It's an experiment to see if I am eating a balanced diet and where my macro and micro nutrients are coming from. The whole exercise is pretty involved. It's like maintaining a food diary but you get immediate nutrient data read-outs. [box]On May 18 I had
1. Milk, nonfat, fluid, with added vitamin A (fat free or skim) 3 cups
2. Chickpeas (garbanzo beans, bengal gram), mature seeds, cooked, boiled, with salt 80g
3. Nuts, almonds 15
4. Apples, raw, with skin 1 large (3-1/4" dia)
5. Chewing gum, sugarless 1 piece 5.4
6. Water, tap, municipal 1.8 liter
7. Bananas, raw 1 medium (7" to 7-7/8"long)
8. Tea, brewed, prepared with tap water 3 cup (8 fl oz)
9. Oranges, raw, all commercial varieties 1 large (3-1/16" dia)
10. Bread, pita, whole-wheat 28.5 g
11. Peppers, sweet, green, raw 40 g
12. Onions, raw 30 g
13. Hummus,c ommercial 2 tbsp
14. Cereals ready-to-eat, GENERAL MILLS, CHEERIOS 5 g
A total of 963 calories, with 45g proteins, 172g carbohydrates and 16g lipids with around 90% vitamins and minerals.[/box]
[box]On May 19 I had
1. Nuts, almonds 18
2. Apples, raw, with skin 2 large (3-1/4" dia)
3. Apricots, dried, sulfured, uncooked 1 half
4. Dates, deglet noor 3 date, pitted
5. Cookies, oatmeal, prepared from recipe, with raisins 3 cookie (2-5/8" dia)
6. Cream, fluid, half and half 1 container, individual (.5 fl oz)
7. Coffee, brewed from grounds, prepared with tap water 1 cup (8 fl oz)
8. Milk, nonfat, fluid, with added vitamin A (fat free or skim) 2 cup
9. Peanuts, all types, raw 5 g
10. Milk, dry, nonfat, instant, with added vitamin A 4 tsp
11. Chewing gum, sugarless 1 piece
12. Bread, pita, whole-wheat 28.5 g
13. Macaroni, dry, enriched 16 g
14. Mustard Greens and Vegetable Saute 0.75 of full recipe
15. Cereals ready-to-eat, GENERAL MILLS, CHEERIOS 5 g
16. Water, tap, municipal 1.8 liter
A total of 1476 calories, with 65g proteins, 254g carbohydrates and 31g lipids with around 100% vitamins and minerals.[/box]
Strangely, I have begun to feel guilty every time I eat a random almond or down a cookie just because I am recording them all in the software. It will be really interesting to see whether my diet actually changes because I am watching it.
In other news, I am volunteering for a cancer prevention campaign called "Spit for the Cure" on June 13.
My department at Roswell is collaborating with Susan G. Komen's race for the cure on June 13, 2009 at Delaware Park Rose Gardens. We are hoping to recruit as many people from the community as possible to donate their spit (saliva) for cancer prevention research at this race.
If anyone is interested in participating and giving 15 minutes of your time and spit for a noble cause, this is a perfect opportunity! :) Swing by the Roswell Park Cancer Institute's Spit for the Cure tent on June 13 from 7:30 AM to 1:00PM.
I'll be participating in the event and will try to stop by the tent to give some spit.
I'll see if I can come and spit for you on the 13th. Your dinner looks good but certainly can't replace the BBQ in my opinion. I like to BBQ veggies too especially mushrooms.
@(e:libertad): It would be wonderful if you could come around to our collection tent on June 13th!! If not, I can ask my advisor if I can come around to collect your spit. :)
I know. My eating habits border on the "crszy".
@(e:metalpeter): Good point. I wouldn't know how much an ice cream is and it does take a lot of fun out of it. However, the point of the exercise is developing a fair idea about how much nutrient value you get from everything you eat. I do think that keeping a record will alter my eating habits. I am hoping that they change for the better.
If you think about it, this sort of record-keeping does not mesh well with eating with wild abandon. Maybe, in this day and age of an obesity and poor health epidemic, what we all need is a cognizance of what we are actually eating.
The thing about doing this is that, I don't think there is any way that it is really correct. The reason I say that, it the recording of what you eat does effect what you eat. Say for example a go grab a big bowl of ice cream, how on earth am i going to know how much ice cream that is. Ice Cream is something you eat for pleasure so measuring it takes a lot of the fun out of it. I know it isn't going to be exact but that fact that you are keeping track of what you eat will effect what you eat, hopefully not to much though.
If you want to come and get some spit from me an analyze it just shoot me an email.
I would die of starvation nearly if I ate what you ate in a day.
The 2000-2500 kcal "standard" diet intake is standardized for a ~70kg 25 year old male. Everyone's calorie needs differs by their sex, age and current BMI. You can calculate your energy needs here: :::link:::
My calorie needs fall at around 1700 calories. Even by that standard, 963 is somewhat low. That is exactly why I am keeping this diary. I need to correct my random eating habits. This past Sunday, I think my whole diet consisted of raw vegetables and fruits with no balancing staple carbohydrate sources. :/
I thought the standard recommended intake was ~2000-2500kcal? 963 seems frighteningly low.
- Z
I am so glad you asked that question. We will be using the spit to extract your DNA and sequence it. Then we will compare your sequence to the sequences of people who have cancer and see if there are any significant differences in the sequences in addition to the normal variation.
This will tell us if there are any specific gene variants that may be contributing to the cancer state.
If we know the gene variants, we can often deduce the function of these variant genes, the proteins they translate to, the effects they have on other genes and on your metabolism. We can identify pathways and targets that can be modified to nullify or accentuate the effect of the gene. These modifications can be either lifestyle changes or therapeutically targeted changes (eg. targeted drugs).
In short, from the results of our research(if our research is successful), if you have the gene variant that makes you susceptible to get cancer later in your life, we can recommend modifications that bring down your risk of developing cancer or bring down your risk to a less aggressive "treatable" cancer.
@(e:James): I know! Self control is the TOUGHEST part!
How does spitting help cancer prevention research?
I found that site very useful when I was trying to keep my macronutrients at a specific ratio. But, not matter how much I wanted to succeed it is impossible to resist eating a whole avocado.