Chapter 4 Nutrition Guidelines
101
Learn to use the % Daily Values to
see how foods contribute to your daily
nutrient needs. Ask yourself what
combination of foods you can eat
throughout the day to get 100 percent
of your Daily Values. You can also use
the % Daily Values to compare the
nutrient content of different brands
and products. For instance, you might
compare the fi ber content of two brands
of whole-grain bread. Then you might
compare the fi ber in whole-grain bread
with the fi ber in a bagel.
Using Food
Recommendations
and Guidelines
You now know about a variety of diet
planning tools. The next step is to learn
how to use them to improve your diet.
Keep a Food Diary
Before you can determine whether
you are getting enough nutrients, you
need to know what foods you are eating.
One way to be aware of what you eat
is to keep a food diary. A food diary is
a record of the kinds and amounts of
foods and beverages consumed for a
given time. Food diaries are sometimes
called food logs or journals. The record
includes snacks and foods eaten away
from home. It also includes condiments,
such as catsup, pickles, salad dressings,
syrups, and jellies.
You need a complete diary if you
want a true analysis of your diet. You
will fi nd it easy to forget what you ate if
you wait too long to record information.
Keeping a pad and pencil handy will
help you remember to write down each
food item you eat.
For your diet analysis to be valid, you
need to accurately estimate food amounts
you are eating. Look at measuring utensils
to help you become familiar with what
amounts such as one tablespoon and one
cup look like. Remember that 3 ounce-
equivalents of meat or chicken is about
the size of a deck of playing cards.
Find out how many ounces your cups,
bowls, and glasses hold. This will help
you correctly list in your food diary the
amounts of foods you consume.
You might want to record what you
eat for several days. This will give you a
more accurate picture of your eating
habits than you will get from a one-day
record. You will also get a better account
if you record your diary on typical days.
Avoid keeping a record on birthdays,
holidays, and other days when you are
likely to follow different eating patterns.
Analyze Your Diet
Use the information recorded in
your food diary to see if you are meeting
your daily nutrient needs. A number of
software programs are available that
can help you quickly analyze your diet
with a computer. Most of these programs
include a database of food composition
tables. These tables are a reference guide
listing the nutritive values of many foods
Calculating % Daily Value
Jenna’s food plan is 2,500 calories per day.
Her goal is to select nutrient-dense foods as often
as possible. One morning, she began reading the
Nutrition Facts panel for the whole-grain bread she
was toasting for breakfast. She discovered that each
slice contained 3 grams of dietary fiber. She knows
her Daily Value for dietary fiber is 30 grams.
• If Jenna has 2 slices of toast, what % Daily
Value has she consumed?
Math Link