An Index of Nutritional Quality for a balanced diet. New help for an old problem.

The Index of Nutritional Quality (INQ) is a method of quantitative and qualitative analysis of single foods, meals, and diets which has special significance in assessing clinical nutritional problems. The INQ is a ratio of the nutrient-to-calorie content of foods which may be calculated by computer and printed as bar graphs and tabular data. The number of nutrients and the nutrient standards used for analysis are flexible parameters which may be varied for each clinical situation. Illustrative examples include INQ analysis of simple foods, an institutional house diet, the diabetic Exchange list, and the diagnostic evaluation of the dietary intake of a hospitalized patient.