Several options are available to help you determine the nutritional value of your home-cooked meals: do the research and calculations on your own, use an online tool or other software that calculates nutrition values, or rely on package labeling. The number of ingredients in your meal and the amount of nutritional information you need to know impact the amount of time and effort it will take to calculate the nutritional value.
Step 1
Target your desired nutritional information. Organize the process by defining the information that's important to you. It takes less time to calculate only the basic calories, protein, carbohydrates, sugar, fat or fiber content. On the other hand, you can go in-depth and determine the values for any one, or all, of the vitamins, minerals, types of fats and amino acids.
Step 2
Create a method to record the information. Develop a simple form that can be used as a template. Consider using a grid format in which the nutrients you want to track are listed across the top and spaces for ingredients go down the left margin. That way you can easily see if you have all the nutritional information for each ingredient.
Step 3
Research each ingredient. Use the USDA nutrient database or NutritionData.com to look up every item in the meal or ingredient in the recipe and write down the nutritional values you want to track for each item. Information in the USDA nutrient database is presented as measurements. NutritionData.com includes the measurements and a percentage value based upon a 2,000 calorie a day diet. Don't forget to look-up the nutritional values for ingredients that seem insignificant, such as baking powder or seasonings. They may increase the amount of salt more than you imagine. You may also be surprised to learn that a small ingredient is a good source of some vitamins or minerals.
Step 4
Calculate nutritional value. Add the nutritional values for each ingredient in the meal or recipe. While this is a simple addition, it can be time consuming if you're interested in calculating all of the vitamins and minerals. If your recipe serves several people, divide the total by the number of servings to determine nutrients per serving.
Step 5
Use recipe analysis tools. Doing the research and math on your own is a great way to become familiar with the nutritional values of the foods you eat most often, but convenient online tools are available that calculate the nutritional value of your meal as well. After a quick registration process at NutritionData.com or SparkRecipes.com, you can list the ingredients in your recipe, click on the analyze button and receive a detailed analysis of all the nutritional values in the meal.
Step 6
Consult nutrition labeling on the packages. If you have package labeling available for every ingredient in your meal, you can rely on that information. The labels give the nutrition for one serving, so just add together the information from the label for each ingredient you used and you'll have the nutritional value for one serving.
Step 7
Download software to track your diet and analyze the nutritional values. The University of Illinois offers a nutritional analysis tool (Resource 2) and countless others are available at a variety of prices, including the Recipe Box Nutrient Calculator (Resource 3.)
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