This food journal is supposed to be a reflection of your week so you are expected to have entries from at least three different days. You do not need to record all food consumed in one day, you can focus on just one meal or snack. You should be writing down the food (or beverage) as soon as you consume it. Dont wait until the end of the day because your recollection is likely to be less accurate. When recording your meal or snack, think through and write about the following questions:
What are you eating? How was it packaged? Where is it from? How was it advertised? Why did you choose this food? How much are you eating? When are you eating? Where are you eating? What else are you doing while eating? Who are you eating with? How are you feeling as youre eating? Was this a typical eating experience for you? Was this a typical day for you? How did you feel about your eating experience?
In addition to tracking your food and eating, you must also attempt to connect your own experiences with the course material from the week. In order to do so, you must discuss and cite, in relationship to your own food consumption, at least two of the weeks required sources (lectures, readings, videos, and/or podcasts). Here are some ideas for how to connect your food habits with the course material this week:
Compare the food you eat to current nutritional recommendations.
o Go to ChooseMyPlate.gov (Links to an external site.)to help you see their Daily Recommendations and compare your meal/snack
o Look up your recommended daily values for key nutrients based on your personal characteristics using the Daily Needs Calculator at https://nutritiondata.self.com/ (Links to an external site.) and compare it to your food and the governmental recommendations
o Do you think what you ate was healthy or unhealthy? Why?
Analyze the advertising on your food packaging or food marketing that you saw or heard during the week.
o What types of (health) claims were made about the food?
o What marketing features draw in the consumer? (e.g. wording, color, images, language)?
o Were you influenced by any of the food marketing? Why or why not?
What strategies do you employ to be an informed consumer?
