Calorie Reality Check

Published on Friday, January 23, 2009, by Roxanne Webber / Edit Post

Chowhound Caralien tipped me off to the University of Illinois’ Nutrition Analysis Tool website. While it looks a little dated, the tool is extremely helpful in figuring out if a recipe is healthy. I don’t know if it was designed to do this or not, but it seems to work pretty well.

To get started, you enter your age, then the first ingredient that’s in your recipe into a box. That will take you to a page of matching foods from the tool’s database so you can select the exact one you want (most things are in there, but you may have to choose the closest match for specialty items). Then you enter the amount of that item. Thankfully, it offers measurements people actually use in cooking, like cups, tablespoons, teaspoons, and fluid ounces, so there’s no need to sit down and convert cups to grams or other complicated stuff. Continue entering all the foods and amounts in the recipe, then click “analyze foods” and it’ll spit out an analysis of all those ingredients showing the total calories, protein, fat, carbs, sodium, vitamin A, vitamin C, saturated fat, and cholesterol. It will also tell you the recommended daily amounts of each item, and what percentage the recipe will cover.

Don’t forget to divide the numbers by however many servings the recipe is supposed to make or you’ll get sticker shock when your lasagne adds up to more than 5,000 calories (the recipe served 10, so it was really around 500 calories a serving).

Nutritional Analysis Tool 2.0.

ALLNew Finds
POST A COMMENT |5 Comments

COMMENT

  • My favorite recipe analyzer is: http://caloriecount.about.com/cc/recipe_analysis.php

    You'll have to do some fidgeting with results some time, especially for unusual foods, but I find the interface supremely easy to use and much faster than ones where you add ingredients one at a time.

  • One of the other benefits of the NATS site is that there is no registration required whatsoever...

  • I use fitday.

  • I've been mentioned in a post? :)

    I only recently started using NATS for recipe information; in the past it was to see whether whatever I ate was nutritionally sound.

    I have found, more times than not, that convenience food ingredients in a recipe will make the sodium levels go through the roof, even when using healthier replacements (ie chicken for beef):
    ...+READ

    I've been mentioned in a post? :)

    I only recently started using NATS for recipe information; in the past it was to see whether whatever I ate was nutritionally sound.

    I have found, more times than not, that convenience food ingredients in a recipe will make the sodium levels go through the roof, even when using healthier replacements (ie chicken for beef):
    http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/585291#4298198-COLLAPSE

  • Or try this one: http://www.nutritiondata.com/

    If you register for the site, you can input your recipes and get the nutritional information and also store them in your account. Then you can not only reference them but you can plug them into a larger (daily, weekly) food plan. There are usually different options for determining quantities, and also for dividing up the total (whole recipe,...+READ

    Or try this one: http://www.nutritiondata.com/

    If you register for the site, you can input your recipes and get the nutritional information and also store them in your account. Then you can not only reference them but you can plug them into a larger (daily, weekly) food plan. There are usually different options for determining quantities, and also for dividing up the total (whole recipe, calories per ounce, calories per 100 grams, etc.).-COLLAPSE