Basis of a Healthy Diet

How do we make good choices?

 Practical Steps to Take
 Consume a variety of foods
 Don’t over-consume any one food
 Moderation
 Nutrient density- ratio of nutrient needs
met by food to energy needs
 Energy density– energy content/weight of
food
 States of Nutritional Health
 Balanced Nutrition
 Under nutrition
 Overnutrition
 Measuring Nutritional Status
 Anthorpmetic measures
– Height
– Weight
– Per cent body fat
 Food Diary
 Caloric and Nutritional Density
 Caloric (energy) density- the kcal content provided per
gram of food weight
– High: fried foods, sweets
– Low: many fruits and vegetables
– Calculate by: kcal of food/weight of food in g
 Nutritional density- ratio derived by dividing a food’s
contribution to nutrient needs by its contribution to energy
needs
– High: milk
– Low: soda
– Calculate by: (kcal of food/weight of food in g) x %
Daily value of vitamin/mineral
 Measures of Nutritional Needs
 Measures set based on nutrition research
– These are averages
 Dietary reference intakes (DRIs) set by
the Food and Nutrition Board of the
National Academy of Sciences:
– Estimated Average Requirements (EARs)
– Recommended Daily Allowances (RDAs)
– Adequate Intakes (AIs)
– Tolerable Upper Intake Levels (ULs)
 Estimated Average Requirements
 Estimates which meet the needs of 50%
of the individuals of a specific age and
gender
 Based on a physiological marker such as
the activity of a specific enzyme or the
maintenance of healthy cell function
Recommended Dietary Allowances
 RDAs are averages of the required
nutrient intakes which will meet the needs
of 97 to 98% of the individuals in a
specific gender, age group
 RDA = EAR X 1.2
 Adequate Intakes
 When there is not enough information
available to set EARs and RDAs then this
measure is used
 Based on observed or experimental
information
 EERs and ULs
 Estimated Energy Requirements are rough
estimates of energy needs
 Energy needs depend on level of activity
 Tolerable Upper Intake Levels are
estimates of the maximal amount of a
specific nutrient that should be ingested in
a day.
 Amounts greater than ULs may cause
health problems
 Use of these measures
 All of these measures are intended to be
guidelines for planning a healthy diet
 They are meant to be used in conjunction
with other information such as age,
gender, level of physical activity, general
health etc
 The Food Pyramid
 Designed for a quick way to assess food
intake
 Consists of 6 groups
– Breads, cereal, rice, pasta (6-11 servings)
– Fruits (2-4 servings)
– Vegetables (3-5 servings)
– Milk, yogurt, cheese (2-3 servings)
– Meat (2-3 servings)
– Fats and sweets
 The Food Pyramid
 Menu planning with the Food Pyramid
– Does not apply to infants under 2 years
– No one food is essential to good nutrition.
Each food is deficient in at least one nutrient.
– No one food group provides ass essential
nutrients in adequate amounts.
– Variety of using different groups and different
foods in each group is essential for nutrition.
– Foods within each group can vary widely in
nutrient and energy content.
 Food Labels
 The FDA requires most food items must
now be labeled with nutritional info
– Exceptions: fresh meat, fresh produce
 Usually based on a 2000 kcal/day diet
 Serving size info must be consistent
among foods of the same kind
 Ingredients are listed in descending order
by weight
 Food Labeling
 There are very specific guidelines required in the
labeling of food
 Using the text book and the labels on the foods
provided
– Detremine what specific information can be found on
the labels
– How could that information be used in helping to plan
meals
– What possible pit falls are there in the lableling?
– Rank from highest to lowest foods that are most
energy dense. Then do the same for the foods that
are most nutrient dense