Food & Nutrition

mellykai2020

I'm confused with the nutrition guidelines. I eat healthy most of the time, and mostly whole foods. Today in the nutritional section it told me I should have 0 polyunsaturated & 0 monounsaturated fats, which are the good fats!! It said I needed more saturated fats, which Is the bad fats!! I'm using the free app and I love using it but I think this is definitely mis-information. Does anyone have any insight on this?
Thank you,
Kelly

durden

The Total Fat column represents the total of "Total Fat" as a category, but not necessarily the total of all the sub categories of fat.

The reason is, it is not mandatory that food nutritional labels include the break down of fat in the sub categories. However, if the information has been provided we will then show it in the sub categories.

As for the Saturated Fat, this is also still a sub category of the total fat, with a limit. The goal is actually meant to be a limit. Unfortunately, there's not a very tidy way to make this evident, given the screen real estate available to apps, and our desire to keep the nutrition table neatly organized.

Our recommendation is one should not surpass the total fat goal in grams, and their intake of saturated fat (definitely the least healthy!) should not be more than a portion of that intake. This is why we put a "goal" on Saturated fat, and leave the other sub-categories without a goal.

If users stay within (or under) the saturated fat goal, then the rest of their fat intake will naturally be from the more healthful options of mono or poly unsaturated fats.

In summary the best way to look at the Fat category is try not to surpass your "Total Fat", and while trying not to surpass that total, out of that number your Saturated Fat should not be more than the recommended amount.

The remaining sub categories will simply be a further break down of the fat when that information is available.

Please also remember the Fat percentage goal is a calorie goal and not an actual gram goal. While carbs and protein each have 4 calories per gram, Fat actually has 9 calories per gram.

Most food labels report Fat, Carbs, and Protein in grams per serving, so this is the value used when totaling your macronutrient goals in the Nutrient Details area of your diary.

However, a gram of fat will move you toward your Net Calorie goal a little more than twice as quickly as a gram of protein or carbs. For this reason, your macronutrient calorie ratio is influenced by this difference in "calorie density."

The default macro ratio is 50% of calories from carbs, 20% of calories from protein, and 30% of calories from fat. But because the fat grams are more than twice as "dense" as the carb or protein grams, roughly the same number of grams of protein and fat are required to deliver 20% of your calorie goal from protein, and 30% from fat.

If you'd like to customize your own goals please see: https://myfitnesspal.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360032274432-Can-I-customize-my-nutritional-goals

cwolfman13

mellykai2020 wrote: »

I'm confused with the nutrition guidelines. I eat healthy most of the time, and mostly whole foods. Today in the nutritional section it told me I should have 0 polyunsaturated & 0 monounsaturated fats, which are the good fats!! It said I needed more saturated fats, which Is the bad fats!! I'm using the free app and I love using it but I think this is definitely mis-information. Does anyone have any insight on this?
Thank you,
Kelly

For poly and monounsaturated fats, it is zero because there is no current guidance from any health body as to what targets should be...it really should just say N/A. Saturated fats aren't necessarily bad...they are actually necessary to a variety of hormone regulation...but they have an upper limit of consumption.