Creating Meal Equivalents with
Microsoft Excel
Creating Ketogenic Meal Equivalents
with Microsoft Excel
 Creating your own meals may seem
overwhelming at first
 By carefully following a few steps you will see
how easy and rewarding it will be to have meal
creating skills.
What is a MEAL EQUIVALENT
 Since Ketogenic Therapy is a medical treatment for seizures, meal
recipes are also known as the Meal Equivalents (ME).
 Meals are calculated to provide the correct weight of food
necessary to meet a patient’s prescribed ratio of fat to protein
(PRO) + carbohydrate (CHO).
 Meals are made in an excel spreadsheet created by the KetoGator
Team at the University of Florida.
 This spreadsheet was derived from a similar spreadsheet obtained
from the website of the Ketogenic Therapy team at Stanford
University
What is a MEAL EQUIVALENT?
 The Meal Equivalent spreadsheet is divided into two pages.
 First page contains the worksheet used to calculate your child’s Meal
Equivalent
 Second page displays the ingredients and the quantities used in the
meal as well as instructions for the meal.
 When you make the Meal Equivalent , the second page is automatically
created
 It is linked to the worksheet.
 There are Meal Equivalent templates for both snacks and
meals. The process is the same, but be sure you are using the
CORRECT TEMPLATE.
Creating Ketogenic Meal Equivalents
 The KetoGator Team at the University of Florida also created
the Food Database
 Microsoft Excel spreadsheet containing a compilation of
carbohydrate, fat, and protein content for many foods
 Designed to help you create meals in conjunction with the blank Meal
Equivalent template
 Creating meals is not difficult, but it can take some time. The
following pages take you through the steps necessary to
create a meal using the Meal Equivalent spreadsheet.
Creating Ketogenic Meal Equivalents
with Microsoft Excel
 How to access the Meal Equivalent files and the Food Database
1. Point your internet browser to
http://borum.ifas.ufl.edu/.
2. Next, click “KetoGator Club”.
3. Finally, click “Databases”.
 This page contains a link for a blank Meal Equivalent template and
the Food Database.
 To access the Meal Equivalent and the Food Database click on the
link and then click OPEN. The Meal Equivalent can be saved to
your hard drive after you create it.
Step #1: Accessing Necessary Tools
 Once you open the blank Meal Equivalent template and Food
Database :
It might be easiest to expand the
excel sheet by clicking on the expand
key( a square) for the sheet.
If it is not the first page you see, click
on the first tab of the Meal Equivalent
Template at the bottom of the page,
“ME KE Meal Template.”
Step #2: Entering Diet Prescription
Information
 Once you open the Meal Equivalent there are a few values
you will add that will remain the same and should be saved in
the template until the diet prescription changes. The values
you will enter are
1. Enter your child’s name.
2. Enter the prescribed calories per day.
3. Enter the prescribed grams of protein per day.
4. Enter the total number of calories for snacks (if your child
receives no snacks, enter “0”).
5. Enter your child’s ratio.
6. Enter the number of meals and snacks a day.
Step #2: Entering Diet Prescription
Information
 Only highlighted cells have information entered in.
 The other cells are calculated values.
Step #3: Adding Foods to the Excel Sheet
 The third step is to enter the foods that you are going to use
in the recipe.
 The foods you will generally use are:
 A meat (as a protein source).
 A vegetable or fruit (as a carbohydrate source).
 Cream, butter, oil or mayonnaise (as a fat source). More than
one fat source may be needed to fulfill your child’s
requirements.
 You can add foods to the MEAL EQUIVALENT worksheet at
anytime. To do so, follow the instructions on the next page.
Step #3: Adding Foods to the Excel Sheet
 To add a food to your Meal Equivalent worksheet from the Food
Database:
 Open the Food Database from the website.
It might be easiest to
expand the excel sheet by
clicking on the expand
key
(a square) for the sheet.
 Locate the tab in the KetoGator Food Database corresponding to the
food item you would like to add (for example, bacon would be found
under “Deli Meat”).
Used to Scroll
Different Tabs
Step #3: Adding Foods to the Excel Sheet
1.
2.
Click on the food item cell and then hold the left button of the
mouse and drag across until you are at the CHO cell, which is the
last cell.
Then click the right mouse button and select “COPY.”
Step #4: Balancing the Meal Equivalent
3. Go back to the Meal
Equivalent sheet and
HIGHLIGHT the appropriate
blank cells (click the left mouse
button on the cell under FOOD
and then hold the left button
and drag across to the “% CHO”
cell in the template.
4. Then, in the upper left hand
corner, click “Paste” and “Paste
Values.”
Step #4: Balancing the Meal Equivalent
5. Repeat these steps until all foods you want to use in the
meal have been entered.
Step #4: Balancing the Meal Equivalent
 Once all the food has been added to the Meal Equivalent you can
then start balancing the meal.
1. The rows that are stippled for each food are the %
Protein (PRT), % Fat (FAT), and % Carbohydrate (CHO)
for EACH food. In this case Egg Beaters Egg Whites has
10.87 % PRT, 0% FAT, and 2.72 % CHO
2. Next, for EACH food determine which % macronutrient is
highest. In this case Egg Beaters Egg Whites has the highest
% PRT. Locate the white row under the stippled row. You
will enter numbers only in ONE white cell per row per food.
Step #4: Balancing the Meal Equivalent
 The last step involves determining what numbers to enter into the white cells
underneath the % macronutrient cells. This process will be explained on the
next few slides. Once you determine what to enter, make sure you only enter
numbers into one of the three cells (either %PRT, %FAT, or %CHO);
otherwise it will miscalculate the food amounts.
3. The total amount of food you have added will be calculated to the left of the food
name. This is the actual amount of food, in grams, to be weighed when making the
recipe. There is no need to enter any numbers into these cells; the computer will
do all the calculations for you.
Step #4: Balancing the Meal Equivalent
4. The numbers in these columns tell you how many grams of each macronutrient is
needed. Since this meal has not been created yet, it needs 7.4 grams of Protein,
37.7 grams of Fat, and 5.2 grams of Carbohydrates. These are the numbers you will
look at when you start entering numbers in the white cells.
Step #4: Balancing the Meal Equivalent
5.
Lets first start with protein. Even though Organic
Valley Mild Cheddar Cheese has a higher % protein
than Egg Beaters Egg Whites, Protein is not the
highest % macronutrient for that product. It has a
higher % Fat than Protein, so we will start with Egg
Beaters Egg Whites since Protein is the highest %
macronutrient for that product.
6. Enter the number that was in
the protein column, in this case
it was 7.4, into the white cell
underneath the highest %
macronutrient column
Step #4: Balancing the Meal Equivalent
7. Since the cheese also has protein, we
will work with that food next.
Organic Valley Mild Cheddar Cheese
has the highest % FAT so you will enter
numbers in the white cell underneath
the % FAT column. In this case 3 was
entered in the white cell.
8. Now when you look at this column you
notice that the protein column now
says -2.3. This means that you need to
subtract 2.3 from the 7.4 you entered
in under the % PRT column for the Egg
Beaters Egg Whites.
Step #4: Balancing the Meal Equivalent
9. Now 2.3 has been subtracted from 7.4
and you now have 5.1 in the %
Protein column for the Egg Beaters
Egg Whites.
10. You also notice here that protein
now says 0.0. This means you have
the correct amount of protein in the
meal.
Step #4: Balancing the Meal
Equivalent
11. Now we will work with the carbohydrate column. In order to find out how much of
each macronutrient is needed in the meal, it helps to look at the column underneath the
column with the last food constituent. In this case it is Publix Canola Oil. You can see that
there are 3.8 grams of Carbohydrate left and 34.7 grams of fat left to complete the meal.
12. Applesauce is now the only food
constituent left with
carbohydrates. The cream and the
oil do not contain carbohydrates
and the cheese and egg are already
finished. Enter the grams of
carbohydrate, in this case it is 3.8,
in the white column underneath
the % CHO column.
Step #4: Balancing the Meal Equivalent
13. The last thing we will work with is fat. Fat is the easiest of the macronutrients because most of
your fat will come from cream or oil, both of which contain 0 carbohydrates. So you will not
have to adjust those numbers after you finish the fat. We have 34.7 grams of fat left in the meal.
14. It is best to start with oil first. Canola
oil is 100% fat so whatever number you
enter in the white column underneath
the % FAT column is the amount of
grams for that oil. It is best to use 10
grams or less of oil. We have found that
more than 10 grams of oil in a meal
does not make it as appetizing. In this
case 8 grams of oil was used.
Step #4: Balancing the Meal Equivalent
15. As you can see there are 26.7 grams of fat left in the meal after the oil was added.
This number can be added in the white column under the Organic Valley Heavy
Whipping Cream.
Step #4: Balancing the Meal Equivalent

Once you have finished with entering the numbers in the white cells
underneath each macronutrient column, you can then look at the SUM
and GOAL at the bottom of the excel sheet
16. The Exact Ratio tells you the ratio of the meal you
just created. You should not be off by more than
0.05 for the ratio. The Calories tells you the
Calories from the meal you just created. You
should not be off by more than 0.5. Compare this
to your diet prescription ratio and Calories.
17. The SUM tells you the sum of each
macronutrient from the meal you just
created. The GOAL tells you what is
needed to complete the meal. You
should not be off by more than 0.05
between the SUM and the GOAL.
Step #4: Balancing the Meal Equivalent
18. Once you have balanced the meal and matched the SUM and
GOAL. You can now weigh the food constituents. The amount in
grams column on the left tells you how much of each food to
weigh.
Final Balancing of the Meal Equivalent
 If the SUM and GOAL are off by more than 0.05 then you
may need to adjust the numbers in the white columns
underneath the highest % macronutrient column. If fat is off
by more than 0.05, then adjust either the cream or the oil. If
protein is off by more than 0.05 then adjust the food with
protein as the highest % macronutrient.
Step #5: Finishing Touches
 The fifth step is to give your Meal Equivalent a
descriptive name like “Eggs and Cheese with Applesauce
Meal”.
Step #5: Finishing Touches
 Jot down some notes about how to prepare the meal on
the second tab of the Meal Equivalent- the Recipe Card.
Remember
 It will take time to adjust everything. Be certain not to enter
numbers in any of the boxes other than those directly under
the shaded boxes.
 If you do so accidentally, use your “Edit”,
“Undo” feature to undo your last entry.
 Do not forget to enter in the month and year the meal was
created. It is also good to enter in the date the meal was
created at the bottom of the Meal Equivalent.
You have now created a meal using Microsoft Excel!