Trying to find the correct nutritional information

SittingThanos
SittingThanos Posts: 1 Member
in MyFitnessPal Tech Support Questions
For example when I type in "zucchini" or "potatoes" the calorie information varies a lot. 18cal for half a cup or 20 calories for a cup or 32 for half a zucchini... Why are they so different?? How do I know what is correct? Suggestions please. I try to stick to raw ingredients and they size of my veggies aren't always the same as store bought items.
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  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,052 Member
    I suggest you get a food scale. They're less than $20 and then you will never have to wonder, "How big is a medium banana?" or "How tightly do I pack a cup?" ever again :smiley:

    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. Note: scanning is mostly only available with Premium these days.)

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