Nutritional daily values come in handy when you're trying to eat healthy, because they help you measure how much of certain nutrients you're getting when you eat a certain food. That way, you know whether you need to eat more or less of those nutrients at future meals. Daily values are percentages that set a limit for less healthy nutrients, like fat and sodium, and a goal for beneficial nutrients like fiber and vitamins, according to the Clemson University Cooperative Extension.
Step 1
Find the nutrient you want to calculate the daily value for on the food's Nutrition Facts label. To find nutrition information for foods that don't have a label, use a nutrition tool, such as The Daily Plate. For instance, look at the sample label for macaroni and cheese on the Clemson University Cooperative Extension website. It shows that this food contains 12 g of fat.
Step 2
Use the USDA Dietary Guidelines to look up the recommended daily intake or recommended daily value for individual nutrients. For instance, the USDA recommends limiting your total fat intake to 65 g per day.
Step 3
Divide the amount of nutrient in your particular food by the total recommended daily amount. In the macaroni and cheese example, you'd divide 12 by 65, getting approximately 0.184.
Step 4
Multiply the total by 100 to get the percent daily value. Multiplying 0.184 by 100 gives you approximately 18 percent, letting you know that the macaroni and cheese in this example gives you 18 percent of your recommended fat intake for the day.
Tips and Warnings
- If you're looking for a particular nutrient but can't find a daily value for it, the reason may be that one hasn't been established. Some nutrients, like sugar, don't have daily value guidelines, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. You can use nutritional daily values to make smart eating decisions, says Mayo Clinic nutritionist Katherine Zeratsky. She says to look at the percentage. If it's 5 percent or less, the food you're considering is low in that nutrient --- a good thing when it comes to fat, cholesterol and sodium. If it's 20 percent or higher, your food is high in that particular nutrient --- a good thing for vitamins, minerals and fiber. If you're not sure which daily value percentage on a label to use because you aren't sure how many calories you eat every day, you can determine your average daily calorie intake by keeping a food diary for a week. List all the foods you eat and beverages you consume and calculate their calorie content based on your serving size. Add the totals together to get your daily calorie intake for seven days. Then find your average daily calorie intake by adding each day's totals together and dividing by 7. Use the calorie count on the label that's closest to your average calorie count.
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