How do I determine the percent of protein in a food?
Asked by cravewave on Oct 20, 2010
In all foods and meals, the calories come from the energy-producing nutrients, protein, carbohydrate, fat, and alcohol, present in the food. To determine the percent of calories from each of the energy nutrients, you must know the total calories and grams of the nutrients in a given amount of food. To find the percent from protein, know that every gram of protein contributes 4 calories. To calculate the percent, use this equation: (Given calories/ Total calories) x 100. For instance, if a food contains 200 calories and 8 grams of protein, then (32 calories / 200 calories) X 100 = 16% and so protein contributes 16 percent of that food's total calories. On Calorie Count, this information is depicted visually as a pie chart and a bar graph, and numerically in the Nutrition Report.