In nutrition, diet refers to the type of food that an individual eats habitually or a special course of meals that an individual restrict himself or herself to in order to lose weight or due to certain medical reasons. A diet is said to be balanced if it contains sufficient amounts of the essential nutrients required for healthy growth and efficient undertaking of daily activities. This means that a balanced diet should have adequate amounts of carbohydrates, proteins, vitamins, fats, minerals, and water intake. As a college student, my nutritional habits do not match up with the required healthy-eating habits. My main concern in the choice of food is not the number of calories consumed but the taste and the additives contained in the food ("What Is the Normal Calorie Intake Needed for a College Student?", 2018). As such, I end up preferring fast foods among other processed foods which lack the essential nutrients or contain too many calories than recommended.
The recommended calories consumption for an average adult is 2,000 calories per day. On estimate, one meal of fast foods and processed foods contain more than 1,000 calories, which translates to more than 3,000 calories per day ("What Is the Normal Calorie Intake Needed for a College Student?", 2018). My most regular daily diet consists of cereals and milkshake or flavored coffee loaded up with cream and sugar for breakfast, bugger with cheese or French Fries with milkshake or roast chicken for lunch and frequent snacks in between the meals. My combined total consumption of calories can be estimated to be more than 2,500 per day. These calories are converted to fats, and are seen as the major causes of obesity or other lifestyle-related diseases ("What Is the Normal Calorie Intake Needed for a College Student?", 2018). My meals often lack essential minerals required for healthy growth which could lead to deficiency related diseases or normal growth of my body or normal performance of my daily activities.
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Some of the foods that I would want to add to my diet include nuts, fruits, vegetables and seafood such as fish (Sakh, 2016). These foods are said to contain high levels of nutrients such as calcium essential for strengthening the bones and vitamin E contained in most types of nuts (Sakh, 2016). Fruits also offer a wide range of vitamins necessary for fighting diseases (Sakh, 2016). This will also require a reduction in the amount of fast foods consumed in order to help fight the most common diseases emanating from the consumption of these foods such as cancer.
References
Sakh, R. (2016). Healthy Cooking & Nutrition for College Students. Ocala, Florida: Atlantic Publishing Group, Inc.
What Is the Normal Calorie Intake Needed for a College Student?. (2018). Retrieved from https://healthyeating.sfgate.com/normal-calorie-intake-needed-college-student-5544.html
