It is easier to make healthy food for yourself and your family at home than it is to find healthy options in restaurants or as ready-made convenience food, according to the U.S. Agriculture Department's 2010 publication "Dietary Guidelines for Americans." However, keeping track of your calories, fat, protein, carbohydrates, fiber and other nutrients can be a bit difficult when you are cooking from scratch. Using the "Nutrition Facts" label on packaged foods and a good reference guide for fruits, vegetables and other foods that don't come with a label, you can evaluate the nutritional value of all of your favorite recipes.
Step 1
Find the nutritional information of each individual ingredient in your recipe. If the food did not come with a "Nutrition Facts" label, use a resource like the "USDA Nutrient Laboratory Database for Standard Reference".
Step 2
Add the nutritional information in which you are interested from each ingredient to get the total nutritional value for the entire recipe.
Step 3
Divide each summed nutrient value by the number of servings in your recipe. For example, if the whole recipe contains 1,200 calories and there are six servings, each serving contains 200 calories.
Tips and Warnings
- Keep a record of the nutritional value of ingredients you frequently use handy so you don't have to look far to find it.
Things You'll Need
- "Nutrition Facts" labels
- Guide for nutritional values
References
- USDA and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; Dietary Guidelines for Americans: 2010; December 2010
- "Foundations of Food Preparation, Sixth Edition"; Jeanne Himich Freeland-Graves, et al. 1996
- "Krause's Food and Nutrition Therapy: 12th Edition"; L. Kathleen Mahan, et al. ; 2008
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