Nutrition Report: Critical Evaluation of Diet and Food Item Analysis

This report provides a critical evaluation of a diet, focusing on three food items: lean meat, yams, and rice. The analysis examines the nutritional aspects of each item, including the glycemic index, calorie content, and presence of essential nutrients like vitamins and minerals. It discusses the benefits and drawbacks of each food, such as the protein content and potential risks associated with saturated fats in lean meat, the low protein and vitamin content of yams, and the high glycemic index of rice. The report suggests alternative food choices like legumes, maize, and amaranth to enhance the nutritional value of the diet and mitigate potential health risks. Overall, the report emphasizes the importance of a varied diet for maintaining good health and managing conditions like type 1 and type 2 diabetes.

Running head: CRITICAL EVALUATION OF DIET 1
Critical Evaluation of Diet
Name
Institution

CRITICAL EVALUATION OF DIET 2
Critical Evaluation of Diet
Food Item #1
Lean meat is not included in the glycemic index due to lack of carbohydrates components
and for this reason, it does not have any effect on blood sugar. Additionally, lean meat has fewer
calories than non-lean meats thus making it a good source of protein. Furthermore, lean meat
also contains vitamin B3, vitamin B6, and selenium which help to prevent cells damage from
free radicals and boost the immune system (Kelman, Pannier, Pethick, & Gardner, 2014).
Conversely, lean meat contains saturated fats which are harmful to the body as they lead to heart
disease. Comparatively, lean meat also increases the chances of getting out to people who are
resistible to purines. Therefore, a suitable cooking technique like roasting, grilling, stir-frying
and poaching can be used to cut the level of saturated fats in lean meats making it safe for
consumption. However, it will be important to use legumes as an alternative source of important
proteins than lean meat since it will minimize the intake of saturated fats and increase the
nutritional power of the diet.
Food Item #2
The low glycemic index in yams is important as it indicates a low level of calories and
how yams can keep the blood sugar steady. In fact, yams keep blood sugar steady by gradually
releasing sugar into the bloodstream. In addition, it also improves the health of the heart by
reducing the risk of type 2 diabetes. Nevertheless, despite yams being an important source of
carbohydrates and unsaturated fats, it contains low contents of protein, vitamins, and minerals
(Tsiboe, Luckstead, Nalley, Popp, & Dixon, 2018). As a result, they have low impact
contributing high nutritional power of the diet. Therefore, when preparing yams by either
roasting, pounding, frying or boiling it is important to add ingredients like tomatoes, pepper, and

CRITICAL EVALUATION OF DIET 3
spices to increase the nutritional power of the diet (Seth, Badwaik & Ganapathy, 2015).
However, it will be important to use cereal grains like maize as an alternative source of
carbohydrates since they provide a complete diet.
Food Item #3
The low level of fat contests in rice is important as it helps in keeping healthy body
weight. However, regular consumption of rice may lead to high blood sugar due to high-level
glycemic index. In fact, a cup of cooked rice contains 2, 000 calories which according to health
experts it not healthy for people who are suffering from type 2 diabetes. Thereupon, when
preparing rice it is advisable not to add fats to people who are suffering from obesity (Maertens
& Velde, 2017). In addition, rice should be eaten alongside vegetables and baked chicken to
ensure high nutritional power of the diet. However, it will be important to use amaranth as an
alternative since it is healthier than rice.
Additional Information
The healthy diet can be maintained by eating a variety of foods which supply a range of
dissimilar nutrients to the body. Primarily, eating variety of foods helps reduces the risk of one
acquiring diseases. However, foods which have high glycemic index will be risky to people who
are suffering from type 1 diabetes. Additionally, being also a sedentary due to type 1 diabetes I
have to check what eat and what I do.

CRITICAL EVALUATION OF DIET 4
References
Kelman, K. R., Pannier, L., Pethick, D. W., & Gardner, G. E. (2014). Selection for lean meat
yield in lambs reduces indicators of oxidative metabolism in the longissimus
muscle. Meat science, 96(2), 1058-1067.
Maertens, M., & Velde, K. V. (2017). Contract-farming in staple food chains: the case of rice in
Benin. World Development, 95, 73-87.
Seth, D., Badwaik, L. S., & Ganapathy, V. (2015). Effect of feed composition, moisture content
and extrusion temperature on extrudate characteristics of yam-corn-rice based snack
food. Journal of food science and technology, 52(3), 1830-1838.
Tsiboe, F., Luckstead, J., Nalley, L. L., Popp, J. S., & Dixon, B. L. (2018). Market effects of
farmer field schools in Sub‐Saharan Africa: The case for cocoa. Review of Development
Economics, 22(4), e160-e184.