Ingredients table:
Vegetable/fruits - Garden salad
- Oven-baked fries
Proteins - Oven-baked chicken
Whole grains - Vegan chocolate cake
Questions:
I would consider this meal healthy for many reasons. If we start with the vegetable/fruit part of the meal, the garden salad is simply lettuce, cucumber, and carrots tossed together. It's healthy as those vegetables contain many necessary vitamins such as Vitamin A, K, C, calcium, potassium, and are high in water and healthy sugars. They are low in calories however have such a prominent amount of vitamins and healthy sugars to get you through the day. The fries (which I ate before I remembered to take the picture, sorry!!) were made using simply olive oil, pepper, salt, and potatoes. Potatoes are very high in potassium and vitamin C and are a type of complex carb, which is good since we need carbohydrates more than any other nutrient (other than water). Olive oil was used since it is a healthy oil and an example of polyunsaturated fats, which is important since fats are used for energy. Since frying the fries isn't the healthiest choice, I decided to bake them as it would require less oil, and is thus healthier. Moving onto the oven-baked chicken, it was baked with greek seasoning and olive oil. Again, the olive oil was used for health purposes. The chicken is an example of protein, which gives us the necessary amino acids. Finally, I made a vegan chocolate cake as since its vegan, its more plant-based, making it healthier. It is also an example of a simple carbohydrate, but I personally think it is fine to add it since it is only a small portion.
The main things that affect my food choices are time, my culture, and my gender. Time affects my food choices as in the morning, I don't have much time to cook so I tend to choose food that is easy to make, even if it isn't the most healthy. To limit this factor, I have begun cooking food on the weekends that could last the entire week and are easily packed in the mornings. Another factor that affects my food choices is my culture. Due to the fact that I am Hindu, I do not eat red meat and do not eat meat products and eggs on specific days of the week. This limits my food choices since to get my daily required amount of protein on those days, I have to eat more meat substitutes such as nuts and lentils to get the same amount of protein I'd get through meats. It also means that I have to eat food with a lot of B12 since it is most commonly found in red meats - which I don't eat - so I'm at more of a risk to lack B12. My gender is a limiting factor since I'm a girl, I need more iron and calcium. I especially need calcium since my family has a history with osteoporosis. This affects my food choices since I tend to go towards more dairy products and fruits/vegetables with a higher quantity of iron.
The biggest change I can make based off of our nutrient unit would be the types of nutrients I eat. I realised that I was getting all of my required macronutrients, however, I wasn't getting the best kind of them. For example, I'd eat more simple carbs instead of fewer complex carbs. I also didn't eat many polyunsaturated fats and superfoods. So the biggest change I would make is to incorporate the healthier "versions" of all macronutrients into my diet. Another change that wasn't particularly highlighted but I discovered through discussion with my peers is that I don't eat much. I barely eat 3 meals a day. If you add that fact onto the fact that I don't eat the healthy macronutrients, I don't get many vitamins. Therefore, I need to eat more or at least eat healthy macronutrients.
