I’m sure you’ve had a medical check up where they’ve checked your blood pressure, poked at your body and drew some blood. Well, have you ever had a nutrition check up? It’s just as important since a lot of diseases can be prevented or their progression slowed with good nutrition. It’s time to make this connection and adhere to the words of Hippocrates, “Let food be thy medicine, and medicine be thy food”.
A nutrition check up is taking a look at what you’re currently eating and comparing it to nutrition guidelines and your individual nutrient needs to see if you’re eating the right foods for good health. You would do this by keeping track of what you’re eating over 3 consecutive days that includes at least one weekend day. Be as specific with your foods as possible, for example write down type, brand and amount eaten. You can then compare it to the checklist below, the Mediterranean and Whole Foods Plant based guidelines outlined in Week One, or You can use an App like “My Fitness Pal” where you input your food. My Fitness Pal can also tell you your calorie, protein, carbohydrate and protein needs based on weight, height, gender, and activity level.
Attend my up coming class on July 15th (check the calendar) and bring your food record so I can review it and we can come up with some nutrition goals together.
After your 3 day food record is complete, use the checklist below to see if you’re meal plan is up to speed.
Fruits and Vegetables
Fruits and Vegetables are a healthy part of your diet, variety and quantity are both important. Are you choosing many different fruits and vegetables each day? Is your plate colorful? How many cups are eaten? Strive for 5 cups each day of fruits and vegetables combined which is equivalent to 8-9 servings. Check to see if you are eating at least 1-2 servings of green leafy vegetables like kale, collard greens or spinach.
Protein
There is a wide range of acceptable protein intakes, anywhere from 10-35% of your calories coming from protein each day. The institute of medicine recommends 0.8 grams of protein for every kilogram body weight and in the United States, the recommended daily allowance of protein is 46 grams per day for women over 19 years of age, and 56 grams per day for men over 19 years of age. Protein requirements do change for extreme conditions like during certain illness, pregnancy or some athletic training. Are you meeting the minimum protein requirements? Are you choosing quality protein like fish, chicken, beans, or nuts in place of red meat (including processed red meat). A 3 ounce piece of meat is roughly 20 grams of protein. Be careful with protein packaged with high salt and fat foods like sausage or hotdogs?
Whole Grains
Whole grains provide complete nutrition unlike refined grains which are mostly sugar. Whole grains are intact having bran and fiber included in their makeup. Are your grains “Whole”? Strive for at least 2-3 servings of whole grains each day. A serving is approximately 1/2 cup cooked and examples are quinoa, beans and legumes, or brown rice.
Fats
What kind of fats are you eating? It’s more about the type of fat these days than the amount. Choose healthy unsaturated fats like monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats. They lower disease risk. Foods high in good fats include vegetable oils (such as olive, canola, sunflower, soy, and corn), nuts, seeds, and fish. You should stay away from Trans Fat so check your meal plan for these harmful fats.
Vitamins/Minerals
If your diet is balanced you should be meeting all your vitamin and mineral requirements, however there are a few to check like calcium, iron, B12, vitamin C, and vitamin D.
Calcium – Are you consuming any dairy products like yogurt or milk or alternate milk sources fortified with calcium? Plant sources high in calcium are green leafy vegetables like collard greens or kale, broccoli, bok choy, or almonds.
Iron – This is more of a concern if you’re not eating meat sources. If you’re primarily eating plant foods then check to see if you’re meal plan has lots of beans. Other sources are spinach, dried fruit, beans, soy products, pumpkin seeds, barley, or oat bran. If you include a citrus food with the iron rich plant source it will increase iron absorption.
B12 – If your not eating meat or consuming foods fortified with B12 you should consider a B12 supplement. However it’s best to get your levels checked to determine your baseline.
Vitamin D – Are you eating salmon, mushrooms or foods fortified with vitamin D? Are you getting sunshine? This vitamin is difficult to get through food alone. The best thing to do is get your levels checked to determine how much you need. You may need to supplement.
Vitamin C – Are you eating citrus foods like oranges, strawberries, or kiwi? Broccoli is also a good source of vitamin C however vitamin C is destroyed with heat so the broccoli in your stir-fry may be all gone.
Calories
Are you eating enough? Or too much? A very rough estimate of the calories we need at rest is to multiply your weight by 10. For example a 150 pound person roughly needs about 1500 calories per day at rest. There is much more that goes into this like activity level and/or weight maintenance goals. For now, just check and see how many calories you’re consuming.
Attend my up coming class on July 15th (check the schedule) and bring your food record so I can review it and we can come up with some nutrition goals together.
Until then, stay well.
By Vincent Alvarez, RDN, NSCA-CPT