The importance of dietary information

Diet plays a major role in maintaining health and the shape of the body. As too much food
can lead to obesity and too little can lead to starvation. In addition, a balanced diet contains
the proper proportions of carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamin, minerals and water which
are necessary to maintain a good health. As there is no single food type that can provide all
nutrients needed to stay healthy, it’s important to eat a variety of foods to make a balanced
diet. Also, it can be an important lifestyle-related risk factor of many chronic diseases. It was
discovered that changing dietary habits, helps reducing chances of cancer incidence by one-
third. Dietary information has been useful in diseases like cardiovascular disease as the risk
can be predicted. Consuming a nutrient-dense diet was related to a low risk of all-cause
mortality.
Dietary assessment is about reviewing the intake of food, and comparing the amount
consumed with reference values to see whether deficiency or excess is likely.
In order to obtain valuable data to measure dietary exposure in nutritional epidemiology,
dietary assessments methods need to be used. One of these methods is to weigh foods
prior to be eaten and record the values to be sure and accurate of the intake. Then they can
be compared to verified published data to calculate nutrient content consumed.
Usually the patient is asked to provide a list and the size of portion consumed over three
days, 2 weekdays and 1 weekend day. This is much more accurate than providing 24h
dietary recall. Moreover, we will be evaluating a diet that I’m following to see whether I
have malnutrition or any deficiency or issues because of the diet I’m following.
These are the result of a diet plan followed by an athlete:
Age: 22 Y.O.
Gender: male.
Weight :66KG.
Height: 1.83m.
BMI: 19.7.
Activity level: moderately active.
Activity: body building.
Here is a table of his macronutrients and micronutrients:

Dietary Average intake Target intake to Difference SD +/-

evaluation over maintain weight between the
3 days average and
target intake
Calorie 2333 2536 203 190.024
Protein 159g 50g 109g 13.204
Carbohydrates 294g 317g 23g 17.01
Total fat 57g 118g 61g 11.24
Iron 8mg 8.7 mg 0.7mg 0.76
Calcium 362mg 700 mg 338mg 19.86
Vitamin B12 2.2ug 1.5 ug 0.7ug 0.12

According to the NHS’ BMI calculator, the healthy weight range for his height is 62kg –
83.7kg. this means that my client is within the range of healthy weight.
Let’s begin with evaluating the calorie intake. The results show that he is on a calorie deficit
and will be losing 0.4lb as he consumes 203g less than his target intake, he can prevent this
be increasing the size of portions consumed to meet the target intake.