BASIC TOOLS IN NUTRITION

 Food Guides: Food pyramid or other visual aids

 Dietary Standards

 Dietary Guidelines

 Food composition tables

 Food exchange lists

 Use of computers

 Nutrient Density

 Nutrition Labelling
FOOD PYRAMID GUIDE
 Developed by nutrition experts or educators
 Qualitative tool in planning nutritious diets for masses

 Translates nutritional requirements into simple, practical

and non-technical language
 Three main groups
 Body-building foods
 Regulating foods
 Energy foods

It teaches us to eat a variety of food daily and to take up the

recommended bulk or volume.
DIETARY STANDARDS
 Compilations of nutrient requirements or allowances in
specific quantities

 Assess the nutritional adequacy of diets and principle

individuality
 1. Dietary requirements
 -minimum amount needed

 For essential nutrients to attain good health under

specific for age, sex, weight, physical activity,
physiological conditions, state of health and etc.
 Close approximates and should not be interpreted as
final and accurate
 2. Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDA)
 Minimum requirements plus a safety factor called
“margin of safety” to allow for individual variations of
body storage, state of health, nutrient utilization and
other day-to-day variations within a person.
 Always higher than the minimum dietary req.
 Recommended Energy and Nutrient Intakes (RENI),
2002

 To emphasize that the standards are in terms of nutrients

and not foods or diets
USES OF RDA
 1. Food planning and procurement
 2. Food programs

 3. Evaluating dietary survey data

 4. Guides for food selection

 5. Guides for food selection

 6. Food and nutrition information and education

 7. Food labelling

 8. Food fortification

 9. Developing new or modified food products

 10. Clinical dietetics

 11. Nutrient supplements and special dietary foods

3.DIETARY REFERENCE INTAKES (DRIS)
 Provide 3 sets of measures for each nutrient
 Estimated Average Requirement (EAR), a daily nutrient
intake value that is estimated to meet the requirement half of
the healthy individuals in a life stage or gender group.

 RDA, which are average daily dietary intake level sufficient

to meet nutrient requirements
 Adequate Intake (AI), a recommended intake value based
on observed or experimentally determined estimates of
nutrient intake by a group of healthy people that are assumed
to be adequate
 Used when RDA cannot be determined)

 Tolerable Upper Intake Levels (UL), the highest level of

daily nutrient intake that is likely to pose no risk or adverse
effects in almost all individuals in general population
FOOD COMPOSITION TABLE (FCT)
 Used worldwide
 The chemical composition of a food, whether of animal
or plant origin, varies according to kind or breed,
maturity or age, part of plant or carcass, soil fertility,
climate, handling and storage conditions, marketing and
agricultural practices and a host of other uncontrollable
factors.
FOOD EXCHANGE LIST
 Is a grouping of common foods that have practically the
same amount of protein, carbohydrate and fat.
 Within a group, one food item can be exchanged with
another provided the specified serving portion is
followed.
 Used to calculate protein, carbohydrate, fat and calories
in a given meal or diet.
NUTRITIONAL GUIDELINES
 Primary recommendations to promote good health habits
through proper nutrition.
 Purpose:
 1.Provide the general public with recommendations about
proper diet and wholesome practices

 2.Provide those concerned with nutrition information and

education with a handy reference for their counselling and
educational services
DIETARY GUIDELINES FOR FILIPINOS
 Eat a variety of foods
 Breastfeed infants exclusively from birth

 Maintain children’s normal growth and development

through proper diet and monitor their growth regularly
 Consume fish, lean meat, poultry or dried beans

 Eat more vegetables, fruits and root crops

 Eat foods cooked in edible/cooking oil daily

 Consume milk, milk products and other calcium-rich

foods
NUTRIENT DENSITY
 When a person says “this food is nutritious”
 Food contains more nutrients other than calories

It is a relative measure of nutrients in food proportion to its

caloric intake.
INQ (index of nutrient quality)
%RDA of nutrient
% energy req.
NUTRITIONAL LABELLING
 Is a description intended to inform the consumer of
nutritional properties.
 2 components:

1. Nutrient declaration-standardized statement of listing

of the nutrient content food
2. Nutrition claim-representation which states or implies
that a food has some particular nutritional properties
 Purposes:
1. Remind the consumers to make wise choice of reading
the label
2. Remind the manufacturer or producer to convey the
nutrient content of information on the label
3. Manufacturer not to mislead or deceive consumers and
that, no nutrition claims are made without approval by
appropriate authorities
NUTRIENT LABELLING IN THE PHIL.
 BFAD (DOH)
 Consumers should not buy packaged goods not properly
labelled
 Infant food label does not list calories from fat, saturated
fat and cholesterol
 For parents not to limit infant’s intake , because infants need
fat for its essential fatty acids and also as a concentrated
source of calories “to fuel rapid growth”
USE OF COMPUTERS
 Important tool in nutrition education, dietary analyses,
diagnostic procedures and therapeutic aids
 OVERVIEW OF NUTRITIONAL
ASSESSMENT
 Basic Concepts and Definitions:
 Nutritional Screening is defined as the process of identifying
nutritional characteristics known to be associated with
nutritional problems.

 Nutriture (nutritional status) is the condition of the body that

results from the utilization of essential nutrients made
available from his/her daily diet.
 Assessment of nutritional status is the appraisal of the
magnitude and geographical distribution of its nutrition
problems.

 Nutrition surveillance is carried out by a regular or

periodic evaluation of measurements that can be used to
indicate present as well as future changes in nutritional
status.
OBJECTIVES OF NUTRITIONAL
ASSESSMENT
 To collect basic data on nutritional status of the population
to be used as guide in planning, formulation and
modifications of action programs intended to improve the
nutrition and health of the community/population.

 Identify specific nutrition problems

 Determine the extent and geographic distribution of
malnutrition problems
 Determine the ecological factors that directly and indirectly
affect malnutrition
 Make local government, civic organizations, and other fund-
controlling administrators to realize the extent of the problems.
FOUR GENERAL METHODS OF
NUTRITIONAL ASSESSMENT
 ABCD
1. Anthropometric measurements
 Height
and weight
 Hamwi method
 %IBW=Current weight/ideal weight x 100
 IBW for males=106 lbs for 5 feet plus 6 pounds per inch over 5 feet

 IBW for females=100lbs for 5 feet plus 5 pounds per inch over 5 feet

 Add 10% for large frame.

 Subtract 10% for small frame.

 A weight of 20% or more above the IBW due to
accumulation of body fat indicates obesity.

 % of weight loss=usual weight minus present weight

usual weight divide by usual weight x 100

 Unplanned and/or recent weight loss of 10% in a period

of 30 days is a risk factor for malnutrition, while weight
loss exceeding 20% is a high risk factor for surgical
patients.
 Biochemical Assessment-laboratory tests
 Clinical Assessment-physical examination

 Dietary Assessments
 24hour food recall
 Food frequency questionnaire
 Food records