Project on Adherence to a Diabetic Diet

Description

Project on Adherence to a Diabetic Diet

For this project you will design and follow the Exchange Diet for persons with diabetes for three days. Here are the procedures you should follow. Please read the entire assignment before you begin.

1. Carefully read the information on Exchange List for Meal Planning Strategies on page 745-749 and Appendix G in the Appendix section of your text. Select a calorie level that is appropriate for you. There are links to suggested meal plans at the end of this assignment. Remember that the meal plans under each calorie level are just a suggestion that will help guide you in using the exchange system at the calorie level you have chosen. Describe how you decided which calorie level you would use for this project. The calorie level you choose is totally up to you.

2. Go to the following website for more information about how to plan this diet.

https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/educational/lose_wt/eat/fd_exch.htm (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.

https://www.diabetes.org/healthy-living/recipes-nutrition/understanding-carbs/types-carbohydrates (Links to an external site.)

https://www.diabetes.org/healthy-living/recipes-nutrition/understanding-carbs/carb-counting-and-diabetes

Carbohydrate Counting and Meal Planning _ NovoMedLink (Links to an external site.)

3. Design a diabetic diet meal plan/menu for three days following the exchange system at the calorie level you chose. Do not follow the menus as posted. MAKE YOUR OWN MEAL PLAN. Choose your own foods. Do NOT copy a menu from the internet, previous students or ANY other source. Follow the diabetic meal plan that you designed for three days. Include one weekend day. Do not just plan one day and repeat it three times. However, you can use the same breakfast. Remember that a diabetic diet does not have to be expensive and you can eat out. A person with diabetes does not need special foods. It is not a requirement that you go out and buy expensive foods. People who have limited means also have diabetes and must learn to eat healthfully even in those circumstances. Even if you have a careful plan, things change. Remember that this is real life and people who have diabetes go out with friends, go to the movies, and have fun, too. Remember to first plan what you are going to eat and then implement the plan. Include the menus you actually ate for the three days in your report. Your meal plan should not only be an acceptable number of calories but also the proper percentage of carbohydrates, protein and fat. Your meal plan should include grams of carbohydrate in each food item (you can use the grams of carbohydrates listed in Appendix G).
Note: If you are on a special diet or have any special medical concerns please contact your professor about this project for alternatives.

4. *****Thoroughly describe your experiences and evaluate each day of the diet. You must carefully describe EACH of the three days of the experience separately on each of the following:

Acceptability
Adherence (ease or difficulty in following)
Palatability
Product availability
Time involved
Use of currently available food items
Where food was eaten
Influence on life style

You should create a chart/table that shows the menus planned and any changes to the menus you planned for each individual day. Then describe each individual day.

After evaluating each individual day, thoroughly evaluate the total project experience including all the components. Summarize your experience.
It is your thorough description and evaluation of the diet and your experience that will determine much of your grade. Remember there are a lot of points for this project. Make sure you earn them.

5. Evaluate a Processed Food: Buy a processed food that has a “low in sodium”, “reduced sodium”, “less sodium” etc on the label. Also purchase a similar “regular” food item. You will compare the 2 based on the criteria below. Remember this is a purchased food not a food that you prepared. You may not use saltine crackers, seasonings, or Chicken Noodle Soup. Choose a food. Fresh foods are not sold as “low sodium.” Include in your report a comparison of this low-sodium food with its counterpart using the following: Be very thorough.
· Palatability – how do each of the products taste, smell and feel
· Price of specialty item vs. the regular item– compare them. Give specifics
· Availability– how easy was it to find the low sodium product? Were there a lot of foods labeled as “low sodium” in the store?
· Nutrient composition vs. the regular item– use a chart/table to compare and show the differences. – not just sodium but all nutrients (even if they are the same) – please give specific details about the nutrient composition.
Describe how you would season it without using salt to make it more delicious. What could you tell a person who has been placed on a low-sodium diet to do to make their diet more tasty.

Be very thorough – if you want to earn full credit!

You are required to submit the following: (** All in one document **)

1. Describe how you decided which calorie level to use for the project.
2. Your menus as you planned them for three days, including the exchange group/serving for each food, grams of carbohydrate and any changes that you made after you planned (#3). Submit menus in a chart or outline form. (See the example menus and Appendix G – an example of an exchange group/serving is: 8oz skim milk = 1 milk serving= 12 gm CHO) Your menus should include food, serving size, exchange group, and grams of carbohydrate.
3. A complete and thorough description of each day of your experience (addressing all components listed in #4 in the assignment) and an overall diet evaluation as specified in #4 (this is the area with the most points).
4. A complete and thorough evaluation of your low-sodium food as specified in #5.

Your grade on this project will depend on how well you plan the meal plan that you will follow and how thoroughly you evaluate the process of planning and eating the diet as well as your comparison of the low-sodium food with its counterpart.

(A note from the professor: In the past, we have had many different responses to this project. Some students love it. Others actually hate it and complain about having to eat healthfully for 3 days. Some students say they were already eating this way and it was a “breeze” for them. Many students actually say they lost a couple of pounds and felt better when they ate regularly. The diabetic diet is a healthy diet that people without diabetes would do well to follow regularly. You eat throughout the day. Choose low fat, low sodium and complex carbohydrates to eat. That’s truly a healthy choice. Try to keep an open mind about this project. As a nurse you will be working with many clients who have diabetes and you will begin to understand the challenges of their nutritional management of the disease.)

Please submit all parts of the assignment as one continuous document. Do not separate and attach them as several documents.

Links for suggested meal plans for various calorie levels
1500 calories

1500KcalMealPlan.doc Download 1500KcalMealPlan.doc