When adding food to the database don't forget the potassium

OhLeita
OhLeita Posts: 99 Member
in Food and Nutrition
I thought my potassium levels were way too low until double-checking potatoes. They're full of it but when selecting something basic, "generic medium red potato" it shows up as zero. Too little or too much can both be harmful for some people.

Replies

  • Chief_Rocka
    Chief_Rocka Posts: 4,710 Member
    I don't care about other people.
  • whierd
    whierd Posts: 14,025 Member
    I don't care about other people.
  • BattleTaxi
    BattleTaxi Posts: 752 Member
    I don't care about other people.

    +1
  • JesterMFP
    JesterMFP Posts: 3,596 Member
    I don't know about elsewhere but the vast majority of food labels in the UK don't include potassium levels, so users can't add that when they add foods to the database.

    For generic items, your best bet is to go for the entries without an asterisk that have been added by MFP staff with info from the USDA. To find them, don't include "generic" in your search. Instead, the one you'd probably need is "Potatoes - Red, flesh and skin, raw".
  • da_bears10089
    da_bears10089 Posts: 1,791 Member
    I don't care about other people.

    yup. i add in what i track, not what everyone else tracks.
  • helenrosemay
    helenrosemay Posts: 375 Member
    I don't care about other people.

    I'm sure they don't care about you either.

    You'd be best entering your own foods, that way you can be sure every nutritional value is correct.
  • ThisCanadian
    ThisCanadian Posts: 1,086 Member
    I don't know about elsewhere but the vast majority of food labels in the UK don't include potassium levels, so users can't add that when they add foods to the database.

    For generic items, your best bet is to go for the entries without an asterisk that have been added by MFP staff with info from the USDA. To find them, don't include "generic" in your search. Instead, the one you'd probably need is "Potatoes - Red, flesh and skin, raw".

    It also isn't standard on Canadian food labels. Can't imput what isn't available.
  • PikaKnight
    PikaKnight Posts: 34,971 Member
    I don't know about elsewhere but the vast majority of food labels in the UK don't include potassium levels, so users can't add that when they add foods to the database.

    For generic items, your best bet is to go for the entries without an asterisk that have been added by MFP staff with info from the USDA. To find them, don't include "generic" in your search. Instead, the one you'd probably need is "Potatoes - Red, flesh and skin, raw".

    It also isn't standard on Canadian food labels. Can't imput what isn't available.

    It isn't standard in the US either and so as this person said ^ - can't input what isn't available.
  • magerum
    magerum Posts: 12,589 Member
    I don't care about other people.
  • 3foldchord
    3foldchord Posts: 2,918 Member
    When adding food to the database, don't forget the potassium.

    K
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,458 Member
    My potatoes don't even come with labels.

    I feel cheated.

    ________________________

    OP:

    If you use the database here, always use the entries in the database that have been entered by the MFP Staff. They are entered correctly, and they give options of ounces or grams, or cups or liters, tablespoons, etc.
    An added bonus is they list important things like Potassium, Vit A, Vit B, Magnesium and more in these admin-entered foods.

    You can find these by looking for the entries in the database that have NO ASTERISK ( * ) in front of them.

    When it comes to any fruit or vegetable, the easiest way is to enter "potatoes raw" - if you always enter them as plural, and use the word "raw" it cuts the list way down and makes it much easier to find the no asterisk ones.

    Also, if you enter your own food, or EDIT any foods they will then appear with no asterisk in the main database, and also can then be found quickly in MY FOODS.
  • andrewjuu
    andrewjuu Posts: 76 Member
    Entering your own food items in the database is (in most cases) undesireable, unecessary & just not practical. For example if there are 1 million users & they all decide to enter "Generic medium red potato" then that creates a million database entries when really only one is needed. What you should do is see how many confirmations of the nutritional data your food item has....if it's a large number you are probably safe trusting it. If not you can edit the nutritional value of a entry already in the database to correct it (MFP provides a way to do that it's the better choice vs crearting your own & creating excess duplication). I use a site like NutritionData to do a sanity check on foods that have little or no user confirmations. Of course at times entering your own foods is the right way to go, for example if its not in the database at all or it's a variation on something already in there, etc. As far as potassium goes, NutritionData lists the potassium content of a medium red potato as 969mg or 28% of the Daily Value. So I would go into the database & correct it if I was using that item. It sure makes more sense than using zero because it's pretty well known that potatoes are a really good source of potassium.

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