This assignment will provide you with an opportunity to examine the dietary practices of the everyday consumer and apply key nutritional components.

Note: Please be sure you have completed your unit reading assignment before you begin this assignment.

Explore the nutritional value of menu items at a local fast-food restaurant. Create a chart identifying two meals of your choice using the restaurant available menu items. One meal must be an unhealthy meal, the other must be the healthiest alternative meal possible. Both meals should include an entrée, side, beverage and dessert. Write an analysis of each meal addressing the following information:

1. Describe the healthy meal that you have created from the fast food restaurant using the nutritional value of menu items. Write a nutritional analysis of the meal you have created and discuss the macronutrients, key vitamins, minerals and any other nutrient worth mentioning.
2. Include all of the nutrients found in the meal and their levels (needs to include as many nutrients as possible as it would be valuable to see what the meal has in it with regard to nutrients).
3. Discuss your reaction to the analysis by explaining how the levels of the nutrients meets or exceeds the Recommended Daily Intake (RDI) for various nutrients. For example, one of the things you could discuss would be the amount of sodium in the meal and how this amount meets or exceeds the dietary recommendations for that nutrient. (You will need to discuss at least two other items in addition to sodium).
4. How will this information affect your future food choices?
5. Describe the unhealthiest meal that you have created from the fast food restaurant using the nutritional value of menu items. Write a nutritional analysis of the meal you have created and discuss the macronutrients, key vitamins, minerals and any other nutrient worth mentioning.
6. Include all of the nutrients found in the meal and their levels (needs to include as many nutrients as possible as it would be valuable to see what the meal has in it with regard to nutrients).
7. Discuss your reaction to the analysis by explaining how the levels of the nutrients meets or exceeds the RDI for various nutrients. For example, one of the things you could discuss would be the amount of sodium in the meal and how this amount meets or exceeds the dietary recommendations for that nutrient.
8. How will this information affect your future food choices?

Requirements

• Write your analysis in an essay format.
• An appropriate length for your analysis is one to two pages, double-spaced, using a 10 or 12 point font such as Arial or Times New Roman. (No more than three pages.)
• Your assignment analysis should be thorough, college-level writing that is grammatically correct.