When you are talking about nutrition, one term that gets thrown around a lot is “nutrient rich.” For example, if you were to tell someone they lacked nutrients in their diet, they would probably agree with you.
But what does this mean? And how do we know how many of each nutrient people have consumed per day?
There are several ways to determine this information, but most focus on either measuring the amount of a specific nutrient in your blood or estimating how much of a certain food item you eat. By knowing these numbers, we can calculate an average for all the nutrients in your diet and assess whether your current diet contains enough of them.
This article will go into more detail on some of the different types of nutritional intake measurements and what diseases relate to low levels of each nutrient. But first, let us talk about something important:
The definition of a gram (g)
A gram (abbreviated g) is a unit used to measure weight. So when you are referring to grams as part of nutritional science, you are using weights to compare sizes between similar items.
For example, 1kg (2lb.) of water is 100g of water. A banana has roughly 150 calories so it is considered a high calorie food item.
Conversion of grams to other units
When you are doing math in food, there is an easy way to remember how many mg your serving is of any ingredient. You can use our new interactive tool to find this information!
The Nutrition Calculator allows you to input the name or number of an ingredient and its amount per daily intake. It will then convert that into either percent DV (Daily Value) or Mg (milligram) values.
For example, if you were eating one ounce (28 g) of almonds per day, their vitamin C content would be around 4% of their total weight. This equals about 1 mg of vitamin c for every 28 grams of nuts you eat!
That’s not very much compared to the recommended 15 mg for adults over the age of 18 years! So although you might want to enjoy your favorite snack to the fullest, don’t forget that nutritional value comes down to what you’re drinking with it as well.
Conversion of kilograms to other units
In our daily lives, we go through lots of different types of weights. We weigh ourselves every day, we check in at airports and train stations, we buy food at stores and eat it, and we measure medicine before taking them.
All of these things are done in metric or imperial systems depending on what type weight you are talking about!
Imperial system: The most common way to describe weight is in pounds (also known as avoirdupois). One pound equals 2 kgs of water so one kilogram = two pounds. This can be confusing because there is also another unit called a stone which has a volume of 1kg per 3lbs.
So a pound equals 0.5 kg per 0.33 lbs or one third of a stone. There are 168 stones in a pound. For example, if a person weighs 200 pounds then they have 56 pounds of bone plus 112 pounds of fat so their total weight would be 168 x 200 = 336 ounces or 14.3 kgs!
This may sound weird but only because we use the British measurement system where one pound is not equal to two thousand grams like in the US.
One thousand milligrams equals one gram
Today we are going to talk about how many grams in a teaspoon of sugar. For those who do not know, a “gram” is defined as 1/100th of a pound. A “pound” is actually referring to a weight unit but only uses that term when talking about food! So a “pound” of anything means 2kg (4lb) of whatever it is.
For our purposes, let us say that a “pound” refers to the amount of time it takes you to walk up a set of stairs. The number above says that for every 100 steps you take, it will take two minutes to climb them. This way, one minute per step = 200 steps = Two pounds of walking!
Now, what does this have to do with sugars? Well, most people seem obsessed with the number of grams in a spoonful of sugar. They will compare their favorite dessert or drink to see how much sugar they contain and then calculate how many grams of sugar they eat per day.
This can become very annoying because sometimes there is a lot of confusion over whether or not something contains a high amount of sugar. It is also very hard to compare one product to another due to no standardization of terms.
One thousand grams equals one kilogram
Almost every food item we eat has an exact number of calories in it. These calorie numbers are determined by how many calories the ingredient contains, how much each ingredient is, and then adding these up to get the total amount for a given recipe or meal.
The number of calories in most foods is listed on the label, but what people do not realize is that this list does not tell you the true nutritional value of the food. It only lists the total number of calories, so it cannot determine whether those calories come from carbohydrates, proteins, or fat.
Another confusing factor about using “calorie” as a way to evaluate a diet is that some companies add extra weight to a product to make it seem more nutritious. For example, they may put butter or cream in the food to increase the nutrition content, but also add additional calories. This is because nutrients contain water and fats have an inner core with hydrogen atoms which take away positive charge, so they pack more tightly than other substances like sugar or protein.
Thus, having too much saturated fat can be worse for your health than no fat at all! An easy way to recognize if a diet is high in carbs or fat is by looking at the number of grams per serving. Unfortunately, there is no standard definition of a serving size, so depending on what you use as yours may differ slightly from others.
However, you can easily check this information for any given food via their database or web search.
Multiply grams by grams
The number of calories in a food item is determined by multiplying its gram value per serving size by its number of servings. So, for example, if a restaurant has one hamburger with three slices bread as an appetizer and an additional side of fries, then you would calculate: 1 burger × 3 pieces bread = 3 calories total for the appeasrments
And now that you know how many calories are in a meal, you can use those numbers to find out how much weight gain or loss you will get from eating a specific amount of food!
Determining your daily calorie intake depends on two factors: Your activity level and what you eat. If you are sleeping 10 hours a day, you will need less sleep than someone who works 9-hour shifts every day. Similarly, if you stay indoors most of the time, you will need fewer calories to maintain your body’s temperature.
Multiply grams by kilograms
The other way to determine how many calories you consume per day is to multiply your total food intake (not snacks) by its weight. For example, if you eat two sandwiches made with one slice of bread each, then add an apple, we would count the sandwich as 1 item and the apple as another.
So, in this case, our calculation would be 2 x 0.5 = 0.50 serving plus 1 x 584 for the apple, which equals about 580 calories. This is not including any drink additions or condiments, nor was there a water component involved.
This can be tricky because sometimes people will say they’re only counting 700-800 calories even though that may include more than 800mL of liquid.
Multiply milligrams by grams
The number you get in the end is how many times more or less your food item has an amount of caffeine. For example, a cup of coffee contains 400 mg of caffeine so that would be 4000 mg for one glass (or mug) of coffee.
One soda can have 20 mg of caffeine so that would be 200 mg for one drink. A normal size bag of M&Ms typically has 24 g which means it would have 384 mg of caffeine depending on what type of chocolate chip cookie flavor you choose!
That is why people often say something like “I could just eat the whole thing” when they are hungry and want to taste as much junk food as possible. Caffeine makes us feel sleepy so we might stay awake longer to enjoy all the snacks.
It also helps us manage our blood pressure and heart rate because it takes away some of the quickened pulse rates caused by stress. So, even though it may not directly help with studying, eating enough caffeine can still make you feel better overall.
