Friday Update for Nutrition and Health – October 16, 2020 – Questions about the Diet Assignment

Joseph Dixon ♦ October 16, 2020 ♦ Leave a comment

Message to the Class:

Dear All,  I want to again emphasize that the due date for the Diet Assignment is now Monday, October 19^th at 11 pm.  But I also want you to know that the “Drop Boxes” for the Diet Assignment will remain open to Friday October 23^rd.  If you submit it during next week, you will receive only a very small point penalty. 

Students seem to get a lot out of the diet assignment, and therefore, I want you to take the time to do a good job on it.  Also, you have 3 chances to upload the assignment.  If you upload again, it will just write over the previous one. 

On another note, I realize that it is difficult to keep track of everything during this crazy time.  For this course, read the Course Blog several times a week to stay up on the class.  You can keep it open as a window on the Browser of your phone, and just press update when you want to see something new. 

I know you are all suffering from the restrictions of the Covid crisis.  This is a time when you should be socializing as much as possible.  But it is dangerous to do this.  Last weekend I spent time visiting friends and family in New York City.   I did this now because I think a new lock down is coming.  I took all the precautions one should take.  So I became behind in my work, but it was important to see people I know and love.  These days, it is even more difficult to balance personal life and work and studies.  I know that.

Most important, please take precautions to protect yourselves during work and when you meet friends.  I am more impressed than ever with our Rutgers students.  I wouldn’t trade them for any other student body from another University. 

Joe Dixon

More Questions from Students RE Diet Assignment:

New Question Friday afternoon:

Question:   Oct 15, 2020, 10:15 PM (17 hours ago) to me   Hi Dr. Dixon,  I’m having trouble finding food on MyFoodRecord. Whenever I type some variation of hamburger buns, nothing shows up. I also eat ethnic food during the day and none of what I eat is listed. Can I use the nutrition facts on the back of the foods I ate to calculate the macros and calories, or can I use MyFitnessPal instead?

Answer:    Hi ________,     Thank you for your email. This is an important question. Several other students asked the same thing. I know it is hard, but I want you to use myfoodrecord.com. You will need to break ethnic foods down to the ingredients. You can use MyFitnessPal, but only after you do the whole assignment as I requested. If you want to see if you get the same data with MyFitnessPal, try it after you finish using myfoodrecord .com. I might even give you extra points. However, in my experience, no one has done the assignment in full correctly using MyFitnessPal – just saying.

Also, I was able to find hamburger rolls in about 20 seconds. Also, note that the three different hamburger rolls come in different serving sizes and weights!   So it is not the easiest thing to do!    Joe Dixon

More Questions: 

Fri 10/16/2020 12:41 AM

Hi Professor,

Question 1. When I am adding up my percent of calories from each macronutrient, the sum is only coming up to 99.99% and not 100%, so I am wondering if I should leave it like that or just round it up to 100%.

Question 2. On slide 5 of the project, where you ask “where from” what are you referring to?

Answer: Hi _________, Thank you for the questions: 

1.   Don’t worry about a difference between 99.99% and 100% – the whole project is fairly rough in scope.  So use either one. 
2. The little aside, “Where from,” just was asking where might the extra calories have come from?  But sometimes the value a student calculates will be lower than the one the program calculates, and sometimes it will be higher.  Usually the difference is small, and I wouldn’t worry about it.  The main reason for the assignment is to get a snapshot of how your diet was on a pretty usual day for you. 

Joe Dixon

Question: Fri 10/16/2020 9:55 AM Hi professor, I have a question regarding the assignment submission.  Is the file upload the same as the dropbox? If not then how do I sign in to the box because it’s not letting me sign in Thank you!

Answer: Hi,  I am sorry you are having problems with it. I really don’t know what you see when you go to upload your assignment to the place where it should be placed – I call it a drop box.  I am going to have Nick help you with this.  Maybe at the review session this afternoon, Nick or another student can help you.  I can tell you that, I myself, feel high anxiety working with Canvas for the first time!

Question: Tue 10/13/2020 3:52 PM

Good afternoon, While doing my diet assignment I ran into an issue with the fat values in my analysis. My analysis says I ate 38 grams, but then the break down says I at 16g saturated fat, 5g polyunsaturated fat, and 7g monounsaturated fat. The issue is that all these values add up to 28g, not 38g as the analysis says. So when I do the break down of fats on slide 8 of the diet assignment, should I calculate the percents from the total that the analysis gave me (38g) and have my numbers not properly add up. Or should I make my total fat 28g so that the numbers line up? Thank you

Answer:  Thank you for your question.  If you go to Slide 8 (Big Slide 8) in my PowerPoint Example, I take the individual fat values, add them up and then used that value to get the percents.  So 84 g was just the added fats in my example.  The total fat they calculated was 92 grams.  I am not sure why their total value is higher (Could be trans fats plus short chain fats etc).  If you look closer, I write: “Don’t worry about the total fat they calculated”  So use the total fat value you calculated to get the percents.

Sincerely,  Joe Dixon

This is for a student in class who loves mushrooms – for lunch today I had a Portobello mushroom burger:

Grilled Portobello mushroom, tomato, avocado, and cheese on a whole wheat bun: