Nutritional assessment report Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Nutritional assessment report - Essay Example Two types of methods have been used to measure food intake: precise weighed food record and 24-hour recall methods. 25 persons have been selected as sample size for the analysis BMR and total energy expenditure have also been found out. For understanding the nature and interrelationship between the variables, statistical tools like descriptive statistics, correlation and regression methods have been used. . The regression results show that the interrelationship between energy intake and total energy expenditure is statistically significant and the weighed energy intake seems to have strong relationship with TEE while that of recall energy intake seems to be insignificant. The energy expenditure indicators of BMR and total energy expenditure has also got significant statistical relationship and the total energy expenditure seems to be highly dependent on the BMR. Comparisons with FAO estimates, it is seen that our sample population does not have required energy expenditure as suggeste d by FAO. The BMR of our sample population also seems to be lower than that of FAO estimates. Introduction Nutritional status or energy of any person is measured in terms calories and calorie is hence known as the currency of nutrition and energy (Prentice, 1997). Energy keeps any mammal warm and drives all the activities of life. Energy is derived from the process of ‘chemical combustion’ of food intake which requires oxygen and produces carbon dioxide and water. Sufficient supply of food intake is needed for this process (Titchenal, 1988). The energy component of the food can be divided into chemical energy and metabolizable energy. Chemical energy of the food is the total energy which is liberated if it is combusted in oxygen. That is, its heat of combustion is normally the chemical energy and it can simply measured in a bomb calorimeter. The chemical energy is otherwise known as the gross energy (Durnin and Passmore, 1967; Cox 2005). The metabolic part of the total energy of the food is known as the megabolizable energy. Due to several reasons, a portion of the total energy of food intake would not be available for the body metabolism. The portion of the total energy which is digested and absorbed by the body is megabolizable energy or digestible energy. In the dietary and energy expenditure discussions, this metabolizable or digestible energy becomes relevant (Prentice, 1997; Gibney etal 2002; Lee and Nieman ,2003; Gibson ,2005). Objective and Methodology The present paper intends to make a strong understanding and conceptual discussion on the concepts energy, energy balance, energy requirements and energy expenditure. The interrelationship between food intake and food energy expenditure has also been analyzed in the paper. Hence, the main objectives of the paper are: 1) to integrate the understanding on the concepts like measures of intake, energy balance, requirements and expenditure 2) to give practical experience in methods of measurement s of food intake and expenditure 3) to examine the interrelationship between these variables. Methodology For achieving the above said objectives, a concrete and brief discussion has been done on the concepts like measures of food intake, energy balance and requirements and energy expenditure. Practical experiments have been done on the measurements of food intake and energy expenditure. Two types of methods have been used to measure food intake: precise weighed food record and