MyFood-A-Pedia is a new nutrition tool designed for users to quickly access a food’s calories and MyPyramid food group information. This application also allows you to compare two different food items.
What makes this tool unique from other online calorie counters is that is calculates the total number of discretionary – or “extra”- calories from alcohol, solid fats, and added sugars in foods. These “extras” contribute to weight gain mainly because they sneak into our diets. Added sugars in “juice” drinks, sodas, and fat-free or light products can sneak up on a dieter without them even being aware. Alcohol contains 7 calories per gram and contains no nutritional benefit. Solid fats – such as saturated and trans fats – are artery-clogging fats that lead to atherosclerosis and other heart issues.
I did a few comparisons on the MyFood-A-Pedia site to give you an idea of how much two foods can vary – or how little they vary – in terms of their discretionary calories and nutritional benefit:
1. Orange Juice vs. Orange (Raw): One raw orange contains 62 calories, in comparison to a cup of sweetened orange juice that contains 130 calories. The orange juice also contains 29 extra calories, most likely from added sugars.
2. French Fries (deep-fried) vs. Baked Potato (plain): The calorie difference between French fries and a baked potato was huge – more than 300 calories! (478 for deep-fried french fries with ketchup compared to 159 for a baked potato). The French fries also contained 238 extra calories from solid fats… more than the total for the baked potato!
source: MyFood-A-Pedia
3. Butter vs. Margarine (and other spreads): I chose butter, stick margarine, and tub margarine. These items contained 36, 35, and 34 calories, respectively. All calories were considered “extras” from the solid fat. I wanted to compare these items because many people mistake margarine as a healthy alternative to butter, when in fact it contains nearly the exact same amount of calories per serving size, as well as the same amount of artery-clogging, bad-f0r-you fat. On the other hand, reduced-calorie margarine spread contained only 17 calories (and zero extras!) and light butter contained 25 calories (a 10 calorie reduction) with only 3 calories from solid fats.
While this online tool is a great way to find the calorie information about certain foods and to compare it to another as a healthier alternative, I did find one issue with MyFood-A-Pedia. I think it would be a much better tool if it provided more information than just how many calories it contained and what food group the item belonged to. It would be interesting to compare foods based on their fiber, vitamin and mineral, and fat contents as well as calories. Another tool that compared foods’ sugar content or grams of carbs might be beneficial for diabetics. However, I think this is a great start and an excellent complement to the MyPyramid tool that allows users to customize meal plans based on their specific MyPyramid plan. For more information or to use the MyFood-A-Pedia, visit http://www.myfoodapedia.gov/
View full post on Balanced Health and Nutrition Rebecca Scritchfield, RD
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