Chapter 4 Nutrition Guidelines

Tools For Planning A Healthful Diet Dietary Reference Intakes (DRI) – A set of nutrient reference values. They can be used to plan and asses diets for healthy people. Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDA) – are a planning tool that has been published since 1943. RDIs are suggested levels of nutrient intake to meet the needs of most healthy people.

Tools con’t Estimated Average Requirements (EAR) – This is a nutrient recommendation estimated to meet the need of half the health people in a group. Adequate Intake (AI) – This is a value determined for nutrients for which research is inconclusive. Upper Tolerable intake Level (UL) – It represents the maximum level at which a nutrient is unlikely to cause harm to most people

Canada’s Food Guide The guide is a visual tool used to help people plan healthful diets. It divides foods into their groups and gives a range for the number of daily servings a person should eat.

Traditional Version of the Canada’s food Guide

Determining Daily Servings Needed The food guide recommends a range of daily servings for each food group. The number of servings you need depends on several factors. Your age, sex, body size, and activity level all affect your particular needs.

Servings size You need to know how much food equals a serving. Serving size is the amount of a food item normally eaten at one time. Reading the food labels on packages can help you determine the serving size for some foods. Sometimes a visual reference can be very helpful.

Visual serving size reference

Dietary Guidelines The US government released 10 recommendations to help people choose a more healthful diet; Aim for a healthy weight Be physically active each day Follow the food guide when choosing what to eat Choose a variety of grains, especially whole grains Choose a variety of fruits and vegetables daily Keep food safe to eat Choose a diet that is low in saturated fat and cholesterol Choose foods and beverages to moderate your intake of sugar Choose and prepare foods with less salt If you drink alcoholic beverages, do so in moderation

Variety, Moderation, and Balance These three word sum up the spirit of healthful eating with the dietary guidelines. Variety means you should include many different kinds of food in your diet. Moderation means you should avoid eating too much of any one type of food. Balance involves selecting foods that are lower in salt, fat, sugar, saturated fats, cholesterol, and calories.

The Daily Values on food labels Daily values are recommended nutrient intakes based on daily calorie needs. Daily values are for carbohydrate, fat, and protein used as references on food labels are based on a 2000 calorie per day diet.

Example of a Food Label

Nutrient Density Nutrient Density is a comparison of the nutrients provided by a food with the calories provided by the food. It is an evaluation of the nutritional quality of a food. Calculating nutrient density involves looking at a person’s daily nutrient and calorie needs.

Nutrient Density Chart

Using Food Recommendations and guidelines Keep a food diary – Before you can determine whether you are getting enough nutrients, you need to know what foods you are eating. This means recording the amounts of food and beverage that you consume for a given time.

continued Analyze your diet – Use your food diary to see if you are meeting your nutritional needs. There are a number of software programs available that can quickly analyze your diet and tell you if you are lacking in a certain area.

Plan Menus Using the Food Guide Your diet analysis may show you are eating too much or too little of a certain food or foods. Planning your menu using the food guide can help correct such problems by following the recommended number of servings per food group and by eating reasonable portion sizes.

Extra Tips for using the Food Guide Bread, Cereal, and pasta group Choose whole grains Avoid adding more salt Choose cereal with less sugar Choose less instant products – they are high in sodium Choose less high fat snacks Vegetable Group Choose fresh over canned Use herbs rather than butter to season cooked vegetables Choose baked or steamed vegetables over battered or fried varieties

Food Guide tips continued Milk, Yogurt and Cheese Use lower fat options Meat, fish and poultry Choose lean cuts of meat Remover skin from poultry before eating Limit your use of processed luncheon meats. (high fat and sodium) Choose canned fish packed in water rather than oil.