DISCUSSION
The goal of this project for our group is to explore the relationship of the requirement of a healthy diet and the different kinds of food products being tested in our labs by finding the required daily intake of each nutrient and compare them with the results of our experiments. According to our research, RDI(Required Daily Intake) for iron is 18 mg, 300 g for Carbohydrates, 50 g for Protein, 1000 mg for Calcium, 240 mg for Sodium (salt), and 70 g of fats.
Starting with the result from the lab Nails for Breakfast, 14 mg of iron is recovered from a cup of 30.0 g cereal. The maximum or the Tolerable Upper Intake Level (UL) for iron is 18 mg for female from 19-50 years old. The amount of iron recovered in only a 30.0 g cup of cereal is already really close to the UL of iron. In fact, according to the National Institution of Health, breakfast cereals are one the No.1 food source that contain the most amount of iron compare to a lot of other food products.
In the Food Testing lab, the presence of starch, reduced sugar, protein, and fat/oil were being tested. Starting with carbohydrates, starch is commonly known as one of the most common kind of carbohydrate ingested by human in everyday life, and reducing sugar is also a widely known as a kind of carbohydrate. Among all the food products being tested for starch and reducing sugar, potato flakes, bread, and banana all contains starch in them, and milk, egg white, apple juice, potato flakes, banana, apple, cereal, cane sugar, brown sugar, pink-bagged sugar and another blue-bagged sugar powder all contained reducing sugar. As the result has represented, it is clear that carbohydrate is one of the most common nutrient people ingest each day because they are just everywhere and in all kinds of products. No wonder why carbohydrate has the highest required amount of daily intake (300 g - 310 g) among all the other essential nutrients. But because of the easy accessibility of carbohydrates in food, it is really easily to go over the limit. As the most common source of energy for human body, over ingestion of carbohydrate will cause obesity. So if someone wants to go on a diet, controlling the amount of carbohydrate being ingested each day will be one of the central task.
For proteins, our group got a positive result from food products like milk and egg white. Protein can be seen as the foundation of life, and there are about 3 g of proteins in 100 ml of milk. With the limit of an average of 50 g a day, the ingestion of protein is not the more the better. In fact, too much ingestion of protein will put pressure on the kidneys and a lot of time the excessive amount of proteins will turn into fat. So for people who wants to maintain a nice body shape and a healthy lifestyle, about 1L to 1.5L will be the maximum amount of milk you should ingest each day.
Combining the test result from both the Food Testing Lab and Measuring calories, the next two nutrient being focused on are fat and calories. Calorie is a unit for amount of energy, and fat and carbohydrates in our food are responsible for providing the energy needed for a person’s body to function each day. Among all the food products being tested for fat, corn oil, olive oil, milk, and avocado all contain either Monounsaturated or Polyunsaturated fats, which are what’s known as “healthy fats”. Despite all the potential dangers and bad effects of the ingestion of fats, a small of amount of fats is also a part of what makes up a healthy diet. There are about 9 calories in 1 g of fat, and depends on the active level of the person, the recommended daily intake of calories varies. For a female in a range of 19 to 30 who is active like us who do sports everyday, the daily intake should be somewhere around 2400 calories at maximum. With the daily requirement of fat as 70 g, it equals to 630 calories. Because there are certain amount of calories in almost all the food products people eat everyday, a person who wants to maintain a healthy life certainly should not eat any snack foods like Doritos and Cheetos that had been tested in the Measuring Calories lab. Drinking a few cups of milk is enough to fulfill the needs of your body for fats and calories throughout the day.
Nowadays, people are starting to be more and more aware of how harmful salt can be to human, and by just looking at the required daily intake, salt has the smallest amount required everyday (only 2.3g). People often go over this limit because salt is in almost everything we eat, so there is no need to intentionally look for food that contains salt. For the most of the time, the problem is more about how to avoid salt than where can people find salt in the daily diets.
Our class did to plan to do a lab on calcium, but we did not do it after all because we was not able to get the chemical indicator we needed for the lab. Even though calcium is well known for its importance to the skeletal system, it is not the more the better. If the daily intakes for a women exceed the highest limit of 1100 mg (1.1 g) per day, it will not make the person’s bone extra stronger, but it will make the bones even more fragile.
Starting with the result from the lab Nails for Breakfast, 14 mg of iron is recovered from a cup of 30.0 g cereal. The maximum or the Tolerable Upper Intake Level (UL) for iron is 18 mg for female from 19-50 years old. The amount of iron recovered in only a 30.0 g cup of cereal is already really close to the UL of iron. In fact, according to the National Institution of Health, breakfast cereals are one the No.1 food source that contain the most amount of iron compare to a lot of other food products.
In the Food Testing lab, the presence of starch, reduced sugar, protein, and fat/oil were being tested. Starting with carbohydrates, starch is commonly known as one of the most common kind of carbohydrate ingested by human in everyday life, and reducing sugar is also a widely known as a kind of carbohydrate. Among all the food products being tested for starch and reducing sugar, potato flakes, bread, and banana all contains starch in them, and milk, egg white, apple juice, potato flakes, banana, apple, cereal, cane sugar, brown sugar, pink-bagged sugar and another blue-bagged sugar powder all contained reducing sugar. As the result has represented, it is clear that carbohydrate is one of the most common nutrient people ingest each day because they are just everywhere and in all kinds of products. No wonder why carbohydrate has the highest required amount of daily intake (300 g - 310 g) among all the other essential nutrients. But because of the easy accessibility of carbohydrates in food, it is really easily to go over the limit. As the most common source of energy for human body, over ingestion of carbohydrate will cause obesity. So if someone wants to go on a diet, controlling the amount of carbohydrate being ingested each day will be one of the central task.
For proteins, our group got a positive result from food products like milk and egg white. Protein can be seen as the foundation of life, and there are about 3 g of proteins in 100 ml of milk. With the limit of an average of 50 g a day, the ingestion of protein is not the more the better. In fact, too much ingestion of protein will put pressure on the kidneys and a lot of time the excessive amount of proteins will turn into fat. So for people who wants to maintain a nice body shape and a healthy lifestyle, about 1L to 1.5L will be the maximum amount of milk you should ingest each day.
Combining the test result from both the Food Testing Lab and Measuring calories, the next two nutrient being focused on are fat and calories. Calorie is a unit for amount of energy, and fat and carbohydrates in our food are responsible for providing the energy needed for a person’s body to function each day. Among all the food products being tested for fat, corn oil, olive oil, milk, and avocado all contain either Monounsaturated or Polyunsaturated fats, which are what’s known as “healthy fats”. Despite all the potential dangers and bad effects of the ingestion of fats, a small of amount of fats is also a part of what makes up a healthy diet. There are about 9 calories in 1 g of fat, and depends on the active level of the person, the recommended daily intake of calories varies. For a female in a range of 19 to 30 who is active like us who do sports everyday, the daily intake should be somewhere around 2400 calories at maximum. With the daily requirement of fat as 70 g, it equals to 630 calories. Because there are certain amount of calories in almost all the food products people eat everyday, a person who wants to maintain a healthy life certainly should not eat any snack foods like Doritos and Cheetos that had been tested in the Measuring Calories lab. Drinking a few cups of milk is enough to fulfill the needs of your body for fats and calories throughout the day.
Nowadays, people are starting to be more and more aware of how harmful salt can be to human, and by just looking at the required daily intake, salt has the smallest amount required everyday (only 2.3g). People often go over this limit because salt is in almost everything we eat, so there is no need to intentionally look for food that contains salt. For the most of the time, the problem is more about how to avoid salt than where can people find salt in the daily diets.
Our class did to plan to do a lab on calcium, but we did not do it after all because we was not able to get the chemical indicator we needed for the lab. Even though calcium is well known for its importance to the skeletal system, it is not the more the better. If the daily intakes for a women exceed the highest limit of 1100 mg (1.1 g) per day, it will not make the person’s bone extra stronger, but it will make the bones even more fragile.
CONCLUSION
For all the nutrients, there is a minimum and maximum limit for it. The theory of “the more the better” does not work for nutrients in general. For a healthy diet, carbohydrate should take up the most part of the plate. Food like rice, bread, chips, and other whole grains can all provide to carbohydrates a person need throughout the day. The second largest part is dairy food, because they can provide the necessary proteins, calcium and some fats. Milk, yogurt, and eggs will be examples of good sources of protein, calcium, and fats. With some cereals, a person will get all the iron needed for the day. For salt, they are in almost every food a person eat everyday, so there is no need to especially to look for food that contains salt. With salt that contains iodine, it will be even more beneficial to the person beside to satisfy the need of salt for the body to function normally. Also remember to drink enough water instead of other beverage or even milk, for they make up 99% of a person’s body.