We all have our favourite meals we love to cook. They could be cherished family recipes, something you saw a celebrity chef make, or they could be the product of your creative cook’s mind. Either way, these are recipes we cook often, so are therefore big contributors to the nutrients we get in our diets.
But how nutritious are my recipes exactly? And why should you care?
Well, the UK, US and other governments, have spent millions researching what nutrients do for our bodies and how much of them we need each day to be healthy. By nutrients we mean Macronutrients like protein, carbs, fat etc. and Micronutrients like vitamins, minerals, essential amino acids, Omegas etc. (read our blog post on Macronutrients vs Micronutrients to understand the difference between the two). The result of the research was the Recommended Daily Amounts (RDAs), or now more commonly the Reference Intakes (RIs).
If these nutrients are so important for our health, why are we not checking how many nutrients we are consuming each day?
It’s a good question, and here at CheckYourFood we believe we should be checking how much of our Recommended Daily Amounts we’re getting for all nutrients (see our post, Why Use a Food Diary/Nutrient Tracker). In short, if you are not getting the recommended daily amounts of all nutrients, your put yourself at risk of developing disease now or in later life.
By now you hopefully understand it’s important you know what nutrients you’re eating, and why it’s good to know what nutrients are in your recipes.
So, how do you find out how nutritious your recipes are?
That’s where the CheckYourFood Recipe Analyser comes in. You simply enter the ingredients of the recipes, how they are cooked, and in seconds it will show you the nutrients in that recipes. Amazing right? We like to think so.
One thing I will point out that makes CheckYourFood’s Recipe Analyser different than others you might come across, is that we take into consideration how the ingredient is cooked. Most other recipe analysing tools just let you add the ingredients raw. Why is this important? Well, most ingredients lose significant amounts of nutrients when cooked. They can be damaged through heat or lost into water. So, if you want a true representation of how nutritious your recipe is, you need to consider how its cooked.
OK, well now you know why it’s important to know what nutrients are in your recipes, and how easy it is to analyse one, so what are you waiting for? Why don’t you try analysing one now?
CheckYourFood
Guest Blog
This is a guest post provided by Hannah Garcia. This post may contain affiliate links, but rest assured we only print blogs that fit our strict guidelines and with links to companies that we approve of.
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