To develop the food exchange list, a doctor or dietician keeps in mind four important basic points. These are:

1) Group similar foods in one group. For example cereals, roots, tubers, sugar, fat and oils are grouped under the energy giving group. Likewise milk, pulses, meat, fish and eggs are grouped under body building groups.

2) Develop an exchange list on the basis of item size. For example, chapatti, idly, dosa and puris are of different sizes in different parts of India. Hence, there is need to define item size.

3) Calculate the energy, carbohydrate, protein and fat content of one serving.

4) Create an exchange list of different dishes in terms of item size that will give approximately the same amount of energy or carbohydrate or fat