Recommended Dietary Allowance

Recommended Dietary Allowance

Lab: Comparison of One's RDA For Energy and Nutrients to One's Actual Nutritional Intake

Key Question: Does my diet meet the Recommended Dietary Allowance

(RDA) for energy and nutrients considered adequate to meet my needs

(maintain weight) under environmental stresses?

Hypothesis: If I keep track of the food I consume for 5 days, then I

will find that my diet does not meet my RDA for the energy and

nutrients that are considered adequate to maintain my needs under

environmental stresses.

As a busy teen, my meals are often on the go. Since my daily

activities such as volunteering keep me from coming home in time for

dinner, I often have to rely on fast food for my meal. In addition, my

early morning classes rarely allow me to eat a proper breakfast, which

translates into me buying my breakfast in the school cafeteria. Also,

when I go out with my friends, we do not choose the healthiest of

foods. All of these factors indicate to me that my diet is inadequate

to meet my needs under environmental stresses.

Variables:

Independent variable: the food taken in

Dependent variable: the nutritional value of the food taken in versus

the RDA

Controlled variables: same reference for the nutritional values of

food used for information consistency

Materials:

* Internet

* Nutrition booklet

o Calculator

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Procedure:

1. Determine your Total Calories per day (kcal/day) based on your

Nutritional Profile at the following web site:

http:www.cyberdiet.com/profile/profile.html

2. Convert this total to Total kJ Energy per day (using the ratio 1

kcal = 4.2 kJ)

3.

a. Use a calculator for this and the following calculations

4. Calculate your Total kJ Energy of protein per day using the fact

that a person needs approximately 10% protein in an ideal balanced

diet

5. Convert this number to grams using the fact that 1 gram of

protein = 17 kJ.

6.