"Hidden" brand or restaurant selections when choosing foods

Has anyone else ever steamed a carrot or two, then when trying to add them to your diary, the "carrot" listing you chose turned out to be the "carrots in cream sauce" dish from your local Cheeseycake Workshop chain restaurant? You chose the "Homemade steamed carrots" only to find that this is the name Cheeseycake Workshop chose for their carrot dish, they are 600 calories, and 40 grams of fat. "For carrots????"

With the plethora of brand name products in every food search we do, it would be nice if MFP would show a preview of the number of calories in what you are about to choose. I can figure out I'm choosing the wrong selection in the example above. And/or, make sure that the pepared foods are at the bottom of the list, so that my healthy steamed carrots are closer to the top.

p.s. All restaurants and dishes mentioned in this post are fictional. Any resemblance to actual restaurants or restaurant dishes is unintended and coincidence.

Replies

  • PRMinx
    PRMinx Posts: 4,585 Member
    Stop entering "homemade steamed carrots" and just enter carrots. Then pick the weight. Steaming them isn't going to change the calories. If you add butter or oil, log that as butter or oil.

    I never use other people's homemade entries.
  • Whittedo
    Whittedo Posts: 352 Member
    Two hints, always include USDA in your search and click on the nutrition information link before you choose. This has saved me a lot of correcting later.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    Has anyone else ever steamed a carrot or two, then when trying to add them to your diary, the "carrot" listing you chose turned out to be the "carrots in cream sauce" dish from your local Cheeseycake Workshop chain restaurant? You chose the "Homemade steamed carrots" only to find that this is the name Cheeseycake Workshop chose for their carrot dish, they are 600 calories, and 40 grams of fat. "For carrots????"

    With the plethora of brand name products in every food search we do, it would be nice if MFP would show a preview of the number of calories in what you are about to choose. I can figure out I'm choosing the wrong selection in the example above. And/or, make sure that the pepared foods are at the bottom of the list, so that my healthy steamed carrots are closer to the top.

    p.s. All restaurants and dishes mentioned in this post are fictional. Any resemblance to actual restaurants or restaurant dishes is unintended and coincidence.

    enter "carrots - usda" and then whatever other ingredients you're using. Enter these things individually or use the recipe builder to build the recipe.

  • redpandora56
    redpandora56 Posts: 289 Member
    not sure about the app, but on the PC, you can click see nutritional info and check it before you add - you can also confirm if it's a correct entry, or edit it if not.
  • CyberTone
    CyberTone Posts: 7,337 Member
    ​Here are some tips on searching for whole foods in the MFP Food Database.

    Search for eggs in the format "eggs - whole" or "eggs - white"
    Search for vegetables in the format "vegetable - raw"
    Search for fruit in the format "fruit - raw"
    Search for raw meat in the format "chicken - meat raw" or "beef - meat raw"
    Search for cooked meat in the format "chicken - meat cooked" or "beef - meat cooked"

    These searches should bring up the MFP-entered items at the top of the search list, identified by no asterisk on the Web version, or no "Brand/Restaurant" or no "Generic" identification on the second line under the name of the item on the mobile apps. Plus MFP-entered items can usually be identified by the multiple servings sizes provided, both Imperial (ounces/fluid ounces) or metric (grams/milliliters).

    You can also add USDA to the search, but those items are user-entered and could be inaccurate.
  • CountessKitteh
    CountessKitteh Posts: 1,505 Member
    Has anyone else ever steamed a carrot or two, then when trying to add them to your diary, the "carrot" listing you chose turned out to be the "carrots in cream sauce" dish from your local Cheeseycake Workshop chain restaurant? You chose the "Homemade steamed carrots" only to find that this is the name Cheeseycake Workshop chose for their carrot dish, they are 600 calories, and 40 grams of fat. "For carrots????"

    With the plethora of brand name products in every food search we do, it would be nice if MFP would show a preview of the number of calories in what you are about to choose. I can figure out I'm choosing the wrong selection in the example above. And/or, make sure that the pepared foods are at the bottom of the list, so that my healthy steamed carrots are closer to the top.

    p.s. All restaurants and dishes mentioned in this post are fictional. Any resemblance to actual restaurants or restaurant dishes is unintended and coincidence.

    No, because cooked carrots are not delicious. ;)