Does this app suggest nutritional shortcomings?

IOR2
IOR2 Posts: 1 Member
in Food and Nutrition
I was hoping that by logging my meals on myfitnesspal that I'd get recommendations such as "you've only had half of your daily RDA of vitamin C this week", for example. But I only see high level measures such as sodium, fats, carbs etc. Is it possible to get a breakdown of nutritional deficits in my diet?

Replies

  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,055 Member
    Even if it did, I wouldn't trust it unless I used 100% entries MFP pulled from the USDA database or that I had personally verified.

    When I was anemic I verified/updated iron for every single USER entered item, as they are mostly wrong.

    I've never had an issue with micro nutrients with ADMIN created entries that come from the USDA database.

    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.

    https://fdc.nal.usda.gov

    The USDA changed the platform for their database in 2019 and it is unfortunately a little more difficult to use. I uncheck everything but “SR Legacy” - that seems to be what MFP used to pull in entries.

    BTW, premium uses the same database as the free version.
  • Corina1143
    Corina1143 Posts: 4,129 Member
    Most packaged foods, as well as restaurant food won't list things like vitamin c, so unfortunately it's just very hard for anyone to get the totals. As Kshama said, use usda entries or website to get averages of whole foods. It's not just MFP. Some information just isn't available.
  • sollyn23l2
    sollyn23l2 Posts: 1,851 Member
    If you're interested more in nutritional content, look at cronometer. As long as you use whole foods (i.e. meats, vegetables, fruits, grains) you can track the nutritional content. As others have said, packaged foods will not have complete nutrients listed, as they don't have to reveal that information. And really, let's be honest, packaged, ultra processed foods aren't likely to add much to your nutrients anyway.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,055 Member
    Right, MFP will only collect what's required to be listed in the US, which does change over time. For example, A and C are no longer required; vitamin D and added sugar are now required.

    However, these changes started phasing in almost 4 years ago and MFP is yet to update their form, on desktop anyway.

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