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MyFitnessPal Community

Keeping Track of More Nutrient Goals (Vitamins)

Beardalorian

One thing I really wish was the Nutrient list on MFP to add more Vitamins. Like keeping track of your daily B vitamins, Magnesium, etc. Has anyone heard of this being talked about or added?

Replies

AnnPT77

It's unlikely, IMO.

Some logging apps have a database that's created/maintained by staff. That tends toward a smaller database that's able to include more nutrients (because the staff can research, and will if paid to, probably).

MFP went the other route, lets all of us add foods to the database (crowd-sourced). That tends toward a giant and pretty-complete database, but higher rate of errors in entry, and likelihood that the only info at hand when adding is whatever's on the food label. MFP has designed the database accordingly, to include things that are on US labels (sometimes). US labels aren't required to have B vitamins or magnesium. Even the "added sugars" that's now on US labels is only in the database, not propagated to most displays/reports, let alone the data being present in all past entries.

kshama2001

From what I've heard, that info is available over at Chron.

I used to be anemic, and can testify to the fact that the iron info for USER-created entries is wildly inaccurate.

Unfortunately, the green check marks in the MFP database are used for both USER-created entries and ADMIN-created entries that MFP pulled from the USDA database. A green check mark for USER-created entries just means enough people have upvoted the entry - it is not necessarily correct.

To find ADMIN entries for whole foods, I get the syntax from the USDA database and paste that into MFP. All ADMIN entries from the USDA will have weights as an option BUT there is a glitch whereby sometimes 1g is the option but the values are actually for 100g. This is pretty easy to spot though, as when added the calories are 100x more than is reasonable.

https://fdc.nal.usda.gov

Use the “SR Legacy” tab - that's what MFP used to pull in entries.

Note: any MFP entry that includes "USDA" was USER entered.

For packaged foods, I verify the label against what I find in MFP. (Alas, you cannot just scan with your phone and assume what you get is correct.)

cipxla

Bearded_Slakoth wrote: »

One thing I really wish was the Nutrient list on MFP to add more Vitamins. Like keeping track of your daily B vitamins, Magnesium, etc. Has anyone heard of this being talked about or added?

Hopefully one day they will add that form of vitamin tracking. Whether or not it is added to the criteria for green checked foods or not is something else, but I feel that I should be able to enter the full range of vitamins for my own entries and then be able to track their intake. It’s hard to make sure i’m getting enough of everything without going back manually

jesmcd

I also want to track more vitamins. Especially vitamin D, B12, and magnesium which are common on labels. I understand there may be errors but the database improves over time and we can check that entries match our labels. At the least we can create our own entries for common foods.

If A and C are an option, why not D?! This seems like a big oversight, these are important nutrients that people can be low in.

I don’t understand why accuracy is a defense for not adding more vitamins. Everything we are tracking probably has a wide margin of error, not to mention how each person is absorbing specific nutrients and their unique needs but we learn from tracking over time and make adjustments based on our observations - it’s a complex puzzle and periods of tracking have made me a much healthier person and I learn which foods I want to integrate into my diet. Getting in the ballpark with the micronutrients can be difficult so I want to track them.

yirara

jesmcd wrote: »

Especially vitamin D, B12, and magnesium which are common on labels.

Keep in mind that this is a very international (i.e. worldwide) website. I've lived in various countries, but this info was never included. The question is also: Who will do this? Do you hope a person somewhere sits down in an office and types this in by hand?