Monday Morning Update for Nutrition and Health – October 12, 2020 – Questions about the Diet Assignment

Joseph Dixon ♦ October 12, 2020 ♦ Leave a comment

Directions concerning Submitting the Diet Assignment 10-12-2020

There will be a Drop Box established in the Canvas Site for the course where you should submit your Diet Assignment.   I am still working on it – there are over 300 assignments – I have to get the Drop Box perfect.  I will email you when the Drop Box is ready.

The Diet assignment was originally stated as Due on October 15^th.  Because of numerous emails I received from students, I am extending the Due date to October 19^th at 10 pm. This is an absolute due date.  You will be able to submit your Assignments starting when the Drop Box is available- most likely on Wednesday, October 14^th.

Several students have sent their Diet assignments to my email account.  Do not send them to my email!  They will get lost with everything else!

I will answer more emails about the Diet assignment during the week. 

Here is a letter that asks precise questions concerning the Diet Assignment:

Wed, Oct 7, 11:28 PM (5 days ago) to me

Hello Professor Dixon,

I hope you’re doing well. I have a few questions regarding the diet assignment and I thought it would be easier to send you one email with all of them listed instead of a million emails. Sorry if these questions are annoying, some of them are really small (probably just me overthinking it)  but I really want to do well on the assignment and am taking it seriously so I thought it was better to ask and get everything clarified.

Answer:  Thank you for your email.  The Diet assignment is very important and I am glad to answer your questions.

1. For breakfast I had 2 fried eggs so on myfoodrecord I recorded it as “egg whole cook fried” instead of just a raw egg, is that okay or do you want me to change it and also mention the oil it was cooked with? I think during the lecture you said that we don’t have to do that but I just want to clarify that.

Answer:  Good question –  Definitely pick the closest item in the database.  If you fried the eggs then pick “fried.”  Concerning the oil – this is a very difficult answer.  I would say don’t put in any oil at this time.  Hopefully the “fried” descriptor takes this into account.   But this shows how hard it is to get detailed data for food intake. 

2. For the second slide of the powerpoint where you want us to list how we kept a record of what we ate, is that all you want on it (just a sentence saying how) or do you want us to also enter that list of everything and the brands for the food? For example, I used the notes app on my iPhone to keep track of everything and then list all of my food there.

Answer:  In the past I had students keep a record on a paper food Intake sheet. And of course, the better your notes, the better you can choose foods out of the database.   For this semester, I am not asking you for your original notes.  On Slide 2 you are to describe how you took notes on the foods you ate.  But I want to see the list of foods that you put into the program.  For this you need to take a screen shot of your foods as I showed in the PowerPoint example.  On slides 3 to 5 you should have the screenshots of all the foods you ate for the day you are analyzing. 

3. I am a bit confused about how to find the highest and lowest vitamins and minerals. Do I just look at the daily value percentage and whatever is the highest percentage is the highest vitamin and mineral? For lowest, they fill in the things you’re the lowest in with red (its different from the red dot you mentioned not to use) so do I just put down the lowest from that? Or are we supposed to look at “amount” while finding the lowest and highest vitamins and minerals and not the daily value percentage?

Answer:  This is a very important question.  Once you get the data readout, you should take screenshots of it and put them into the PowerPoint. Then you should do the analysis as I showed in the example PowerPoint.  In the example PowerPoint, it was written:

“Use arrows and writing to identify the highest vitamins and minerals according to % DV.  Also use arrows and writing to identify the lowest vitamins and minerals according to % Daily Value. (Don’t use nutrients with red dots next to them)”

So the analysis that is most important is the % Daily Value.  The actual mass amounts (gram (g), milligram (mg), or microgram (mg)) required can vary among nutrients, but what you must look for is the % Daily Value.  See the New PowerPoint Slide I put together.  What is important is knowing the difference between “Percent of a required amount” versus the actual mass amounts of the different nutrients.

Thank you so much for your time and patience,

Answer:  Thank you so much for your detailed questions!  Sorry it took so long to get back to you!

Joe Dixon