Dietary Analysis the First and Most Noteworthy

Dietary Analysis

The first and most noteworthy fact about my three-day food intake, when compared with the Dietary Reference Intakes that are recommended by medical experts, is the astonishing number of "Empty Calories" listed. The easiest way to examine this is by taking a closer look at one of the most deleterious items on my three-day menu, which was a McDonald's Double Quarter Pounder with Cheese. The Double Quarter Pounder with Cheese turns out to be a 748-Calorie sandwich, however the United States Department of Agriculture analysis estimates that 263 of those calories qualify as "Empty Calories." For a further breakdown, that includes 238 empty calories from "Solid Fats" (presumably from the cheese and meat) and an additional 25 empty calories from "Added Sugars" (this presumably just from the condiments, such as ketchup, included in the McDonald's Double Quarter Pounder with Cheese). It's obvious that the easiest way to improve my dietary prospects would be to remove these empty calories, which are defined as calories that provide negligible nutritional value -- in other words, this is a huge portion of the caloric intake that includes no nutrients at all. It is also worth noting that this one sandwich took up nearly half of the recommended caloric intake for one day, which is estimated by the United States Department of Agriculture at two thousand total calories. Obviously, on the particular date that included the McDonald's Double Quarter Pounder with Cheese, this target number of calories was exceeded considerably -- but even if it had not been, it's worth noting that over ten percent of the daily intake on that day was "empty" calories with no nutrients, vitamins, minerals, et cetera, contained within them. Obviously we are all familiar with warnings from nutritionists about the dangers of "fast food" but this simple fact lays it out numerically: not only was the Double Quarter Pounder with Cheese incredibly caloric (especially when compared with the recommended daily calorie intake) but an astonishing percentage of those calories had no nutritional value whatsoever.

An additional noteworthy fact that can be gleaned just from this one particular dietary item is the excess of protein listed in my dietary record. A single McDonald's Double Quarter Pounder with Cheese contains 105% of the daily Dietary Reference Intake target for protein consumption. In other words, just with one sandwich I had exceeded the recommended daily amount of protein by five percent -- and this sandwich was not the only protein I had consumed over the course of the entire day. Just a cursory examination of my protein intake levels demonstrates that my diet -- which is not a remarkable or unusual diet by American standards -- contains vastly too much protein, generally in the form of meat (although other proteinaceous foods, such as quinoa and beans, occur in my food list). This is again a concern in terms of caloric consumption, since excess dietary protein is likely to be converted into fat, and is certainly difficult to break down into the basic sugars that the body uses as fuel. Overall the protein levels over the course of the three day period seem to indicate that the standard American diet includes far too much meat, and too little vegetables and fruit. The Dietary Reference Intake for protein, by contrast, is estimated at 5 1/2 ounces -- so obviously a sandwich with a name like "Double Quarter Pounder" should be an obvious red flag in terms of its needless dietary excess. This was one easily noticed way in which my own diet could be improved -- the replacement of much of the meat intake with more vegetable and fruit would bring my diet substantially closer to the Dietary Reference Intake levels for all of these types of food.