SUMMARY of 'Macro Food Components'

("Nutition Facts")
sugars, fiber, net-carbs
(= sugars + starches),
fats, protein

of MAJOR FOOD CATEGORIES

(vegetables, fruits, beans, nuts, meats, eggs, oils, grains, etc.)
Home > RefInfo menu >

Diet-Food-Med-Info Menu page >

Overview of Diet and Food-Content page >

This SUMMARY of CONTENT OF FOODS page

INTRODUCTION:

The following two tables give an overview of various "food categories" --- and food sub-categories --- their 'macro-nutrient-content' --- their "Nutition Facts".

Links to tables below:

'Individual' food category tables are available via the parent web page of this page.

The food categories and sub-categories in those 'individual' food category tables are used to present more detailed food-content-tables for individual foods (a table per major food category).

The "macro-nutrient-content" data for foods in those food-category-tables were used to make the summary observations on this page.

The tables below present, in columns, numbers for the following "Nutrition Facts" food contents

The tables below are based on the percents of these components in the food groups --- i.e. the tables are based on the "intensity" of the components in the food groups.

    Note that we are not applying a correction factor for water content, even though water is about 70 to 80% of most cellular content, and the human body relatively quickly eliminates the water that is separated from the food.

    For example, 'sugarS' in most fruit constitute about 10% of the fruit by weight --- but in dried fruit, about 45% of the fruit by weight.

    So it would be helpful to present the 5 macro-contents above as percentages of 'dry-weight' of each food.

    That is an item for a things-to-do list --- namely, to present these food-content tables in a 'dry-weight' form --- that is, with percentages calculated using the dry-weight of the food rather than its undried weight.

By scanning the rows and columns of these tables, you can relatively quickly find food-types that

  1. will help meet your nutrient goals

  2. will complement each other in achieving a "target" balance of proteins, fats, net-carbs, and fiber (Pro-Fat-NetC-Fib) --- typically on the order of 80-80-80-40 grams per day.

For most web browsers, when you move the cursor over a table cell, the column heading will be shown in a pop-up. This helps you know which data you are looking at, when the table column headings are out of view.

    In these tables, both sugarS and net-carbs (sugarS-plus-starches) are shown, because sugarS have a more immediate impact on the body.

    It takes the body several hours to break the starches down into their component sugars.

    In terms of long-term health, the net-carbs percentage is more important than the sugarS percentage.

    But, to an athlete, say, who is looking for an immediate energy boost, the sugarS figure, by itself, is a significant food data fact.


QUALITATIVE TABLE :

< Go to Top of page, above. >

The "QUALITATIVE" table below presents integers --- 1 through 7 --- representing relative concentrations (percents) of the above five food contents (Sug-Fib-NetC-Fat-Pro) :

  • 1 = very low
  • 2 = low
  • 3 = between low and medium
  • 4 = medium
  • 5 = between medium and high
  • 6 = high
  • 7 = very high

Note:
You can use the 'Find text' option of your browser to find keywords in rows of this table --- such as 'vegetable' or 'bean' or 'pea' or 'fruit' or 'meat' or 'grain'.

QUALITATIVE SUMMARY FOR FOOD CATEGORIES
(and sub-categories) :

1.
Food Category

name and
examples
2.
SugarS



1-7 rating
3.
Fiber(s)



1-7 rating
4.
NetCarbs =
[sugarS + starches]

1-7 rating
5.
Fat(s)



1-7 rating
6.
Protein(s)



1-7 rating
Vegetables - beans & peas (legumes)

[soy beans, black beans, navy beans, ...]

2 5 4 3 5
Vegetables - non-beans-peas, low-sugar-starch

[broccoli, spinach, peppers, tomatoes, ...]

2 4 2 2 2
Vegetables - non-beans-peas, medium-sugar-starch

[corn, carrots, beets, ...]

4 4 5 2 2
Vegetables - non-beans-peas, high-sugar-starch

[potatoes, sweet potatoes, yams, ...]

2 4 6 2 2
Fruits - raw (not dried)

[apple, banana, berries, peach, pear, ...]

6 4 6 1 1
Fruit - dried

[raisins, prunes, dried apricots, ...]

7 4 7 1 1
Meats - Fish & Shellfish 1 1 2 6 6
Meats - Beef, Pork, Lamb, Poultry 1 1 2 6 7
Eggs

[chicken]

1 1 1 5 6
Nuts & Seeds

[almonds, cashews, peanuts, pecans, walnuts, ...]

3 6 6 7 6
Oils, extracted

[olive oil, corn oil, canola oil, ...]

1 1 1 7 1
Dairy - Cheese

[brie, mozarella, swiss, ...]

2 1 2 6 7
Dairy - Milk

[skim, reduced fat, whole]

3 1 3 2 2
Whole Grains - Cereals, no sugar added

[oatmeal, plain-whole-grain-cereals, Cheerios ]

2 6 7 4 5
Whole Grains - Breads, no-sugar-added

[hard to find ; read Ingredients labels!]

2 5 7 2 5
Whole Grains - Rice products

[wild rice, brown rice, ...]

2 4 7 2 5
Semi-Processed Grains - Pasta

[spaghetti, noodles, ...]

2 5 7 2 5
Highly-Processed Grains - Cereal

[sugar added : Apple Jacks, Cinnamon
Toast Crunch, Cocoa Puffs, Froot Loops, Trix]

7 4 7 3 5

Some observations :

For the most part, we will concentrate mainly on "historical", "basic" foods, rather than "modern", "manufactured", "highly-processed" foods.

There can be a wide range of concentrations (percents) of food components in "manufactured" foods, so it can be difficult to generalize without establishing a lot of sub-categories of "manufactured" foods. But ...

"Manufactured" foods are often high in sugars and fats (especially, unhealthy "hydrogenated" fats = "trans fats") --- and they are typically lacking in a wide range of nutrients, like those in fruits and vegetables.

The high-protein foods are

  • land-meats (beef, pork, lamb, poultry) and cheeses,

  • water-meats (fish and shellfish) and eggs and nuts-and-seeds,

  • beans-and-peas and whole-grains.

Note that if you are going 'vegan', you would want to emphasize nuts-and-seeds, beans-and-peas, and REAL whole-grains (extremely hard to find) to put protein in your diet.

    (Note that most breads are not really made of whole grains.

    They would simply not hold together if they were largely made of whole grains.

    Most breads include finely ground --- and de-nuded --- flours.)


The high-fat foods are

  • (extracted) oils and nuts-and-seeds,

  • meats (non-seafood and seafood) and cheeses,

  • eggs.

Note that if you are trying to avoid meats and dairy, then you would want to emphasize extracted-oils and nuts-and-seeds to put healthy fats in your diet.


The high-sugar foods are

  • fruits,

  • some vegetables like corn and beets ---
    from which sugar and syrups are manufactured.

Note that if you are trying to reduce sugarS (especially in the initial 'induction' phase of a weight-loss diet), you would favor mildly sugary vegetables, like corn and beets, over fruits.

"Manufactured", "highly-processed" foods like "junky" breakfast cereals are up there with fruits in terms of sugar content --- but lack the wide range of micro-nutrients (plant nutrients) of fruits.


The high-starch and high-net-carbs (starches-plus-sugars) foods are

  • grain products --- and dried fruits,

  • starchy vegetables like potatoes, sweet potatoes, and yams, and nuts-and-seeds and non-dried fruits,

  • high-sugar vegetables like corn and beets.

Note that if you are trying to reduce a case of high tryiglycerides (as in type 2 diabetes), you would want to reduce the high-net-carbs foods in your diet.

So you would want to reduce breads (including cakes, rolls, pizza, pancakes, waffles, cookies, and sugary-breads including sweet-rolls, donuts, and pies) and potatoes and fruits (dried and non-dried) in your diet.


The high-fiber foods are

  • nuts-and-seeds and crunchy veggies (carrots, broccoli, cauliflour, ...),

  • beans-and-peas and WHOLE grain breads and pastas (hard-to-find REAL whole grain products).

Unfortunately, the grain in most "manufactured" foods is flour that has been stripped of the husk and wheat-germ and, hence, is almost devoid of fiber.

The grains may still have some fiber after that, but, unfortunately, that fiber is ground to a powdery pulp in the process of making flour that is as fine as talcum powder.


Weight-loss strategies :

To lose weight (in a healthy way), the typical person needs to reduce the fat-creating combination of sugar-starch-fat.

From looking at the "highest" sugar-starch-fat foods above, that would SEEM to mean that the typical overweight person would need to "watch" (i.e. reduce) consumption of fruits, grain products, and oils and nuts-and-seeds.

However, the typical American does not eat an abundance of fruits, nor nuts-and-seeds.

But he/she DOES eat an abundance of grain products --- especially, "junky" grain products, with added sugar and added "trans-fats" (hydrogenated oils).

And the typical American does eat an abundance of oils, in the form of salad dressings and meat/sandwich toppings, which typically use unhealthy hydrogenated oils ("trans-fats").

So looking at the "highest" sugar-starch-fat (fat producing) foods, it appears that reducing the consumption of grain-products will give the most weight-loss payback to the typical American --- as well as a healthier diet.

In particular, reduce consumption of "junky" grain products --- especially 'sugar-added' grain products.

Grain products to consider eliminating/drastically-reducing are breads (especially breads with added-sugar and with highly-refined flour, i.e. no whole grains).

Also consider cereals (especially those with added sugar and no whole grains).

Also consider eliminating/drastically-reducing chips, like corn chips.

And consider pizza dough, doughnuts, pretzels, cakes, and pies.

These are all products that are consumed in great quantities by the typical (sedentary) American.

And "watching" (i.e. reducing) consumption of oily dressings (and added-sugar dressings) and toppings will also be a high-payback strategy.

From looking at the "next-highest" sugar-starch-fat foods above, that would mean that the typical overweight person would need to "watch" (i.e. reduce) consumption of corn, beets, potatoes, sweet potatoes, meats (non-seafood and seafood), and cheeses.

Americans do not consume a lot of beets or sweet potatoes, but they certainly do consume a lot of potatoes.

Potatoes seem to be the only vegetable, other than onions, that U.S. chain restaurants and fast-food places serve.

French fries, potato chips, and baked potatoes are items to consume, say, on a once-a-week basis --- or less.

Ask for substitutes, such as a salad or steamed broccoli or some other much healthier carbohydrate.

On the issue of corn, Americans do not consume a lot of corn directly --- but they consume a huge amount in the form of high-fructose-corn-syrup (HFCS) --- a dangerously sugary concentrate manufactured from corn, and used in almost every beverage or snack food that Americans consume in large amounts --- namely:

"soft" drinks, dressings, ketchup, other toppings & sauces, "junk foods" (sweet pastries, candies, ice cream).

A good weight-loss (and health enhancement) strategy --- to reduce dangerous triglyceride levels in your blood --- is to READ THE 'INGREDIENTS LIST' --- and avoid foods in which high-fructose-corn-syrup (or any other sugar) is among the first 3 ingredients.

Alternatively, look at the "Nutrition Facts" --- the grams of sugarS and the total serving grams.

If the sugars-grams is more than about 10 percent of the serving grams, then it would be a good idea to find a healthier, less-sugary substitute food.

So, in summary, a good weight-loss and health-enhancement strategy is to avoid frequent consumption of

  • grain products
    (breads, cereals, chips, donuts, pizza dough, cakes, ...) --- especially those with added sugars and hydrogenated fats ("trans fats")

  • oily dressings-toppings-sauces ---
    especially those with added sugar and with hydrogenated oils

  • potatoes in all forms
    (french fried, chips, baked) --- too, too starchy

  • corn, especially in the form of high-fructose-corn-syrup
    --- examples:
    "soft drinks", dressings-toppings-sauces, junk foods (pastries, candies, ice cream)

  • meats
    (both non-seafood --- beef, pork, poultry, lamb --- and seafood)

  • cheeses
    (not only are they fatty and lacking in fiber, but they are loaded with lactose which can exacerbate muscle cramping, which may include cramping of the heart muscle)

Note that a particularly fattening and unhealthy combination is sugars on top of highly refined grain products.

Examples:

sweet rolls, donuts, cake with sickeningly sweet icing, etc.

Since starches are long-chains of sugars (and they are broken down into sugars within a few hours of ingestion into the body), having a glazed donut is like having sugar-on-sugar.

You need to get in the habit of the "echh response" whenever you look at so-called "food" products like that.


QUANTITATIVE TABLE :

< Go to Top of page, above. >

The QUANTITATIVE table below presents, in columns, approximate PERCENTs for the following "Nutrition Facts" food contents

  • sugarS
  • fiber(s)
  • net-carbs (sugarS + starches)
  • fat(s)
  • protein(s)

The last column is a total of the 'Pro-Fat-NetC-Fib' columns.

If you subtract that percent from 100 the result is a pretty good representation of the typical percent water content of items in the food group.

    (It might be helpful to replace the last column with a column representing actual data on water content. But ...

    Since water content is not required to be reported in "Nutrition Facts" labels, it is not easy to find water content data.)

The symbol "~" in front of a percent-number in the table means "approximately".

In many cases, a "typical" range of percent-numbers is shown in brackets, below the "representative" (mid-range) percent number.

The symbol "<" in front of numbers is the usual mathematical symbol for "less than".

Note:
You can use the 'Find text' option of your browser to find keywords in rows of the table --- such as 'vegetable' or 'bean' or 'pea' or 'fruit' or 'meat' or 'grain'.

Some other notes on these tables are below this table.

! PRELIMINARY !
The following table numbers are preliminary.
Some numbers may need to be adjusted/corrected.


QUANTITATIVE SUMMARY FOR FOOD CATEGORIES
(and sub-categories) :

1.
Food Category

name and
examples
2.
SugarS %
3.
Fiber(s) %
4.
NetCarbs %
[sugarS + starches]
5.
Fat(s) %
6.
Protein(s) %
7.
Total %
[cols. 3 - 6]
Vegetables - beans & peas (legumes)

[soy beans, black beans, navy beans, ...]

~ 2
[1 - 4]
~ 3
[2 - 5]
~ 7
[5-9]
~ 3
[1-6]
~ 8
[6-12]
~21
[14-27]
Vegetables - non-beans-peas, low-sugar-starch

[broccoli, spinach, peppers, tomatoes, ...]

~ 1 ~ 2 ~ 2 < 1 ~ 2 ~ 7 (?)
Vegetables - non-beans-peas, medium-sugar-starch

[corn, carrots, beets, ...]

~ 5 ~ 1 ~ 18 ~ 1 ~ 3 ~ 23
Vegetables - non-beans-peas, high-sugar-starch

[potatoes, sweet potatoes, yams, ...]

~ 1 ~ 2 ~ 19 ~ 0 ~ 2 ~ 23
Fruits - raw (not dried)

[apple, banana, berries, peach, pear, ...]

~ 13
[5-20]
~ 2 ~ 13
[5-20]
< 1 < 1 ~ 16
[8-23]
Fruit - dried

[raisins, prunes, dried apricots, ...]

~ 60 ~ 5 ~ 73 < 1 < 1 ~ 80
Meats - Fish & Shellfish 0 0 < 3 ~ 8
[1-17]
~ 24
[19-27]
~ 30
[25-35]
Meats - Beef, Pork, Lamb, Poultry 0 0 < 3 ~ 25
[5-50]
~ 25
[15-35]
~ 50
[35-65]
Eggs

[chicken]

0 0 0 8 12 20
Nuts & Seeds

[almonds, cashews, peanuts, pecans, walnuts, ...]

< 5
[0-7]
~ 7
[3-10]
~ 10
[7-20]
~ 45
[25-60]
~ 15
[5-35]
~ 80
[40-95]
Oils & Fats

[olive oil, corn oil, canola oil, ...]

0 0 0 ~ 91 0 ~ 91
Dairy - Cheese

[brie, mozarella, swiss, ...]

< 4
[0-3]
< 1
[0-1]
~ 3
[2-7]
~ 23
[20-32]
~ 25
[18-32]
~ 51
[44-57]
Dairy - Milk

[skim, reduced fat, whole]

~ 5 ~ 0 ~ 5 ~ 2
[0-4]
~ 3.5
[3-4]
~ 11
Whole Grains - Cereals, no sugar added

[oatmeal, plain-whole-grain-cereals, ...]

~ 3
[2-3]
~ 12
[10-18]
~ 57
[51-63]
~ 8
[7-10]
~ 12
[10-13]
~ 91
[89-92]
Whole Grains - Breads, no-sugar-added

[hard to find ; read Ingredients labels!]

~ 4 ~ 5 ~ 51 ~ 3 ~ 9 ~ 68
Whole Grains - Rice products

[wild rice, brown rice, ...]

~ 0
[0-1]
~ 2
[2-5]
~ 73
[70-76]
~ 2
[1-3]
~ 10
[9-12]
~ 87
Semi-Processed Grains - Pasta products

[noodles, spaghetti, ...]

~ 4
[1-7]
5
[4-9]
68
[61-71]
2
[2-3]
13
[13-14]
~ 88

PROCESSED-MANUFACTURED products :
Highly Processed Grains - Cereals, sugar-added

[Apple Jacks, Cinnamon Toast Crunch,
Cocoa Puffs, Froot Loops, Trix]

~ 40
[32-48]
~ 3
[3-4]
~ 83
[77-88]
~ 5
[1-12]
~ 4
[3-8]
~ 94
[93-95]
Highly-Processed Grains - Breads, sugar added

[most "name" brands]

? ? ? ? ? ?
Highly-Processed Grains - White-Rice products ? ? ? ? ? ?
Manufactured Dressings - Salad, sugar added

[most "name" brands]

? ? ? ? ? ?
Manufactured Dressings - Salad, no-sugar-added

[hard to find ; read Ingredients labels!]

? ? ? ? ? ?
Manufactured Salsas - sugar-added

[many "name" brands]

? ? ? ? ? ?
Manufactured Salsas - no-sugar-added

[hard to find ; read Ingredients labels!]

? ? ? ? ? ?
Manufactured Sauces - sugar-added

[ketchup, ...]

? ? ? ? ? ?
Manufactured Sauces - no-sugar-added

[hard to find ; read Ingredient labels!]

? ? ? ? ? ?
Manufactured Soups - high-starch-sugar

[starch content varies widely ; read "Nutrition Facts" labels!]

? ? ? ? ? ?
Manufactured Soups - low-starch-sugar

["Health Valley" and other such brands ; still, read "Nutrition Facts" labels!]

? ? ? ? ? ?

'?' indicates 'To Be Added'.

NOTE:
Some of the figures above need to be adjusted as more complete food data is assembled/added from various sources --- such as from "Nutrition Facts" labels and from "gram-counter" books and from web sites.


SOURCES of
sugarS-starches-fiber-protein-and-other data:

In 2006, you could use the FoodSearch utility at the 'www.nutritiondata.com' web site to provide more detailed data and analysis of foods and food combinations.

In the entry field, enter a food type such as 'carrot' or 'strawberry'.

Then, on the page of results that are returned, narrow your search to, say, 'strawberry, raw'.

Divide the grams shown of, say, sugarS, by the serving grams to get the sugarS-percentage.

    (Unfortunately, the percents they show are percents of DV = 'Daily Value' --- not percents of the serving size.

    So you have to do your own calculation to get the 'intensity' of the food component in the food.)

In 2006, there were various utilities at 'nutritiondata.com'.

Examples :

  • the "Food Search" option ---
    to see "Nutrient Facts" data for almost any given food, as well as data on water content, minerals, vitamins, "essential" proteins, and fat-types.

    Also there are summary evaluations of each food.

  • the "Nutrient Search" tool ---
    to find foods that are "high" in a given food component (like proteins or fiber or vitamin B12) and/or "low" in a given component (like sugarS or sugars-and-starches = net-carbs).

  • the "Pantry" option ---
    to allow for assembling a "pantry" of your favorite foods.

    The Pantry also allows for building "recipes" from your pantry items and then analyzing those recipes, just as the other "base" foods are analyzed.

  • the "Custom Entry" tool ---
    to allow for adding foods to the extensive database at that site.

    (Surprisingly, Oreo cookies were not in the database in Jun 2006. It appears that Nabisco has not provided the 'nutritiondata.com' website with data for most Nabisco products --- and the 'nutritiondata.com' site has not added data from food labels.)

    With the "Custom Entry" tool, you could enter "Nutrient Facts" data (and any water content, mineral, vitamin, and fats data that you can find), and then get analyses in the standard formats of the 'nutritiondata.com' site.

  • also, in 2006, you could see some "Help", "Topics", "FAQ", and "Links" pages at the 'nutritiondata.com' site.

Unfortunately, sometime after 2006, it seems the 'nutritiondata.com' site was acquired by 'self.com' and drastically re-organized.

An alternative to the 'nutritiondata.com' site is the USDA nutrient (food composition) data base of the National Agricultural Library (NAL).

In fact, the USDA database was used as the source or corroborator of much of the data at 'nutritiondata.com'.

FOR MORE FOOD NUTRIENTS INFO:

You can try WEB SEARCHES on keywords such as:

Bottom of this
SUMMARY of 'Macro Food Components'
of MAJOR FOOD CATEGORIES
page.

    'Macro Food Components' =
    'Pro-Fat-NetC-Fib' =
    Proteins-Fats-NetCarbs-Fiber
    where NetCarbs = sugarS + starches.

To return to a previously visited web page location, click on the Back button of your web browser, a sufficient number of times. OR, use the History-list option of your web browser.
Or ...

< Go to Top of this page, above. >

At the top of this page,
you can click a link to a parent page.

Or simply scroll up toward the top of this page.


Page history:

Page was created 2006 Jun 09.

Page was changed 2012 May 05.
(Some reformatting.)

Page was changed 2019 Jul 30.
(Added css and javascript to try to handle text-size for smartphones, esp. in portrait orientation. Specified image width in percents to size the image according to width of the browser window. Some reformatting of text. Added some web links.)