How to Figure the Nutritional Values for Homemade Recipes

You don't have to eat only prepackaged foods when dieting just because they come with the nutritional values printed on the boxes. Using a few calculations and the nutrient value charts provided by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), you can determine the nutritional values for any of your homemade recipes. You can find out how much vitamin C is in grandma's apple pie or the amount of protein in Uncle Bob's pork ribs.

Things You'll Need

• USDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference
• Calculator
• Recipes

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Instructions

• 1

  Type the name of your ingredient in the online, interactive USDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference (www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/search) to determine the nutritional value for the amount of each of the ingredients in your recipe. Enter the total amount of each ingredient used in the recipe. Write the amounts of the nutrients you wish to concentrate on next to the ingredient in the recipe.

• 2

  Add up the totals for each nutrient in the ingredients in the recipe. For instance, add the amounts of vitamin C for the ingredients separately from the number of calories in each ingredient to determine the total vitamin C in the entire recipe.

• 3

  Divide the total amounts for each nutrient by the number of servings produced in the recipe. For instance, a recipe with a total of 800 calories that makes six servings would have 150 calories per serving.