Question

Yesterday, Chris ate the following:

Breakfast: Bagel with butter and jam

Lunch: Tomato rice with no meat, pretzels and a diet coke

Dinner: Vegetarian Sub Sandwich with lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, olives, and cheese, and 2 glasses of lemonade

Snack: Chocolate Milkshake and 2 cookies

Using complete sentences, please submit answers to the following:

1. Please help Chris by listing what is missing from her diet in terms of specific foods and/or nutrients that should be emphasized in a healthy vegetarian diet.

2. Which foods (if any) in her current diet should be avoided or minimized?

3. Specifically list how could Chris improve her diet to improve her nutritional intake and avoid undesirable foods?

Answer 1

1. Though I would say Chris is already following a pretty decent diet in terms of nutrients as compared to most of us but she can make her diet more healthy by adding more of fruits, juices, beans, legumes, milk and yogurt. Fruits like apple, avocado, oranges and banana are considered very good for health. In terms of nutrients, she should try to have rich in Vitamin B-7(Biotin), Vitamin D, selenium, phosphorus and most importantly water (Like watermelon).

2. First of all she should avoid diet coke as it has got no nutrients and can be substituted with another healthy option like orange juice. Additionally, studies have found that diet coke has been associated with development of type-2-diabetes and heart disease. I would not suggest her to avoid chocolate milkshake and cookies but instead she can substitute them with more healthy options like the whole grain cookies and cashew milk chocolate shake.

3. She can avoid undesirable food by simply not keeping them at home. Studies suggest unwanted or unhealthy food item present at home urges us to eat more of them as snacks and hence spoiling our eating habits.

As far as her nutritional intake are concern, she can simply calculate her recommended nutritional intake (total kcal, total protein, carbs, fats and others) using her weight and plan her diet accordingly.