1/14/14

Assignment 34 - Investigating the Effects of Food Prices on Consumption                                  

Procedure

1. Create an account on fitday.com and log in.

2. Record all the food you ate yesterday and calculate the total number of calories. It is fine to approximate amounts and use the diagram below

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3. After one day of collecting data, add up the total amount of calories you consumed, and the approximate cost. A normal daily caloric intake is approximately 2,000 calories, depending on your age, sex, activity level, etc. When using dietary record software, it is very easy and normal to get seemingly strange numbers. You are not going to die. Do not worry.

4. Now, suppose that you only have $3.00 to spend on food for the entire day. Try to come up with the most nutritious diet you can with only $3.00. You can base this off of what you ate and recorded or search for foods. Record what you would eat.

5. Repeat Step 3 with only $1.00 a day to spend. Record what you would eat.

Analysis and Comprehension Questions

Answer each of the following questions to the best of your ability in complete sentences. Explain yourself, be specific, and use vocabulary and examples whenever possible.

1. How did your food choices change as your income diminished?  

2. Were you able to get a nutritious diet for only $3.00 a day? $1.00? Support your answer.

3. Describe some health problems you could have with these lower cost diets. You can do this by:

·      Clicking on “Total Nutrition” and looking for a vitamin or mineral of which you consumed a very low amount (25% of the RDA or less).

·      Researching the consequences of a deficiency of this nutrient.

4. How did this activity connect to our discussion of the state of agriculture? 

Homework - Read "How much is enough?" and watch "What's Wrong With What We Eat?" by Mark Bittman (make sure that you are watching the second video on the playlist).