It s not about healthy foods it s about Healthy Diets

Transcription

1 75 It s not about healthy foods it s about Healthy Diets We ve analyzed some nutrients in individual foods. Here are some tools to help you go further and create a truly healthy diet. Daily Recommendations On the bottom of many food labels you ll see a little chart of recommendations. Take a look at the chart here and answer some questions about it. Use if you need an outside resource. Why do you think there are 2 columns for Calories, one for 2000 and one for 2500? Why are people encouraged to limit their total fat intake? Why are people encouraged to limit their saturated fat intake? Why are people encouraged to limit their cholesterol intake? Why are people encouraged to limit their sodium intake? Why should people get at least 300 g of Total Carbohydrate intake? Why should people get at least 25 g of total fiber intake? Do you think the government should make recommendations to people about their diets?

2 76 NutritionData.com A great resource for building a healthy diet and a healthy life is the website Take a few minutes to explore the site you could literally spend days looking at all it has to offer. Pick any food item to enter into the search box. The database will then generate a Nutrition Facts label for this food. Notice that as you change the serving size, the Nutrition Facts label changes as well! Notice the Nutritional Target Map (and especially the Fullness Factor) and the Caloric Ratio Pyramid: We ll come back to them later. Also notice that there is a quick summary of The Good and The Bad for each food!

3 77 Scroll down and notice that there is a lot of information generated about the food. Look at the very long list of data and make sure you can find the following: (CHECK THEM OFF WHEN YOU FIND THEM!) The different sugars Fiber and starch content The three main categories of fat (sat., monounsat,. polyunsat.). Protein, showing each of the twenty different amino acids that comprise protein. Vitamins and minerals Water Notice that the %DV tells you the percentage of your recommended daily value of a particular nutrient that a food item provides for you. Let s go back to the Nutritional Target Map and the Fullness Factor: What is the fullness factor? What is the ND rating? Pick a few food items you enjoy for snacking. How filling and nutritious are they, according to this grid? Find some snack items whose dot appears in the upper right hand corner of the grid (nutritious and filling): Let s go back to the Caloric Ratio Pyramid: What does the Caloric Ratio pyramid tell you? The Zone Diet suggests a caloric ratio of What does that mean? The Atkins Diet suggests a caloric ratio of, perhaps, , and even lower in carbs at the start. For whom would that be useful?

4 So what is the caloric ratio advocated by the USDA s daily recommendations? In order to figure this out, you need to know the following pieces of information: Each gram of carbohydrate you consume provides 4 Calories. Each gram of fat you consume provides 9 Calories Each gram of protein you consume provides 4 Calories. Using that information, see if you can determine the caloric ratio advocated by the USDA s daily recommendations. Here again are the Daily Recommendations: 78 Let s focus on people with a 2000 calorie diet, to make the math easier. So how many calories of carbohydrate are you supposed to consume each day? That value is what percentage of a 2000 calorie diet? How many calories of total fat are supposed to be consumed each day? That value is what percentage of a 2000 calorie diet? What percentage, then, of calories should be from protein? Therefore the USDA recommends the following caloric ratio: % Carbs % Fat % Protein Why not show nutritiondata.com to your family members so that they may benefit from it as well?

5 Homework/Practice: In order to become even more familiar with NutritionData.com, so that you will be able to use it as an effective resource for you and your family in the future, choose at least one of the following for homework: Whose French Fries have the highest levels of saturated fat: McDonald s, Burger King or Wendy s? 2. Which of the following fruits have more glucose than fructose: bananas, apples, oranges. 3. Which is your best source of iron: spinach, turnip greens or beets? Challenge: Find the food you think is LEAST likely to contribute to a healthy diet, and argue why you think this food is not a good addition to a healthy diet. Find the food you think is MOST likely to contribute to a healthy diet, and argue why you think this food is a good addition to a healthy diet.