Question

Mary keeps a food record for a week and finds that her average daily intake is 1,800 calories, 64 g total fat, and 42 g saturated fat. How does Mary's intake compare to the recommendations for fat and saturated fat?

Answer 1

Mary's daily intake of 1,800 calories, 64g total fat, and 42g saturated fat exceeds the recommendations for fat and saturated fat.

Step-by-step explanation:

The American Heart Association recommends that 30% or less of daily calories come from fat and under 10% of that from saturated fat. Using this recommendation, Mary's intake of fat would be 1800 calories x 0.30 = 540 calories. As each gram of fat provides 9.1 calories, the recommended intake of fat for Mary is 540 calories / 9.1 calories/g = 59 grams. Therefore, Mary's intake of 64 grams of total fat exceeds the recommendation.

For saturated fat, the recommendation is under 10% of the daily calories from fat. Using the same calculation, the recommended intake for saturated fat would be 540 calories x 0.10 = 54 calories. As each gram of saturated fat provides 9.1 calories, the recommended intake of saturated fat for Mary is 54 calories / 9.1 calories/g = 5.9 grams. Therefore, Mary's intake of 42 grams of saturated fat also exceeds the recommendation.