Nutrient Profile, Viewing a Food's or Recipe's

At a Glance

The Nutrient Profile shows how much of each nutrient a food contains.

Table View

Bar Chart View

In Detail

Every food and recipe in the dictionary has a profile attached to it, showing how much of 33 different nutrients and subnutrients it contains. You can display the profile in two ways: as a bar chart or as a table. You can also make a printout.

To view a food or recipe's nutrient profile:

Open either the Food Dictionary (containing all foods and recipes) or the Recipe Box (containing only recipes). If you don't know how to do this, see Food Dictionary or Recipe Box.

Find the item whose profile you want to view. (See Dictionaries, Searching the.)

Highlight the item, by clicking its name.

Click the tab labeled "Nutrient Profile." Diet Power will uncover the Nutrient Profile page, showing the nutrients in the item you highlighted.

To toggle between bar-chart and table views...

...click the drop-list button in the upper-left corner of the dialog.

To open any nutrient's Help topic...

...right-click its name.

Interpreting the Bar Chart

The chart is actually two pages long. To flip between the pages, click the word More in the lower-left corner.

The bar beside each nutrient represents the percentage of your Personal Daily Allowance (PDA) that the food or recipe contains. (Be careful not to confuse this with the percentage of Daily Value, used on food labels.) When the figure is greater than 200 percent, the percentage is shown numerically in the right margin. (The upper limit for the margin display is 9999 percent. Percentages above that are displayed as ">9999.")

The bars are also color-coded:

$image\diet0039.gif$ Green indicates that for most people, the food or recipe would be considered good where this nutrient is concerned—either the nutrient is highly prized and this item contains a lot, or the nutrient is a problem but the item contains very little. (This is true only up to a point, of course. It's possible to get too much or too little of almost any nutrient.)

$image\diet0040.gif$ Magenta indicates that for most people, the item would be considered bad where this nutrient is concerned—either the nutrient is highly prized and this item contains little, or the nutrient is a problem and the item contains a lot. Again, however, this is true only up to a point, and for some people and some nutrients it may not be true at all.

$image\diet0071.gif$ Cyan indicates nutrients for which this item would be considered neither "bad" nor "good."

$image\diet0038.gif$ A missing bar indicates an amount that is either zero or (when the nutrient's name is grayed out) unknown.

The exact meaning of each color varies from nutrient to nutrient. To learn the details for any nutrient, right-click its name and scroll down to the section headed "Color Coding of This Nutrient."

Interpreting the Table

Unlike the bar chart, the table view is restricted to a single page and doesn't give a quality rating for each nutrient. Nevertheless, it delivers more information. Besides the percentage of Daily Value, it shows:

The absolute amount of each nutrient. Units are indicated by an abbreviation following the nutrient's name: "g" for grams, "mg" for milligrams, "µg" for micrograms, "IU" for International Units, or "fl oz" for fluid ounces.

The number of calories from fat, carbohydrate, protein, and alcohol in the item, listed in the lower-left corner. (These do not always add up to the "Calories" figure at the top of the nutrient list. Reason: The bottom tally assumes that each gram of fat, carbohydrate, protein, and alcohol contributes nine, four, four, and seven calories, respectively—the formula commonly used by nutritionists. Some foods don't obey the formula.)

The food or recipe's Key Ratio, shown in pie-chart form underneath the table.

The categories into which the food or recipe has been placed (if any), displayed in the lower-right corner.

Which nutrient values are unknown. These are indicated by question marks. (Exception: Items with unknown amounts of fat, carbohydrate, protein, or alcohol will show zeroes in those columns instead of question marks. For an explanation, see the second paragraph of "Fat" in Foods, Filling in Nutrients, Etc., When Creating or Editing.)

To print a nutrient profile:

Click the Print button underneath the profile. The Windows Print dialog will appear.

Change your print settings, if necessary.

Click OK or press the Enter key.

The printout will include all the information on both the bar-chart and table views, as well as a pie chart of the Key Ratio. (Exception: For lack of space, the printout won't include the food categories in which the item resides.) Each nutrient value is expressed not only in absolute units, but also as a percentage of your Personal Daily Allowance. (If you prefer expressing them as a percentage of Daily Value—for sending to friends, for example—use the E-mail to a Friend button.

To e-mail a nutrient profile...

,,,just click the E-mail to a Friend button. An e-mail will open with the profile already attached, ready for you to address and send.

To close the Nutrient Profile:

If you want to stay in the Food Dictionary or the Recipe Box, click the tab for the page you'd like to switch to.

If you'd rather go back to the Home Screen, click Close or press the Enter key. (If the Close button is not visible, see Taskbar, Hiding to Make Screens Deeper.)

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Last Modified: 10/6/06