Reference no: EM132670375

Step 1: Take some time to think about your family history. Do some of the chronic medical conditions associated with diet (cardiovascular disease, certain types of cancer, osteoporosis, or diabetes, for example) seem to run in your family? Considering any possible genetic inheritance, do you think your current diet might increase your risk or help to offset a genetic predisposition?

Step 2: Reflect on your use of alcohol, if you use it at all. Contrary to popular perception, a majority of students don't use alcohol at all, and if they do, they use it moderately. Binge drinking, even on occasion, can impact nutritional status.

Disclaimer/caution: Do not disclose any personal information that you would not share in a traditional classroom. Although this is a private journal, anything posted online may inadvertently be seen by others.

Step 3: Track your diet for a day. Use this website to track: https://www.supertracker.usda.gov

Include everything you eat and drink for one 24 hour period. If you use a program other than SuperTracker, make sure it gives you information about how many calories you've consumed from protein, how many from carbohydrates, and how many from the lipids. This is important information that will help you assess the proportionality of your total caloric intake.

Step 4: On your Journal page, write a brief discussion of your genetic risk for certain chronic diseases, and an analysis of whether or not your current dietary habits may increase your risk or protect you from those conditions. It may help you in this process to use the recommendations in the Dietary Guidelines for reference.