Nutrition Analysis

The second Nutrition Analysis Project will have you explore how your eating habits, should they remain the same, may impact your health in the future. You will choose one nutrition issue and write a paper on a health condition related to the nutrition issue.

A. Topic Selection

1. Please refer to the Nutrients Report and Food Groups and Calories Report from project 1. Under status you will notice that your intake of certain nutrients was too low or too high. The following list includes issues you may find in the analysis of your reports:
a. Calories: You consumed more than the stated target amount.
b. Protein: You consumed more than 35% of calories from protein.
c. Fat: You consumed more than 35% of calories from fat and/or you consumed more than 10% of calories from saturated fat.
d. Dietary Fiber: You consumed less than the stated target amount.
e. Vitamin C: You consumed less than the stated target amount.
f. Folate: You consumed less than of the stated target amount.
g. Vitamin D: You consumed less than the stated target amount.
h. Vitamin B12: You consumed less than the stated target amount. The only people who are at risk for low B12 consumption are vegans (vegetarians who do not consume dairy or eggs). You automatically trigger for this if you are a vegan.
i. Calcium: You consumed less than the stated target amount.
j. Iron: You consumed less than or more than the stated target amount. If you choose excess iron as your problem, you must be male, female who has had a hysterectomy, or female and 51 years of age or more. Also your intake of meat must have been mostly from sources other than beans, nuts or seeds.
k. Sodium: You consumed more than the stated target amount.
l. Potassium: You consumed less than the stated target amount.
m. Fruits: You consumed less than the stated target amount.
n. Vegetables: You consumed less than the stated amount.
o. Excess alcohol (not included in the Nutrient Report): You are male and you drank more than 6 drinks during the three days covered by your food records, or you drank more than 2 drinks on any single food record day. You are female and you drank more than 3 drinks during the three days covered by your food records, or you drank more than 1 drink on any single food record day.

2. Choose one nutrition issue that you think will likely be an issue for you in the future. Correlate the nutrition issue to one of the diseases/conditions outlined below.
a. Cardiovascular disease
b. Type 2 diabetes: Make sure to not include statements about Type 1 diabetes.
c. Osteoporosis
d. Overweight/Obesity: You may choose this if you trigger for Excess calories. Your solution must include information on energy balance (see text book) and how much to eat using information from the USDA food guide (see text book), or SuperTracker. You need to list how many calories you should be getting, how much to eat of which food groups, discretionary/empty calories, etc.
e. Diverticulosis or diverticulitis
f. Cancer: You must discuss a specific type of cancer. You cannot say, for example, that high fat intake increases the risk for cancer. You must find which type of cancer high fat intake increases the risk for and note that. There are many types of cancers related to diet. Examples include prostate, breast, colon/colorectal, endometrial, liver, lung, pancreatic, stomach, etc.
g. Anemia: Be specific about the type anemia, you are at risk for developing (macrocytic or microcytic. If you are female, you may also consider discussing how anemia can impact you during a pregnancy.
h. Alcoholic Liver Disease: If you triggered for it and wish to write about excess alcohol consumption in your paper, you must address all of the following in the solutions/recommendations part of your essay. What is the government’s recommendation for drinking in moderation, i.e. how many drinks per day? How a drink is defined, i.e. many ounces of wine, beer, and hard alcohol is considered one drink. You will need to explain how you exceeded the guidelines and how that can negatively impact your current and/or future health.
i. Other condition/disease with approval of instructor

B. Written Paper

1. Connect one of the nutrition issues to one specific condition from the list of diseases above. Write a 5-6 page essay on the connection between the nutrition issue and the condition you have selected. The nutrition issue you choose should be relevant to you personally.

2. Your paper should include the following sections:
a. Introduction: Explain the nutrition issue you triggered for or the disease/condition you wish to write about and why. You may also briefly discuss other factors specific to you that put you at risk for or are relevant to a disease/condition, such as family history, lack of physical activity, etc.; however, nutrition/diet should be the focus of your paper.
b. Mechanisms: Explain the food/nutrient’s functions in the body. If you chooe a specific nutrient, make sure to discuss the metabolism of the nutrient (i.e. how is the nutrient digested, absorbed, etc.). Explain how the food/nutrient can lead to disease you selected disease/condition. Also discuss how the disease can progress and how it may impact your health.
For instance, if you choose alcoholic liver disease as your topic, briefly discuss how alcohol is digested and absorbed in the body, why a fatty liver develops, how liver disease may impact your health, and how it progresses to the end-stage liver disease.

c. Solutions and recommendations: Explain how you can realistically address your nutrition issue or disease/condition. Do not explain how to fix the disease. Instead, discuss specific changes you can make to your diet to reduce your risk or support your health condition/goal. For instance, if you want to increase your iron intake, give specific examples of how you plan to do that. Your plan to make changes should be gradual and support/sustain real lifestyle changes. You will explain how much of the nutrient you should be getting using the DRI, the USDA Food Guide, ChooseMyPlate Guidelines, and/or SuperTracker. List and discuss foods that are good sources of the nutrient, or those that should be avoided/limited.
d. Conclusion: Discuss your final thoughts on your proposed solutions to your issue/disease/condition and discuss future actions you may take to improve your nutrition status.

3. All statements must apply to you in your current state of health. It should not apply to kids or to the opposite gender. For example, if you are female, you cannot choose prostate cancer as a disease since it only occurs in men. You must research the disease sufficiently to understand if it applies to you.

4. You may not pick an issue or disease that is not listed on above unless you have gotten preapproval from your instructor at least one week before the assignment is due.
C. Paper Formatting

1. The paper should be 5-6 pages long, double-spaced, Times New Roman, 12 point font, with page numbers. The 5-6 written pages do not include the cover or reference page. The margins must be 1 top and bottom, 1 left and right.

2. The paper should be written in paragraph and essay form and should include headers (Introduction, Mechanisms, Solutions and Recommendations, Conclusion). It is your responsibility to write, edit and turn in a complete, well-written paper. English writing skills, grammar, sentence structure, tense, and spelling will be graded along with the content of the paper.

3. When writing your paper, you should paraphrase your references and cite your sources. Your facts need to be cited. You will not directly quote any sources. You may not include diagrams, illustrations, tables, or figures. You may not use bullet points when making lists.