One Week Nutrition Analysis

From September 18th to September 22nd, I recorded the foods I ate throughout the day and the nutrients in those foods. At the end, I also calculated how much more or how much less of each nutrient/ingredient I was eating than I should have been. My calculations strangely showed that, overall, I consume too much, as I consumed over the recommended amount for every component of food that we analyzed. 

One major element of my diet that I now know I need to improve on is my sodium intake as I was 383% over my recommended amount. Recently, I noticed that I have been eating out a lot - for example, the foods in my diet that had the highest amount of sodium were a pizza from Pizza My Heart, a Razzmatazz smoothie from Jamba Juice (twice), and chicken noodle soup from Safeway. I partially blame this on how stressed I was last week as I had a test in every class and hence, I didn't have time to make lunch for myself in the morning and so generally went off campus for lunch. I think if I started limiting the amount of food I eat out and start eating homemade food more often, I could reduce the amount of sodium I eat. 

One other area of my diet that needs improvement is my protein intake. According to my calculations, I consume about 355% more protein than recommended. Throughout the week, I had some sort of meat 3/5 days and consumed meat during two meals on those 3 days. I think this significantly contributed to the high amount of protein in my diet. If I consume less meat, I can reduce my protein intake and bring it closer to the recommended amount.

Though I initially thought I didn't eat as much as I should, my calculations show that I need to start cutting back on the number of calories I eat because I consumed approximately 170% calories above my recommended amount. One way to improve the amount of calories I've been eating is to reduce my carbohydrate intake. Most days, I either ate cinnamon buns, a sandwich, or a bagel at some point during the day. All of these foods contain lots of carbohydrates and contributed heavily to my heavy calorie intake. If I cut down on the amount of carbohydrate-heavy foods I eat, I could reduce the number of calories I've been consuming by half. Another major reason for why my calorie intake is so great is once again, how much I have been eating out. I think I need to start eating lighter meals and instead snack throughout the day. I have a general tendency to not eat anything for hours and then eat too much during meals. Another way to potentially cut down on my calories would be to work out more - although I do attend tennis practice, it's not too grueling and I could probably fit in time to go to the weight room after practice or go for a run, which would help me burn more calories. In addition to reducing my food consumption, this would lead to a healthier lifestyle.

In order to improve my diet, I need to start eating more fruits, vegetables, and dairy products, and I need to start cutting down on the amount of calories, protein, and sodium I consume. I think I need to also be more aware of what I buy from the supermarket - for example, trying to avoid products with hydrogenated oil or high fructose corn syrup, as we learned in class. One possible reason that my data showed I was above the recommended amount is because I may not have given myself enough credit for how much physical exercise I do when I was calculating my recommended amounts When I'm stressed out, I tend to "stress-eat" and eat a lot of carbohydrates In addition, I tend to eat while watching TV or watching Netflix, so I don't realize how much I'm eating. In order to improve my diet and live a more healthy lifestyle, I think I need to start being more aware of what I'm eating and what the nutrition facts are. I will also start bringing food from home instead of eating out at lunch all the time. I think these changes will greatly help me bring my food intake closer to the recommended levels and help me eat healthier.

Bibliography:

Chex mix label

What is Health?

Good health is very important to me. It is a state of being in which a person's physical, mental, and social well-being keep them from illness and disease. In order to have good health, it is important to understand all 5 pillars of health - nutrition, exercise, sleep, stress, and social interaction - and how they work together to help a person carry out normal body functions. I think that nutrition and exercise are the two pillars that I am strongest at. Failure to consume healthy foods and reliance on junk food doesn't allow your body to acquire the nutrition it needs to help you grow and lead a healthy lifestyle, and it increases your chances of growing obese and developing diabetes. Most days, my mom makes dinner at home and makes an effort to use good, fresh ingredients to ensure I have a diet with a balanced amount of protein, vegetables, and carbohydrates. In addition, I've always been a very active child, involved in sports like soccer, tennis, and track and field, and so, I do a lot of exercise. On the other hand, I think the two pillars that I need the most improvement on are stress and sleep. Because I took on a heavy workload junior year and had a lot going on at home, I was constantly stressed out. This also took a toll on my sleeping patterns as I would be awake really late at night and essentially sleepwalk through the rest of the day. I want to learn how to manage my stress better so that I can sleep better, and in turn, maintain all the pillars of health in order to carry on a healthier lifestyle.

Oligodendrocytes

The picture above shows the location of oligodendrocytes in relationship to neurons (yellow).

Oligodendrocytes are glial cells that are similar to astrocytes. They are support cells found in the spinal chord and brain, and their somata (cell body) can be about 12-14 micrometers in diameter. Their main job is to produce myelin which is made in both the central nervous system (CNS) and peripheral nervous system (PNS). However, oligodendrocytes are only responsible for myelin production in the CNS, while Schwann cells produce myelin in the PNS. The above picture shows the two different cells and where they are located. Myelin is very important in the CNS as it is a fatty substance that insulates and protects the gaps in the sheath of the neuron. If the axons in a neuron did not have myelin, the action potential or charge when an impulse moves along the axon would be continuous along the sheath, rather than just at the nodes of Ranvier.

Oligodendrocytes are generally circular in shape and are divided into three parts: the cell body, the cytoplasmic processes, and the myelin segments. The cell body is the main part of the oligodendrocyte and it contains the nucleus, which is generally dark and oval-shaped and has a cluster of chromatin inside. The cell body has the same organelles that are in all eukaryotic cells. The cell's processes are what form the myelin segments that cover the axons. Lastly, the myelin segments are circles around the axon that insulate the axon. There are two main types of oligodendrocytes: 1. satellite cells that are around neurons in gray matter, form the outer layer of the cerebrum, and maintain the ion balance in neurons and 2. myelin-producing cells in the white matter.

The following image illustrates the structure of an oligodendrocyte as described above: