30 Day Food Diary Challenge - Day Fourteen

Breakfast

• Toasted sourdough fruit loaf with home made low sugar marmalade
• Tea
• Orange juice
• Kombucha

Lunch

• Tinned Sardines in Tomato Sauce on sourdough toast
• Orange juice
• 30g Chocolate

Dinner

• Chilli
• Banana Loaf
• Orange juice
• Kombucha
• Tea

Nutritional Analysis
Nutritional facts per serving (daily value):
Calories 1422kcal
Protein 48g (96%)
Total Fat 54g (84%)
Sat. 25g (124%)
Chol. 196mg (65%)
Carb. 195g (65%)
Fiber 18g (70%)
Sugars 52g
Calcium 521mg (52%)
Iron 11mg (63%)
Magnesium 258mg (65%)
Phosphorus 948mg (95%)
Potassium 2149mg (61%)
Sodium 1453mg (61%)
Zinc 8mg (55%)
Copper 3mg (165%)
Manganese 4mg
Selenium 93µg
Vit. C 106mg (176%)
Vit. B1 1mg (87%)
Vit. B2 1mg (76%)
Vit. B3 14mg (70%)
Vit. B5 4mg (44%)
Vit. B6 1mg (70%)
Diet. fol. eq. 417µg (104%)
Vit. B12 18µg (297%)
Vit. A 11979IU (240%)
Vit. A1 2458µg
Vit. E 4mg (22%)
Vit. K 22µg
Vit. D 752IU (188%)
Exported from Shop'NCook Pro 3.4.3 (http://www.shopncook.com)

Not really much to comment about as most of it is fairly typical. I guess the sardines must be high in vitamin D though as I'm usually low and that is the only thing particularly different from usual. The vitamin A is particularly high because my chilli contains liver.

Average Nutrition over the last week as a percentage of the UK RDI
Protein 140
Fat 91
Sat Fat 140
Carb 94
Fibre 86
Sugars 74
Calcium 84
Iron 80
Mg 100
Ph 182
K 145
Na 53
Zn 94
Cu 206
Mn 264
Se 205
Vit C 183
Vit B1 134
Vit B2 115
Vit B3 93
Vit B5 95
Vit B6 113
Fol eq 158
Vit B12 239
Vit A 203
Vit A1 118
Vit E 43
Vit K 67
Vit D 116

I find it pretty amazing that my fat over a whole week has averaged out as below the recommendations since I make a deliberate choice not to eat a low fat diet. I use butter and lard in my cooking, I use whole milk and I am certainly not stingy when using fat to brown onions at the start of dish. I've even had people comment on how generous I am with butter when I spread it on my bread. (And I'm not underestimating how much I used - I've actually weighed slices of bread before and after buttering them to make sure I'm accurate.)

In the first week, I was particularly low in salt and vitamins E and D. Salt doesn't bother me and neither does vitamin D (which is apparently rectified by half a tin of sardines anyway). Vitamin E is more important and although it has improved slightly, it is definitely something to work on. I have read up about signs of deficiency though and it is encouraging to know that I am not showing any particular signs of vitamin E deficiency.

Other than those things noted last week, the only things below 80% are sugars (which funnily enough I'm quite happy about) and vitamin K which has dropped from 90% to 67%. I notice that most days it has ranged from the 20s to the 70s except for day one when it was 295% and day eleven when it was 312%. On both of those days I had spinach and bean curry. Spinach is one of the richest sources of vitamin K and beans are also a good source. I think I should make a conscious effort to eat beans on a more regular basis as they also seem to be good for iron and B vitamins.

If I multiply up the average percentage over the full two weeks to what they would be if I consumed 2000 calories per day, I would only be below 100% on sugar, salt, iron and vitamins E and K and below 90% on only salt and vitamin E (vitamin E would be 50%). I would conclude therefore that the only particular deficiency in my diet is vitamin E. Although I'm disappointed to find out my diet is deficient in this respect, it is encouraging to find that for the most part I have a good diet and I'm glad to now be aware of the lack of vitamin E.

If you are at all interested in nutrition and what you eat, I would recommend the food diary challenge as an excellent way to discover how you are actually doing nutrition-wise.