Are You Sure It’s Fat Free?

Are You Sure It’s Fat Free?

Crystal M. Lambert

MAT 126: Survey of Mathematical Methods (ABO1226G)

Instructor Kevin Kuznia

July 08, 2012

Are You Sure It’s Fat Free?

When it comes to dieting, one is always stressing about whether or not they can honestly believe if their food is fat free or not. Not sure? Help is here, there is a Mathematical Formula that can calm your fears. One that will show you the true percentage of calories that comes from fat within your meal. That formula is going to be shown below using three different examples with the formula included. These examples will contain 1 breakfast item, 1 lunch item and 1 dinner item so as to give you a full and better idea of how you can be sure that your meals are fat free or just plain fat.

In using the formula provided on page 236 in Chapter 5 of Bluman’s book, Mathematics in Our World, we will start with example one being our breakfast item.

Item 1

Mini Wheat Cereal – Has 1 gram of fat per serving size and 190 calories per serving size.

For this formula to work we have to first convert each gram of fat to 4 calories. Therefore, we would take the number of grams of fat per serving size of mini wheat cereal, which is 1 gram, and multiply it by 4. This will look like this: 1 * 4 = 4 calories. Now, to get the percentage that drives from fat, we would have to take the next step. This is to divide the fat calories, being 4, by the total calories, being 190, and then multiplying that answer by 100%. Thus, giving us the percentage of calories that derived from fat within our meal, it would look like this: 4 / 190 = 0.02 * 100% = 2.22% calories from fat.

This answer is a little over the percentage that the box of Mini Wheat Cereal provides (2%), however, it is extremely close. Therefore, I can state, reassuringly, that this meal is straightforward on the information given and I feel good eating this item for breakfast.

Item 2

Cup of Roman Noodles – has 14 grams of fat per 1 serving and 330...