Influences on Nutrient Intake and Food Choices

When we make decisions about what to eat, there are a variety of factors that can influence this choice. These factors might include: food accessibility, dietary restrictions, culture, food safety, or current “diet” trends to name a few.

In the Unit 9 assignment, you will be given the opportunity to review your personal food intake and make recommendations for any necessary changes to ensure that you are meeting your nutrient requirements. In addition, you will use this opportunity to examine the reasons why you choose the foods you eat.

The following resources may assist you with completing this assignment:

Franchi M. (2012, March). Food choice: beyond the chemical content. International Journal of Food Sciences and Nutrition, Vol. 63 Suppl 1, pp. 17-28. http://search.ebscohost.com.libauth.purdueglobal.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hch&AN=72090568&site=eds-live

U.S. Department of Agriculture. (n.d.) Topics. Retrieved from https://www.usda.gov/topics

U.S. Food and Drug Administration. (2018, May 11). Food. Retrieved from https://www.fda.gov/Food/default.htm

Assignment Instructions:

1. Review the Assignment tutorial or review the SC115 iProfile Instructions before you begin.
2. Use the iProfile diet analysis software to create a PDF of the “Intake Compared to Dietary Reference Intake” report for the three days entered in Unit 3. Select the beginning and end dates on the calendar in the Reports page of iProfile.
3. Use your Intake Compared to Dietary Reference Intake report from iProfile.
   1. What does the nutrition report tell you about your diet in general?
4. Use your Food Journal Summary report from Unit 3.
5. Based upon the Intake Compared to Dietary Reference Intake report and Food Journal Summary report, choose the five nutrients that you want to either increase or decrease the intake for a healthy diet.
   1. Which nutrients would you increase and which would you decrease to promote a healthy diet?
   2. What recommendations would you make in your food choices to meet your required nutrient intake and promote a healthy diet?
6. Thinking about your Unit 3 Food Journal Summary report and your recommendations for change, choose factors that influence your food choices. Reflect on why you select the foods that you do.
   1. Choose three factors that influence your food choices.
   2. You must include at least one factor from each of the following categories (do not use the examples given):
      1. Environmental (i.e., organic food does not contain pesticides),
      2. Psychological (i.e., trying to lose weight to feel “good about myself”), and
      3. Social factors (i.e., low carbohydrate diets are the “trendy”).
   3. Illustrate how each of the three factors influence your food choices today and explain how they might influence your food choices in the future.

Basic Writing Expectations for Informative Paper:

• A minimum of 500 words (not including the title or reference pages).
• At least two academic resources utilized.
• Paper should be double spaced, with font size of 10 or 12 Times New Roman or similar.
• Paper should include a title page and reference page.
• Include a highly developed viewpoint/thesis, purpose, and exceptional content.
• Demonstrate superior organization, use logic.
• Free of grammar and spelling errors.
• No evidence of plagiarism.
• Use of the 6th edition APA formatting and citation style for all in-text citations, references, and essay body.
• Additional information about APA formatting and writing style can be found in the Writing Resources.