Diet Analysis Program for Macintosh

This document contains instructions for using the Macintosh version of the Diet Analysis softwareprovided by the text publisher. These instructions should be printed and taken to the computer lab when you do your assignment.

You must submit your 5-day average data print-out from the diet analysis program to receive credit for this assignment.

Introduction
The Diet Analysis computer program provides you with a personal nutritional profile based on your age, weight, gender and activity level. Diet Analysis also analyzes the nutritional content of your diet for up to five days for as many as 30 food items each day. You will get the best results using the Diet Analysis program if you read the following directions carefully. It is essential that you keep an accurate diary of everything that you eat for the days you choose to analyze.

 Recording Your Food Intake for Five Days
Record your daily food intake, including serving quantity on the diet intake forms. (The forms can be downloaded and printed from the Biology 130 class internet site.) The program allows you up to 30 food items for each day. Be as accurate as possible. For many dishes, you will need to list the ingredients separately. For example, you may not find a database entry for the mixed salad and "vegie" sandwich on pita that you had for lunch. You will have to list each of the foods that were in the salad and in the sandwich.

Using the Diet Analysis Program in the Science Study Center, B-113
Note: To save your work, either provide a zip disk (all computers have zip drives) or if using a floppy diskette, ask the assistant to provide you with a floppy drive to attach to the USB port of the computer you are using. You must return the floppy drive to the assistant when finished.

  1. Click open the Launcher Icon on the computer desktop and Click open the Life Science Tab.
  2. Double click the Diet Analysis icon.
  3. Under the File menu, select "New" to start the program.
  4. Follow these instructions and those which appear on the screen.

Personal Profile Information
The computer will prompt you to provide your personal information for your RDA profile. The flashing vertical bar (the cursor) following "Name" shows you where to start typing. The cursor always indicates where the computer wants you to enter data.


Profile Screen

1. Type in your name. Press the tab key.
2. Type your age, weight* and height. Press tab after each entry.
* The program will print a profile for maintaining the weight you have entered. If you have a "target" weight for weight gain or loss purposes, you may enter the target weight instead.
3. Type in the first letter of your gender in the box or click the button adjacent to your gender. Press the tab key.
4. Type in the number for your activity level or click the button next to your activity level, and press the tab key. Activity levels can be determined using these guidelines:

  1. Sedentary
    Rarely active. Energy level is for basal metabolism plus 15% for minimal activities.
  2. Lightly Active:
    Most students, office workers, professionals, etc. About three hours spent daily in light activity such as walking or housekeeping, and about one hour each day in moderate physical exercise.
  3. Moderately Active:
    Active students, most persons in light industry, building workers, department store workers, etc., jobs which require being on your feet for most of the work day.
  4. Very Active:
    Full-time athletes, dancers, some agricultural workers, forestry workers, etc.
  5. Extremely Active:
    Athletes in training and those employed in rigorous vocations, such as construction.

5. Type in your student ID# and type in Nutrition for the Class Info. Press the tab key after each entry.

When you have entered your personal profile data, click the OK box. The computer will display your personal recommended nutrient intakes. You can print your recommended nutrients at this time if you wish. To do so, pull down the File menu and select "Print".

Sample Personal Nutrient Profile

 Some cautions about the program's profile information:
 The profile is a guideline only. Generally you could be anywhere from 80% to 120% on all of the nutrients and still have healthy eating habits. For fat, cholesterol and sodium, you can be much lower than the recommended amount.

  • The grams of carbohydrate listed on your profile should be considered the minimum amount.

  • The grams of fat listed should be considered the maximum amount. The program is based on 30% of your calories for fat. You might want to consider lowering that to 20 to 25% of your calories.
    To calculate a lower amount of fat grams do the following:

    Take your recommended calorie total , and multiply that by the % desired fat. Divide that number by 9 to obtain the grams of fat you could consume daily. For a 2000 calorie diet with 25% fat the calculation would be: 2000 calories X .25 = 500 /9 = 55.6 grams of fat daily

  • You will now need to add extra grams (about twice the number of grams that you have reduced your fat by) to your carbohydrate intake to make up the additional calories you need. For example, if your profile recommend 66 grams of fat, and you choose to eat only 55 grams, you will need to increase your carbohydrate by 22 grams. (66 - 55 = 11*2 = 22)

  • The recommended fiber amount will probably be less than the 25 - 30 grams most of us should try to consume daily.
    Many women will want to increase their calcium intake to around 1200 mg/day.
    Some health experts recommend increasing the amounts of vitamin C, beta-carotene and vitamin E for their anti-oxidant properties. The program lists their nutrient level only.
    Entering your Food Intake Information into the Computer
    A. Day 1 Data Entry:
    1. The Day 1 FoodList should be on the screen just behind and to the right of your profile. Click on this to bring it to the front of the screen. If you do not find the FoodList on the computer screen, go to the Windows menu, highlight it and scroll with the mouse to FoodList and click on FoodList. That will bring the FoodList for day 1 to the front of the computer screen.



    Using the Windows menu to highlight "FoodList"


    FoodList Screen


    1. Type in the name of the first food from your food diary. The database for all foods in the Diet Analysis program for that food category will appear on the screen. You use the mouse to scroll up and down to find the entry that matches your specific food item best.

    For most foods, you can type one word, or even the first few letters of the word to call up the data base. For example, it's easier to type "bread" to get the database list for all bread products than to type "whole wheat bread"


    DataBase for Bread

    Note : If you are using the food codes, type in the food code of your first food item. Your specific entry will appear in the food item space when you press return after typing in the code number.

    When you select a food the computer enters a "default" serving size. You can modify that serving size by typing in the amount you actually ate. For example, the default serving for bread is 1 slice. If you ate 2 slices of bread you would type 2. Your typed number will replace the default computer entry. You must use decimals for less than whole number amounts. If for some reason, you had measured your bread in ounces or grams, you would have to convert your measure to the equivalent serving measure the computer uses.


    Default Serving for Bread


    Changing the default serving to the amount you consumed

    After each entry, click on the Add button.

    1. If you discover an error, simply click on that item from your FoodList shown on the screen and the item will reappear in the entry fields so you can modify it.
    2. You can delete an item by highlighting it and clicking the delete button.

    B. Analysis of your Day 1 Data:
    1. When you have completed your day 1 entries, you will be ready to analyze your foods. Pull down the FoodList menu, and click on "Analyze Day 1"

    2. A report of what you ate will show on screen. You should print this report now. Select print from the file menu, and the analysis can be printed.


      Sample Analysis Report

    3. Your Day 1 Spreadsheet . Now select "Spreadsheet" from the FoodList menu. The spreadsheet gives you a breakdown of nutrients for each food you ate. You can use the spreadsheet to find out which foods contributed the most to each of your nutrients. You should also print your spreadsheet now.

    4. After you have viewed your spreadsheet, close the day 1 Spreadsheet and day 1 Analysis by clicking on the little square at the top left corner of the spreadsheet, and on the analysis from. This will remove them from the screen, so you can be start your foods entry for the next day. You must do this step or the program will not function correctly. You should be back at your day 1 FoodList. If you do not find a FoodList on the computer screen, go to the Windows menu, highlight it and scroll with the mouse to FoodList and click on FoodList. That will bring the FoodList to the front of the computer screen.

    C. Entry and Analysis of Day 2 to Day 5:
    1. At the bottom right of the FoodList window, you will see "Current Day". At this time the box shows Day 1. Highlight the box, and scroll to Day 2. You are now ready to start your day 2 FoodList.

    2. Follow the steps used for Day 1 data entry and analysis. Remember, you should print each report as you do them.

    3. Repeat these steps for each subsequent day.
    D. Average of all days.
    You will find a summary analysis of all days useful. After you have printed and removed from the screen your final spreadsheet, go to the Windows menu, highlight it and scroll with the mouse to FoodList and click on FoodList. When a FoodList shows on the computer screen, pull down and select "Average All Days" from the FoodList menu. When this profile appears on screen, print it.

    E. When you have finished you should have the following reports:
    1. Personal RDA profile
    2. Analysis reports for each day
    3. Spreadsheet reports for each day
    4. Analysis: Average for all days


    Analyzing your Nutritional Status
    Your computer printouts include a personal recommended nutrient profile, nutrient analyses of what you ate, and detailed spreadsheets for all of the foods you ate. The spreadsheets analyze each food item in terms of total calories, calories from carbohydrates, calories from total fats, unsaturated fats and cholesterol, and calories from protein. The spreadsheets also show the amount of dietary fiber in each item, as well as the amounts of several vitamins and minerals. Although it takes a little time, you can use the spreadsheets to analyze just where your specific nutrients are coming from. This is usually enlightening.

    This page most recently modified on 9/6/04.