The Nutrient Balance Concept: A New Quality Metric for Composite Meals and Diets.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Combinations of foods that provide suitable levels of nutrients and energy are required for optimum health. Currently, however, it is difficult to define numerically what are 'suitable levels'.

Objective

To develop new metrics based on energy considerations-the Nutrient Balance Concept (NBC)-for assessing overall nutrition quality when combining foods and meals.

Method

The NBC was developed using the USDA Food Composition Database (Release 27) and illustrated with their MyPlate 7-day sample menus for a 2000 calorie food pattern. The NBC concept is centered on three specific metrics for a given food, meal or diet-a Qualifying Index (QI), a Disqualifying Index (DI) and a Nutrient Balance (NB). The QI and DI were determined, respectively, from the content of 2

SUBMITTER: Fern EB 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4503684 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature