I learnt that my diet is too high in sodium, cholestrol and fat. This is probably because I enjoy eating meat a lot and often consume foods with a high salt and oil content, consuming an excessive amount of it. Though I may be slightly underweight now, as calculated from my BMI, the excess cholestrol and fat will accumulate and I may eventually become overweight, increasing my risk of heart disease. I am also not consuming sufficient calcium and dietary fibre as I realise that I barely eat enough vegetables or dairy products. I should learn to increase my intake of this while decreasing my intake of oily and fatty foods.
Do you consider your diet a healthy one? Why?
Before learning more about my diet through this PT, I actually considered my diet to be somewhat healthy. However, I now realise how unhealthy it actually is.
Firstly, I am consuming way too much sodium, cholestrol and fat. My sodium intake is 180% of the RDA, while my cholestrol and total fat intake are 188% and 113% respectively. As I also used the Food Intake Assessment tool to assess individual days of my diet before analysing all 3 days together, I am able to observe that my excessive intake of these 3 things is not caused by a certain meal high in sodium, cholestrol or fat. Rather, these results were very consistent over the three days, showing that I consistently consume too much sodium, cholestrol and fat in my diet. In order to decrease my fat intake, I can remove visible fat and skin on food, choose plain rice over flavoured rice etc. For a lower sodium intake, i can try gradually reducing the amount of salt and sauces in my food, to allow my taste buds to adjust. As for cholestrol, I should reduce my intake of meat and seafood.
Secondly, I am consuming only about 20% of the calcium that i need. This is not healthy as I may develop osteoporosis. It is important to strengthen my bones. I also need to increase my dietary fibre intake. Although I am eating sufficient fruits, I am not eating enough vegetables. I need to eat my two servings of vegetables daily, to have a healthy diet.
Are the suggested nutritional tools useful? How?
Yes, they are useful.
The healthy diet pyramid provides me with a rough gauge of which foods I should eat more of, and which I should consume less of. It is easy for users to understand as the pyramid is separated into different levels, with a bigger section for a food group that has a greater number of servings. There are even examples of food provided for each category, allowing me to plan my diet easily. However, I feel that this tool can only be used as a basic guide. This is because it is not very clear on how large each serving is supposed to be, thus I can only use my own judgement to plan my diet. The Food Intake Assessment tool is more catered for the individual, and would be better for specific planning of my diet.
The Food Intake Assessment tool, on the other hand, is very detailed and specific. It compared my diet with the Recommended Daily Allowance, thus enabling me to adjust my diet accordingly. For example, I found out that I was consuming too much sodium, while not getting sufficient calcium. By looking at the graph of actual nutritional intake compared against RDA, I was able to know how much to increase or decrease a certain nutrient, as it shows the % of RDA met. I am now better able to plan my meals.
Why is your suggested one-dish meal healthy?
(refer to previous post titled "Healthy one-dish meal" for reflection)
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