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Test Your Nutritional Knowledge

American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Feb. 5, 1998 – Eating properly can be puzzling. So many new reports surface each month about food, snacking, nutrition and vitamins, it's hard to keep up with the latest evidence on a healthy diet.

Test your nutritional knowledge by answering the following questions. Some of the questions have more than one correct answer. The answers appear at the bottom.

1.  With fat-free cookies you get:

a.  Lots of calories.

b.  Zero fat grams.

c.  Less that 1 gram of fat per serving.

d.  To eat twice as many.

2.  Yogurt is good for you because:

a.  It's a low-fat food.

b.  It helps reduce lactose intolerance.

c.  It reduces vaginal infections and boosts immunity.

d.  It makes you live longer.

3.  Broccoli is a rich source of:

a.  Sulphoraphane

b.  Folate

c.  Vitamin C

d.  All of the above

4.  Rank these juices from most to least by their Vitamin C content:

a.  Apple

b.  Grape

c.  Grapefruit

d.  Pineapple

5.  Which food, if any, is significantly lower in fat and calories than the others?

a.  Margarine

b.  Butter

c.  Mayonnaise

d.  None of the above

6.  Choose the most fiber-rich selection:

a.  Whole-wheat bread, corn flakes, green salad

b.  Black beans, bran cereal, strawberries

c.  Tomato, orange, celery

d.  Apple, rice, baked potato

7.  Which of these foods provide the recommended level of beta carotene?

a.  1 cup cooked carrots

b.  1 cup tomato sauce

c.  1 cup cantaloupe and one mango

d.  All of the above


1.   A,C. Fat-free means less than one gram of fat per serving. The cookies can still be high in calories -- up to 100 calories per cookie -- usually from lots of sugar, honey, molasses, juice or corn syrup.

2. B,C. Only skim or nonfat varieties are low-fat. The live cultures in some yogurts help break down lactose, making it easier for the lactose intolerant. In some studies, one to two cups of yogurt a day may help immunity and infections.

3. D. One cup of cooked broccoli supplies 40 percent of the recommended daily allowance for the Vitamin B folate and twice the requirement for Vitamin C. The chemical sulphoraphane, found in cruciferous vegetables, may protect against cancer.

4. C,D,A,B. Unless Vitamin C is added, apple and grape juices have little. Eight ounces of grapefruit juice gives you your recommended daily allowance for Vitamin C, and pineapple juice gives you half.

5. D. All are high in fat and calories, with 11 to 14 grams of fat and 100 to 120 calories per tablespoon.

6. B. All these foods contain fiber, but beans, berries and bran are especially fiber-rich.

7. A,C. You should get six to 15 milligrams of beta carotene per day. The carrots provide 11 milligrams and the fruits, eight. The other two contain some beta carotene, but not a full serving.

(Adapted from Navy and Marine Corps Medical News)

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