How To Use Nutrition Data In Planning An Effective Diet

By Marion Peters

Today it seems like everywhere you turn to on the web and on popular media, you are likely to run into someone selling you a diet program. While some of the diets being promoted may have worked for others, there is no guarantee they will be similarly good for you. As such, use the guidelines below to customize your own plan using the handy nutrition data on food packaging.

It is important to note that many people working on a diet are more concerned about the caloric content of any food item. Without downplaying the importance of keeping track of how many calories every dish comes with, there is more to a diet program. You need to ensure that you keep track of the nutrients, vitamins and minerals contained in the foods you take so as to remain within the recommended percentages in your diet program.

It is important to have a diet guide that comprises just recommended nutritional intakes per day. This makes it easy as all you will need to do is identify dishes and snacks with the required nutritional content and distribute these as you please throughout the day's meals. Use a table with at least five columns or a spreadsheet program to prepare your diet journal.

To plan your meals, study the nutritional data as set in the packaging. Begin by outlining what you will have during the main meal of the day such as the dinner. Take care to note if the amounts indicated show nutrients per serving, the whole package or what is contained in a specified weight of the food item.

For each day, you will need to plan a set of nutritional elements as set out in your diet guide. Indicate the first element such as carbohydrates on the first column and leave four or five rows blank before indicating the next nutrient. Transfer the daily recommended intake against each nutrient in the second column of the journal. The other columns will be used to indicate amount set for each meal.

The blank rows shown after each nutritional element should be used to indicate food items to be taken that day to meet the allotted nutrients. After setting the amount for the main meals, the deficit can be distributed for the snacks and drinks. All the while you should watch the totals to keep everything within set limits.

You can plan a healthy diet with little effort. Begin by making a tabulated journal to keep track of how much of particular nutrients you take on a typical day. The nutrition data on packaged food items will help you make the plan even easier to set in motion.


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