In this part of the project, you will keep a food diary for three days in order to better understand your own digestive health. Follow the instructions below about what to track. Note that it is not necessary to track on three consecutive days.
Instructions:
1. Use the “Food” column in the chart on the next page to track your food intake for three days. Here’s some helpful guidelines:
a. Be sure to include everything you eat and drink—don’t forget beverages, condiments, snacks, etc.
b. If you eat an item with multiple ingredients, it is easiest to list each individually. So for instance, if you eat a turkey sandwich for lunch, you may want to track wheat bread, turkey, tomato, and mayonnaise on separate lines.
c. You will not be graded on how healthy you eat. Recording your intake faithfully is in your best interest, as it will allow you to draw the most accurate conclusions for your health.
2. Record the fiber content of each food in the “Fiber” column. Two items have been added to the first column as an example. If there is no nutrition label on your item (e.g. fresh produce), use the “Search FoodData Cental” feature of the USDA’s FoodData Central or the nutrition tracking app of your choice to find out how much fiber is in it. Be sure to calculate the correct serving size: for example, if you ate half a banana, only record half the fiber. You may find it easiest to do this as you go.
3. At the end of each day, add up the grams of fiber you recorded in that day’s column and enter the total into the bottom cell of that column.
