Science of Nutrition Question

Please provide your answer in a thought-out, coherent essay and use complete sentences.

Tara used to eat dinner in her college dorm cafeteria but not anymore. It was too tempting for her to see everyone eating all of the fattening food and then topping it off with a big dessert. She knew her weight would balloon up in a week if she ate like that. Instead, Tara decided to stay in her dorm room and eat a bowl of cereal with skim milk. The cereal box says it provides a full day’s supply of vitamins and minerals for someone on a 2,000 calorie diet, so she knows it is nutritious. Tara thinks that when she eats the cereal for dinner, it doesn’t matter if she didn’t eat all the right things earlier in the day. (In other words, Tara is not careful to eat fruits and vegetables and protein the rest of the day, since the cereal supposedly provides all of her nutritional needs.)

A) What do you think of Tara’s cereal dinners? If the cereal provides 100% of the DRI for all vitamins and minerals, then is Tara correct that it doesn’t matter what else she eats during the day? If not, why not?

B) What other factors does Tara need to consider besides the percentage of DRI? Explain.