. Based on my recorded nutritional intake, I took too much protein but the fats and carbohydrates were insufficient.
To raise the carbohydrate intake to the recommended level, I need to eat foods that are rich in carbohydrates. It is worth mentioning that carbohydrates provide the energy required for various functions in the body. Carbohydrates are starches and sugars that are found in dairy foods, some vegetables, fruit as well as grain-based foods such as pasta, rice, breakfast cereals, and bread.
Gropper, Smith, and Groff (2009) write that protein is needed for building muscle as well as for the repair and growth of cells in the body. During starvation, it may be used by the body to generate energy. Since my recorded protein intake was above the recommended levels, I need to reduce intake of protein-rich foods such as yogurt, cheese, milk, eggs, chicken, meat, and fish. What is more, the protein-rich foods that I choose should be low in saturated fat since excess of saturated fat raises blood cholesterol and consequently increases the risk of coronary heart disease.
Fat helps the body absorb important vitamins and contributes to intake of energy. Accordingly, a balanced diet should contain the recommended amount of fat. Saturated fat is from animal sources whereas unsaturated is from vegetable sources (Haugen & Musser, 2012). To raise the amount of fat to the recommended intake I should take more unsaturated fats from foods such as avocado, nuts and seed, olive oil, rapeseed oil as well as sunflower oil.
The protein in the food I ate combined to become complementary. The body requires twenty two different amino acids to work properly. Thirteen of those can be synthesized in the body of adults but the other nine essential amino acids have to be obtained from the diet. Complete proteins contain sufficient quantity of all the nine essential amino acids (Gropper, Smith, & Groff, 2009). The nine essential amino acids are histidine, valine, phenylalanine and tyroosine, methionine and cystibe, lysine, leucine, isoleucine, threonine as well as tryptophan.
My recorded daily intake was 105 grams protein, 182 grams carbohydrates, and 11.4 grams total fat against a recommended intake of 310 grams carbohydrates, 70 grams fat, and 50 grams protein each day.
Zoumbaris (2009) writes that eating too little protein results in muscle wasting since the body breaks down the proteins in the muscles to synthesize the amino acids required to make critical new proteins. What is more, protein deficiency causes hair loss and breakage, swelling, frequent infections, reproductive problems as well as poor wound healing.
When an individual consumes an insufficient amount of carbohydrates, metabolism slows. Consequently, muscles are used by the body to produce glucose that is usually obtained from carbohydrates (Zoumbaris, 2009). The glucose is used to maintain physical, organ, and brain functions. The individual feels hungry and lethargic.
Eating an insufficient amount of lipids can result in vitamin A, D, E and K deficiency since the body requires fat to absorb these nutrients (Haugen & Musser, 2012). Vitamin K deficiency causes increased bleeding, vitamin D deficiency results in weak bones, and vitamin A deficiency causes night blindness, dry skin as well as high susceptibility to infections.
The recommended daily dietary fiber is 30 grams (...