With good nutritional knowledge, cooking meals can work to improve your health. Knowing how to calculate the amount of calories, carbs and sodium is helpful in maintaining a healthy diet. These energy sources and nutrients are needed for proper body functioning. However, ingesting improper amounts of these energy sources and nutrients over time may increase your risk of certain diseases. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recommends limiting the amount of calories and sodium you intake while making sure you get enough fiber, which is a type of carbohydrate, in your diet.
Step 1
List all of your nutrients on separate lines of a sheet of notebook paper. Create three additional columns along the page. Label the top of the first column calories, the second sodium in milligrams, or mg, and the third column carbs, in grams or g.
Step 2
Scan the package of your first ingredient for the nutrition facts section. The serving size information will be listed at the top of this section. Evaluate this information by measuring your ingredient using a food scale, cup measure or measuring spoon. Use a calculator or make a mental calculation to determine how many serving sizes your recipe calls for.
Step 3
Look below the serving size information for details regarding specific nutrients. The first header will state amount per serving, indicating that the number following each nutrient or energy source type will be the amount of the nutrient included in each serving of the ingredient.
Step 4
Turn your attention to the calories section of the food label to determine how many calories, or the first number after the word calories, there are per serving of your food item. Determine how many calories your food item contains based on your recipe ingredient serving size. Record this information in the calories column of your notebook.
Step 5
Locate the sodium section of the food label to determine how many units of sodium, usually milligrams, there are per serving of your food item. Determine how many units of sodium your food item contains based on your recipe's serving size. Write this information down.
Step 6
Scan to the carbs section of the nutrition facts to determine how many carbs in grams there are per serving of your food item. Determine how many carbs your food item contains based on serving size. Record this information.
Step 7
Obtain calorie, sodium and carb information for unpackaged items, such as certain fresh fruits and vegetables, through Livestrong's MyPlate tool. There is a link in the Resources section to get to MyPlate. Once you have navigated to MyPlate, enter the desired food under the section entitled "What did you eat?" Determine the calorie and nutrient amounts and transfer them to your notebook.
Step 8
Tabulate your column of calories, sodium and carbs for total recipe values of each nutrient.
Step 9
Refer back to these tabulations in the future when remaking the recipe. Tweak nutrient values as serving sizes and food label information change.
Things You'll Need
- Recipe Food Packaging
- MyPlate Tool
- Calculator
- Food Scale (Optional)
- Cup Measure (Optional)
- Measuring Spoons (Optional)
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