Nutrition

Okay,

I have been here for 3 days, and I get the concept, eat what you want, just count the calories and stay under the determined amount. But after getting your analysis, how do you determine if you are getting the proper nutrition.

Like I said I am new but I didn't see anything about that. If someone can tell me what the proper ranges of protein, fat, sodium, ect. ect. ect. That way I will know if I am getting the proper nutrition I should. I do take vitamins, but I want to meet normal protein intake as well as carbs ect. My grades so far have been A, A- and B+, for the 3 days, but where can I expand on this information.

Thanks Calorie Count.

I think you are my solution of a life long struggle with weight.

Mike

You can check out the 'Ask Mary' section for FAQ's on dietary matters in general.

For the time-being you can judge how balanced your diet is from the following

• Carbohydrate between 40-54%
• Protein between 15-25%
• Fats between 25-30%
• Fibre >30g
• Sugar <50g
• Sodium <2400mg

If your diet is falling within these general parameters you should be fine. If you were to find you were getting too much sodium and not enough fibre, for example, it could be that you're eating too many processed foods and could switch to more wholefoods.   There's no one single 'perfect way to eat'.

You can find some (almost) correct numbers for RDA here:

http://www.netrition.com/rdi_page.html 

and some excellent advice here (vastly superior to the gov's pyramid, which is unduly influenced by the food lobby):

http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/w hat-should-you-eat/pyramid/ 

As for 'sugar', it is the refined variety that you add to coffee* or whatever (and which the food industry stuffs into processed food, including things like Cornflakes & Special K) which  you should keep to a minimum. Keeping below 50g of 'sugar' (as defined by CC) wouldn't be such a great idea; for example, it would rule out having the following fruit in a day (because it adds up to more than 50g 'sugar'):

breakfast: 1 fig

lunch: 1 medium kiwi fruit

snack: 1 medium banana

dinner: 1 serving of grapes

(obviously, you would consume other stuff in those meals).

* I remember watching, in wonder, an American friend of mine adding sugar to his coffee - every cup received 8 teaspoons of sugar (more than 33g) and he got through a lot of cups in a day.

Four pieces of fruit a day would be a lot of fruit.... and it's easy for people to think 'I can eat as much fruit as a I like' and then get either an imbalanced diet or a too-calorific diet as a result.

I'd still say that the 50g average is worth watching .... it would allow a couple of pieces of fruit, some dairy and a few other natural sugars - even a small sweet treat in there as well...  Plenty.

Sugar soaked coffee sounds horrible.  But don't forget, there's an awful lot of sugar in a bottle of wine as well......

Sounds good.

Thanks for the quick responses.

I have found that when I am exercising a lot, like lifting and spinning, I need more protein. I weigh about 150 and end up eating about 80-90 g of protein and feel much better. Otherwise I feel hungry and edgy. The charts, graphs, etc. are a guideline. I usually get less salt than they allow. My sugar may be a little high, but like one of the other posters said, I eat more fruit on some days, and I am okay with that!

Yes, don't worry about the fruit. CC is way off on several things (most notably Vitamin A, closely followed by sugar and by sodium). Anyway, the idea that consumption of all sugars should be restricted to 40g (that's what CC uses) is nonsense. CC makes no distinction between intrinsic and extrinsic sugars.

There is no problem with the sugars in fruit. For example, the UK's Food Standards Agency says: "Sugars occur naturally in food such as fruit and milk, but we don't need to cut down on these types of sugars. It is food containing added sugars that we should be cutting down on." 

http://www.eatwell.gov.uk/healthydiet/fss/sug ars/ ;

The UK describes these as NMES's (Non Milk Extrinsic Sugars) - long story, so just think "added sugar" to be limited, "intrinsic sugar" (e.g. fruit) - eat (within reason) to your heart's content.

The US is even more odd than the UK. The DRI Committee doesn't give an RDA figure, but it does say of "added sugars" (so, that's excluding fruit and other carbs) "Limit to no more than 25% of total energy." Crazy! So, if you're on a 2000 kcal diet, you should consume no more than 500 kcal of ADDED sugar.

So, where does the 40g figure come from? I don't know, but I think it is a misunderstanding (somewhat similar to the VitaminA - Retinol - Beta Carotene mess), in a double sense: (1) CC fail to distinguish between intrinsic and extrinsic and (2) they may well have latched on to the DRI's table 6.1 in the doc (ref below) which states (by inference - the actual figures given are for 1600, 2200 & 2800 kcal) that a 2,000 kcal diet is fine with 40g (10 tsp of 4g) of ADDED sugar.

I havent't kept links for the two DRI docs (I have them as pdf files) but you should find them easily enough if interested:

Dietary Reference Intakes (DRIs): Recommended Intakes for Individuals, (p6 is the joker)

Dietary Carbohydrates: Sugars and Starches (p267, a.k.a. p3 of 74 in chapter 6)

on the USDA's web-site:

http://fnic.nal.usda.gov/nal_display/index.ph p?info_center=4&tax_level=2&tax_subje ct=256&topic_id=1342&placement_defaul t=0

Dietary Carbohydrates: Sugars and Starches

Lot of good insights. I have check out some of the information you have provided. I think despite restricting meat from my diet my protein is not that far off. I am going to start supplements with a protein drink to boost that up a bit. I have been eating smaller meals several times per day and feel much better.

I am going for a 30 cleansing eating no meat. Not total vegan, just no meats.  Prior to this I always tried to stay low carb on a Doctors advice. But I always avoided fruits as they always had lots of carbs. It makes better sense to eat more fruits and vegetables.  I feel better and can't believe how much I actually get to eat and still stay under my total calorie requirements for the day.

I love this site it was always recomended by my doctor to keep a food diary, but is seemed to cumbersome with the looking foods up in a book and writing them down. This is a great site. I love it. There just need to be some improvements on certain foods, I have found some variations on calories on some foods that can be confusing. Overall this seems to be a great tool for those of us trying to diet or just watch what we eat.

Kudos.

Mike