Class 12 – Nutrition and Health – Fall 2020 – Oct 13 th – Chapter 6 of McGuire Text – Continue Lipids (Fat)

Joseph Dixon ♦ October 13, 2020 ♦ Leave a comment

Important Update – You Need to Convert Your Diet Assignment PowerPoint into a pdf Before Uploading to the Canvas Drop Box!

More Letters from Students:

Letter:  Hello professor,  I had a question in regards to the diet assignment. This may sound odd but do you take off points for the assignment if our numbers aren’t similar to yours presented on the PPT? For example, I documented my diet exactly the way I usually eat and when I calculated my Kcals for protein, fat, and carbs, it is not in the ideal numbers of 15%, 35%, and 50%. I hope that it won’t penalize my grade for not having the accurate amount of nutrient amount in the assignment. Additionally, my potassium to sodium ratio is less than 1. My numbers seem to be very different then yours in your PPT. I hope you can clear this confusion for me and I am sorry for any inconvenience.

P.S. I am a vegetarian and I do not eat eggs, can this be a reason as to why my numbers look different. I just don’t want the numbers being a reason I can’t get a great grade on the assignment. Sorry if this is a irrelevant question.  Sincerely,

Answer:   Dear _________,     Thank you for your email and great question. The Diet Assignment is not for me, it is for you! There are over 300 students in the class, and most of them will be quite different from my diet. By doing this assignment, you will discover interesting things about your diet. When we grade your assignment, we are looking that you spent time doing the assignment and thinking about the assignment. There are students in class who eat high protein diets, and students who eat low fat diets. There are vegetarians like yourself. This assignment gives a snapshot of the class. No one has a right diet, and no one has a wrong diet. It will be interesting for you to see your Kcals from protein, fat, and carbs. So my advice is to do the assignment on a usual day for you and do the best job possible so you can get insight into your diet, and not my diet!

Thank you for this philosophical and important question. I am sure many students have the same question!   Best,  Joe Dixon

Question:     Dear Dr. Dixon,   If you want to add some photos I took for my diet into presentation, which slide I should choose? Can I put them in slide 2 which is used for showing the way I kept diet?

Answer:     This is an excellent question. I don’t require photos. You won’t receive extra points for photos. The photos are to help you remember exactly what you ate. You can include photos – but only use one slide to do this. Slide 2 is OK. The photos will be for you so that you can get a thumbprint of your diet. If you want to carry diet analysis forward for your own health, you will see the photos are helpful.   Thank you for this excellent question.

Question:   Hi Professor, hope your day is going well. I was working on the diet assignment that’s due in a few days, and I have an issue with following some of your instructions, particularly your calculations from slide 8, these:

saturated fat Kcal 234

Total Kcal             2733

Percent of total Kcal = 8.9%

Where do we also get 2733 and 8.9% from? I tried dividing and multiplying them by numbers on those slide but couldn’t figure it out. I’d appreciate your guidance on this.   Thanks,

Answer:  Hi, I made a small mistake:   The attached PowerPoint shows the corrections!   2733 is from the data read out – see slide attached

8.9% is from:   234 divided by 2733 is 0.0889, or 8.9%

Thank you for pointing this out to me!     Joe Dixon