Profiles
Creating an account and setting up a personal profile allows you to store all entries and queries you make on this site. This makes future navigation easier and enables you to monitor and analyze your dieting progress. In addition, an account allows you to write a journal and, if you choose to do so, publish your logs and entries. With the help of our ranking system, you can then compare your dieting efforts with those of your fellow dieting colleague's. Accounts are free and can be deleted at any time.
In order to create an account, click here and follow the instructions provided during the sign-up process.
Browsers
To find out nutrition facts of foods or calorie expenditure of activities, select one of the categories on the left or use our search tool to locate items.
You can also print out standard FDA fashioned food labels for any food in the database - just look for the print link at the top of the page.
FDA Nutrition Facts Label
The well-known U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Nutrition Facts Label is very useful for determining the quality of food items, and it is provided in its standard layout for every article in our foods database. The label consists of the following main elements:
- Serving size
This element is shown at the top of the label, and most food items can be analyzed for various serving sizes. Nutrients of those items with only one selection of serving size have to be scaled up or down according to the difference of the actual serving size and that used in our database.
- Calories and calories from fat
The first value shows the total number of calories stored in that particular serving size of that food item. It should be used for traditional calorie counting purposes, in which dieters strive not to exceed a certain number of calories per day. The second value is mostly used by people on low-fat diets, who limit the consumption of items rich in fat. For a discussion on different dieting philosophies, click here.
- Nutrients to be limited
This element shows total fat, cholesterol, and sodium values. According to the FDA, intake of these nutrients should be kept as low as possible for a nutritionally balanced and healthy diet.
- Nutrients to get enough of
Last but not least, dietary fiber, various vitamins, calcium, and iron values are shown. Eating enough of these can improve your health and help reduce the risk of some diseases and conditions. For example, getting enough calcium may reduce the risk of osteoporosis, a condition that results in brittle bones as one ages. Eating a diet high in dietary fiber promotes healthy bowel function. Additionally, a diet rich in fruits, vegetables, and grain products that contain dietary fiber, particularly soluble fiber, and low in saturated fat and cholesterol may reduce the risk of heart disease.
Item Breakdown, Daily Values, and Nutrition Grade
Item Breakdown helps determine the origin of macronutrients. This will be mostly relevant to people on either a low-carb or low-fat diet.
Just as important is the consumed amount of each one of the macronutrients, which is shown in the Daily Values chart. It should be noted that the daily values used for calculation correspond to the FDA recommendations.
Last but not least, Nutrition Grade provides a quick summary of all of the FDA recommendations. The foods macro- and micronutrients are analyzed for quality and quantity, and the traditional grading system (A - best; F - worst) is used to present the results.
Please note that the Nutrition Grade system represents Calorie-Count.com's interpretation of the FDA recommendations, and is given without warranty and not intended to replace the advice of healthcare professionals.