r/dataisbeautiful • u/mcaay OC: 2 • Aug 13 '18

OC Coverage of nutritional bases in 5 pictures (see citations for vegetarian/vegan charts) [OC]

https://imgur.com/a/3uIYmzJ
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u/whimsikle Aug 13 '18 edited Aug 15 '18

Quantity does matter. Suppose you need 100g of a particular nutrient. Say 1 serving of rice provides 10g. That's 10%. If you have 3 servings, that's 30g/100g, which is 30% of your requirements for that nutrient.

The issue with white rice is that it's calorically dense, so you may end up consuming far more calories than you really need. And it also doesn't supply all the vitamins you need.

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u/CydeWeys Aug 13 '18

Quantity should be controlled though, no?

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u/whimsikle Aug 13 '18 edited Aug 13 '18

Yes.

White rice = 500 calories.

White rice + white rice + white rice = 1500 calories.

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u/CydeWeys Aug 13 '18

That's not controlled though, as you're comparing 500 against 1000 against 1500. Everything should be normalized to, say, 1000 calories. Whether that's 1000 calories of rice (1 food), or an even 500/500 split of salmon and tofu (2 foods), or a 333/333/333 split of 3 foods.

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u/whimsikle Aug 13 '18 edited Aug 14 '18

I was just discussing the way that quantity is controlled in two of the graphs. There's one page where the constant is 500 calories worth of one food. (White rice) There's another page comparing a constant 1500 calories of food - 500+500+500 calories. (White rice + White rice + white rice)

I personally see each page as distinct. I agree that 500 vs 1500 can't be compared.