NS105 Unit 9 Dietary Guidance Analysis Example

Half a Cup of Fruit and One Ounce of Whole Grain: A Unit 9 Dietary Guidance Analysis of an Overnight Clerk's Week

[Student Name]

Purdue University Global

NS105: Fundamentals of Nutrition

Unit 9 Dietary Guidance Analysis

[Instructor Name]

[Date]

The clerk and her week of eating are composite, continuing from Unit 7; the guidelines, the Healthy Eating Index update and the shift work review cited are real.

The Person and the Week

Gloria, the composite 36-year-old overnight front desk clerk whose three-day record appeared in Unit 7, extended her record to a full week, five work nights and two days off. Her three-day average intake was about 2,120 kilocalories, and her full-week average was similar at about 2,100.

Choosing the Pattern

The Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2020-2025, set food group amounts for each calorie level in the Healthy U.S.-Style Dietary Pattern (U.S. Department of Agriculture & U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2020). Gloria is a sedentary to lightly active woman in her thirties; the guidelines' estimates place her energy needs near 1,800 to 2,000 kilocalories. Her intake of about 2,100 is slightly above that range. The analysis uses the 2,000-kilocalorie pattern, the level closest to her needs that does not assume her current intake is right.

Food Groups, Group by Group

Each group gives the pattern's daily amount, Gloria's weekly average and the gap.

1. Vegetables. Pattern: 2.5 cup-equivalents a day. Gloria: about 1.2. Gap: 1.3 cups short. Most of her vegetables came from salsa, the lettuce in a salad and green beans at her sister's.

2. Fruits. Pattern: 2 cup-equivalents. Gloria: about 0.5. Gap: 1.5 cups short. A banana and an apple during the week accounted for nearly all of it.

3. Grains. Pattern: 6 ounce-equivalents, at least half whole grains. Gloria: about 7 ounces, of which about 1 ounce was whole grain. Total grains are slightly above the pattern; whole grains are about 2 ounces short of the minimum.

4. Dairy. Pattern: 3 cup-equivalents. Gloria: about 1.5, from cheese, milk on cereal and pizza. Gap: 1.5 cups short.

5. Protein foods. Pattern: 5.5 ounce-equivalents. Gloria: about 6, mostly chicken, turkey, eggs and beef. Close to the pattern, with no seafood and few beans, nuts or seeds.

Limits

1. Added sugars. Limit: less than 10 percent of energy, about 50 grams at 2,000 kilocalories. Gloria: about 70 grams a day, about 13 percent of energy, mostly from cola, flavored creamer, sweetened cereal and cookies at work.

2. Saturated fat. Limit: less than 10 percent of energy. Gloria: about 12 percent, from cheese, butter, pizza and creamer.

3. Sodium. Limit: less than 2,300 milligrams for adults. Gloria: about 3,600 milligrams, mostly from restaurant meals, frozen pizza, deli turkey and chips.

What the Missing Foods Would Have Supplied

Each gap matters for what the missing foods carry.

Vegetables and fruits. The 2.8 missing cups of vegetables and fruit each day would have supplied fiber, potassium, vitamin C, folate and vitamin A. Gloria's fiber averaged about 14 grams a day, far below the 25 grams recommended for women, and her potassium was well under the adequate intake. These shortfalls trace mainly to this gap.

Whole grains. Replacing about 2 ounces of refined grains with whole grains, without changing the total, would add fiber, magnesium and B vitamins.

Dairy. The missing 1.5 cups would have supplied calcium, vitamin D and potassium. Her calcium was below the recommended 1,000 milligrams.

Protein variety. Gloria meets the protein amount, but adding seafood twice a week and some beans would supply omega-3 fatty acids and fiber that her current choices lack.

Gloria's week is not short on food but short on particular foods: she eats slightly more energy than her pattern calls for while missing almost three cups of fruit and vegetables a day, so most of her nutrient shortfalls trace to one gap rather than to eating too little.

Where the Departures Come From

The record shows that the gaps are tied to Gloria's schedule. Her "breakfast" at 3 p.m. and "lunch" at 8 p.m. are often restaurant or convenience meals bought on the way to work. During her overnight shift, the only food available is a vending machine and the hotel's breakfast setup of pastries and cookies, which she uses when she has not packed food. Her two days off, when she eats with her sister, include the week's only cooked vegetables. Research comparing shift and day workers found their total daily energy intakes to be similar (Bonham et al., 2016), which fits Gloria's pattern: the issue is less how much she eats than what is available at the hours she eats.

Scoring the Week

The Healthy Eating Index scores conformance with the national guidelines from 0 to 100, with components for each food group and limit (Krebs-Smith et al., 2018). A formal score requires software, but Gloria's pattern, low in fruit, vegetables, whole grains and dairy and high in added sugars, sodium and refined grains, would score well below the guidelines' intent on most components.

Shared Causes

Gloria's shortfalls are linked. Low fruit and vegetable intake explains most of the fiber shortfall, but refined grains add to it. Low dairy explains much of the calcium shortfall, but the cola that replaces milk on work nights also adds sugar. High sodium comes from the same restaurant and convenience meals that crowd out vegetables. Because the gaps share causes, a single change, such as packing food for the overnight shift, can move several of them at once. This is why the analysis looks at the week as a pattern rather than scoring each food group separately.

What the Analysis Suggests

Three changes would close most of the gaps without asking Gloria to change her schedule:

1. Pack fruit and a vegetable snack, such as carrots with hummus, for the overnight shift, replacing vending machine crackers and the hotel cookies.

2. Swap the 4:30 a.m. cola for water or milk, which would cut added sugars by about 65 grams on work nights and add dairy.

3. Choose a whole-grain option at her 3 p.m. meal, such as oatmeal or whole-wheat toast.

Why Not Simply Eat Less

Because Gloria's energy intake is slightly above her estimated needs, one tempting recommendation would be to eat less. The analysis suggests that would be the wrong emphasis. Cutting portions of her current foods would reduce energy but deepen the shortfalls in fiber, calcium and potassium. Replacing low-density foods with fruit, vegetables, whole grains and dairy would tend to reduce added sugars and sodium while filling the gaps, and may bring energy closer to her needs as a side effect.

Limits of the Analysis

The week is self-reported, and restaurant meals were estimated. Food group amounts were calculated from portions rather than measured. The 2,000-kilocalorie pattern is an approximation of Gloria's needs.

References

Bonham, M. P., Bonnell, E. K., & Huggins, C. E. (2016). Energy intake of shift workers compared to fixed day workers: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Chronobiology International, 33(8), 1086-1100. https://doi.org/10.1080/07420528.2016.1192188

Krebs-Smith, S. M., Pannucci, T. E., Subar, A. F., Kirkpatrick, S. I., Lerman, J. L., Tooze, J. A., Wilson, M. M., & Reedy, J. (2018). Update of the Healthy Eating Index: HEI-2015. Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, 118(9), 1591-1602. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jand.2018.05.021

U.S. Department of Agriculture & U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2020). Dietary guidelines for Americans, 2020-2025 (9th ed.). https://www.dietaryguidelines.gov