Snack Assignment: The Virtual Snack Shop

Virtual Snack Shop Submit your report Recommended tools Who have submitted

Objectives:

  1. To provide university students in an advanced nutrition course with an Internet based active learning project to increase understanding of nutrient density by exercising critical thinking and problem solving skills.
  2. To create and enlarge a database with nutrient dense snacks that will be used as a learning tool in nutrition education. It may be used to increase the knowledge of food sources of vitamins and minerals and related RDAs for students taking introductory nutrition courses.

Description:

Suppose a female student is looking for a low fat snack. She wants to have that food item to provide at least one vitamin and one mineral in significant amount. Can you help her? If you need credit from this work, the due date of this assignment is stated in the course calendar.

Conditions and Procedures:

  1. Total Energy for a Day is set at 2000 Kcal.
  2. For the purpose of determining the recommendation, Daily Reference Intake (DRI), use female as the sex and 25 as the age.
  3. Choose one of the following Vitamins: Vitamin C, Thiamin, Riboflavin, Niacin, B6, Folic Acid, B12, Vitamin A, D, E and K.
  4. Choose one of the following Minerals: Calcium, Magnesium, Iodine, Iron, Zinc and Potassium.
  5. Write down the name of the vitamin and the mineral and identify the DRI of each.
  6. Identify a snack item based on criteria listed below
    This item should not be repeated from all of earlier submissions, unless you choose a different set of vitamin and mineral. A item similar to the existing snack is also subject for a penalty. For example,  If a cup of 2% milk was submitted earlier for Calcium and Vitamin. D, a snack of one cup of 1% milk for Calcium and Riboflavin would be considered as not original. Browsing and learning from the earlier submission through the Virtual Snack Shop is an important part of this assignment.
    The snack has less than 30% of energy from its fat.
    The snack has to provide no less than 30% of a vitamin and 30% of a mineral DRI (RDA or AI) for a 25 year old female with a portion size to provide 200 kcal. To verify this criteria, please following detail instruction given in #8.
    A snack normally should be no more than 400 Kcal in energy, although the size of a portion will not change a nutrient density.
    A snack can be a combination of food items. In that case, please specify description and amount for each ingredient used in the snack.
  7. The nutrient analysis of the snack can be accomplished by using one of the recommended tools. Be sure to turn in a copy of a proof of this analysis. The proof could be a computer printout or copy of a part of a food composition table. If you use info from a Food Label, you would need to provide the actual label of a copy of it. To ensure the accuracy of the analysis, make sure the following Information are included and are highlighted with a color marker.
    8. your name and date of completion
    the name of the snack (or names of items included in the snack)
    the portion size
    total energy in kcal. Sum all up if you have multiple items.
    % of energy from fat. (= grams of fat x 9x100)/(total energy)
    the amount of the vitamin
    the amount of the mineral
  8. To determine if snack item is a significant source of the vitamin, Calculate the nutrient content for the snack as equivalent to a portion providing 200 kcal (about 10% of Energy need) as follows:

    A. Divide 200 by the total energy of the snack (200/E);

    B. Multiply the above result by the Vitamin content of snack (V);

    C. Divide the result by the RDA or AI value of the vitamin to get Index V.

    In summary, Index V = [V(200/E)]/RDAv

    If Index V is equal to or greater than 0.3, this snack is considered as a significant source of this vitamin because if this woman spends 10% of her energy allowance on this snack, she will receive 30% of the vitamin recommendation. (Note, Please keep two digits after the decimal points to ensure the accuracy.)

  9. Repeat the above step for the mineral to figure out the Index M, which also has to be equal or greater than 0.3.
  10. If one or both nutrients failed to meet the criteria, redo step 3 to 9 with adjusted recipe, or a set of micronutrients, or a different snack until a satisfactory item is found. Then use the an on-line form (see below) to submit your report. Your recommendation will be reviewed by your peers as well as be recorded for grading. Double check your calculation to ensure the accuracy before submit.
  11. Here is the link to the on-line Submit report form.
  12. You may re-submit before the due date announced elsewhere. Only the last one will be counted towards your grade.