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Tuesday, October 01, 2013

Food Stamps Challenge: Food Intake

After the Food Stamps Challenge, I sat down and input everything I ate into Sparkpeople’s food tracker to see how I did nutritionally. Here are my results.

Note: the "goals" for each one was set by my dietitian.


Sparkpeople Nutrition for Food Stamps

Calorie Deficient! Not once during the whole week did I get even close to hitting my low mark for calories. On my highest calorie day I was still 736 calories short of what my dietitian wants me to have.

Sodium was okay by this report but I didn’t add in the extra salt I added to my cabbage soup because I was craving it so badly! Even still, there were two days I didn’t get the recommended range of sodium. Three of those days, I had much more than I care to have on a personal level. I am finally able to lower my dose of Clonidine (for blood pressure and anxiety).

Carbohydrates were okay. If I were on a low carb diet, I would have loved this week. Three days I didn't reach my low mark of 50.

Fat was deficient. Only once did I reach above my low mark for fat intake.

Vitamin D was non-existent. Which may explain my tiredness all week. Nowhere in there did I get any Vitamin D at all. Although, this is a problem for me anyway. I have to take supplements for Vitamin D. But poor people can’t afford the vitamins they need. If I was working on feeding myself only on Food Stamps, I would have some serious health issues.

Fiber was deficient. My fiber intake for the week was lacking also. Not once did I hit the low range that my dietitian wants me to meet.

Food Stamps Challenge Thoughts

All in all, Michy was right! I was not getting enough nutrients for the week. Not enough calories, fat, vitamin D or Fiber.

Luckily, I do not survive each month on this kind of diet each month. Starting October 7th, I will be doing a week of what I really eat. I am still recovering from my Food Stamp Challenge.

2 comments:

Michelle Devon (Michy) said...

Pretty much what I expected. Scary, huh? So many people aren't aware of just how bad or low the nutrition is in their diets, but this really highlights the problems with the current food assistance programs!

As for Vitamin D, everyone should go outside, every day, for about 10 minutes around 10am their time and soak up a little sun. You can actually get all the vitamin D you need in your 'diet' by just spending time in the sun!

Thanks for sharing this!

Dotchi Anni said...

I find it hard to get enough sunlight. I am allergic to the sun. Not "skin-peels-off" allergic. I break into a rash that burns like acid and it's itches and hurts down to my bones. Then I feel like I have the flu for a day or three. But I can spend about 5 minutes in the sun without too many problems. Being up north, they test me for Vitamin D deficiency because of so little sun in the winter. I ended up finding vitamins I can take to help with it. But they are pricey too.