Total kcals consumed: total kcals per serving * number of servings consumed in one sitting (do NOT use the number on the package unless you actually consume the entire package in one sitting, as this does not accurately reflect your real-life scenario, obviously excessive calculations will be marked as incorrect, such as eating 28 servings of peanut butter in one sitting)
If only one serving of the food item is actually consumed, do not omit this step, make it clear and provide the calculation (whether you are lying or not is your problem, as this assignment is to help you actually understand what you are putting into your body, energy-wise, so my advice is to not be lary and take the time to measure the serving size for this one assignment, as depending on the food you actually eat, you may learn something that may save your health in the future)
This step is to help you understand how many "hidden calories" you are actually eating based on any misrepresentation of the label
Step 6
What did you learn? Are you making any changes based on the info? Will you eat more/less/no more of the food?
Note: fiber, a subcategory of carbohydrates, is a substance that may yield between 0 to 2 kcals/g, depending on the type of fiber in the food, microflora activity, and GI transit time. As most food labels currently do not distinguish between insoluble and soluble fiber, asking students to calculate an EXACT value would be ludicrous. As such, understand that this assignment is to provide an appropriate approximation based on the information provided, and students will not be asked to calculate fiber (for those that wish to know, understand that you would subtract the grams of fiber from the total grams of carbohydrates before multiplying by its kcal value [and this is only if the fiber is totally "unusable"] to get a more accurate number of total kcals from carbohydrates).
For students that wish to delve deeper and understand the disparity in caloric values, further investigation into topics far beyond the level of this class would be required, such as methods of measurement, types of transporters in the gut, conflicting and diminishing absorption rates, etc. In short, do not crack your head on this assignment trying to understand WHY there may be such a disparity between the food label and what you calculated, but rather, simply understand that there is typically a disparity, and that it does play a role in the current paradigm of energy balance in the body.
Step 1: Select a food item that has at least 1 gram of each macronutrient.
On the same document that will contain the rest of the steps completed, provide two images: the first image should display the name of the food item with a clearly visible view of the students name attached (or written) somewhere on the food container (post-it notes should suffice as long as the name is clearly visible), and the second image should display the nutritional data (total calories and grams of carbohydrates, lipids and protein at a minimum) of the food from the same container.
The images are to NOT originate from the web, the student is to actually possess the food item and take an image of it. Do NOT insert text into the picture, actually use a writing utensil and either arhe on the food container, or use a sticky note (do not cover the important information, such as the name of the food tem, or the food label).
Step 2: Identity the total number of grams of carbohydrates, lipids, and proteins per serving of the food
Step 3: Multiply the grams for each macronutrient by the appropriate calorie value, these are the "per serving" values. Add these values to obtain the calories per serving.
Do not use the calories provided on the label as a calculated answer without demonstrating that the values on the food label indeed calculates to the value provided. This will be considered wrong as the point of the exercise is to analyze the total caloric count utilizing the values given per macronutrient on the nutrition label.
Step 4: Multiply the "per serving" values obtained above by the total number of servings that is typically consumed when eating this food in one meal. If only one serving of the food is consumed, demonstrate this, do not simply think that one should presume this. Provide the total at the end.
Step 5: Compare the calculated value of the total kcals consumed to the value provided on the label multiplied by the same serving size. Note if there is a caloric difference.
Step 6: Briefly (two to three sentences will suffice) discuss the potential future of this food being consumed after analyzing its caloric information, and why it will still be a part of the diet or why it will be omitted.
