20/40/40 Balanced meals

Calculating 20/40/40 for your meals is pretty simple. You need to know a few basics about reading a nutritional label to get it right. Let's take a look at the nutritional information from a relatively balanced snack bar. Nutritional labels are very confusing. They mix up different facts and the layout implies a relationship between dissimilar components. This is the nutritional information for a Think Thin Chocolate Fudge bar:

NUTRITION FACTS

Serving Size: 60g
Servings Per Container: 1
Calories 260
Calories from fat 72
Total Fat 8 g
Saturated Fat 2.5 g
Trans Fat 0 g
Cholesterol 5 mg
Sodium 150 mg
Potassium 110 mg
Total Carbohydrate 27 g
Dietary Fiber 1 g
Sugars 0 g
Sugar Alcohol 15 g
Other Carbohydrates 9 g
Protein 20 g

There are four primary components to check when reading a label:

Location of the manufacturer

Serving size

Energy Content (Calories)

Nutritional Content (Fat/Carbohydrates/Protein)

First, where does it come from? Buy foods that are in season, available locally, and have minimal packaging and processing. Look for foods that came from a farm or factory close to home. No reason to buy products that have been shipped across the country when you can get them locally. Better to buy the locally produced non-organic product than the organic product from farm or factory in another state. Try to find foods that are in-season. Shop at the farmer's market for the freshest, healthiest foods. There are a number of online tools that help you figure out what's in season. Try this one: http://www.sustainabletable.org/shop/eatseasonal/

Second, check the serving size. Food is often packaged with multiple servings per package so you want to check serving size to make sure you aren't eating more calories than you intend. In this case, 1 per container - 60 grams total weight.

Third, consider the calories. You want to make sure your total calorie content matches your daily plan. Calories is the amount of "energy" you'll get from eating this food.

Fourth, (this is the most important one for nutrition) check the nutritional value. Make sure that the calories are approximately 40% protein, 40% carbohydrates and 20% fat. For a simple rule of thumb, look for foods where the nutritional label shows carbs and protein nearly equal and the fat is about 1/4 of that amount. For example, a snack with 20g protein, 20g of carbs and 5 grams of fat is well balanced. The goal isn't perfect 20/40/40, but as close as you can as often as you can.

When making a meal or snack, you aren't likely to find foods with the exact 20/40/40 proportions. Combine items to make the balance. For example, if you are in the mood for some crackers, add some lean meat and cheese to get your protein and fat.

If you want the math to calculate 20/40/40, there is a simple formula: Fat contains 9 calories per gram. Carbohydrates and protein contain 4 calories per gram. Our Think Thin bar above has 8 grams of fat, 27 grams of carbohydrates and 20 grams of protein. So if you do the quick math, here's the breakdown:

Fat = 8g x 9 calories per gram = 72 calories from fat

Carbohydrates = 27g x 4 calories per gram = 108 calories from carbohydrates

Protein = 20g x 4 calories per gram = 80 calories from protein

To check the percentage of calories from each micronutrient, divide each by the total calories:

Fat = 72/260 = 28% Fat

Carbohydrates = 108/260 = 41% Carbohydrates

Protein = 80/260 = 31% Protein

References: Serving Size Definition http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/qa-lab18.html