Angry! Your messing up the food database!!

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Replies

  • jrbanta
    jrbanta Posts: 4,338 Member
    Ditto to all above. I've seen incorrect ones but rather than changing them because they were someone else's entries, I put my own in if none of the others match my food label. Usually I've been able to find someone's entry that matches my info though. Frustrating and time consuming for all!
  • MassiveDelta
    MassiveDelta Posts: 3,271 Member
    DB definatly needs a good cleaning. Is there a way to sort by # of confirmations or whether it was add by an MFP member?

    I've asked for this.... No response from the developers :(

    I am the admin for a similar style database/website system at my work. In my experience, a large database cleansing and data verifying like this would take 100's of man (or woman) hours. That is very expensive. I don't know if it would be feasible to keep this site free and have that done. Plus as long as anyone can make entries, a data cleansing would only be for a while before everything gets mucked up again.

    :flowerforyou: I think the site is great, but since it is free I don't expect it to be perfect. :flowerforyou:

    Thats why a system like Digg would work to digg up the good ones and digg down the bad ones. It has to be user initiated to divert the cost and time in a matter of weeks the database would be cleansed of bull crap entries
  • BacktoSam
    BacktoSam Posts: 28
    I agree, and it's very annoying when people confirm the wrong entry, if it's not right...don't confirm it!
  • HeatherShrinking
    HeatherShrinking Posts: 776 Member
    im sitting with a can of diet coke and the nutritional info says it contains 1 calorie is it different cos i live in the uk?

    That is different! My diet coke says 0 calories in the United States
  • RocketsGirl75
    RocketsGirl75 Posts: 648
    OK I am so so so sick of seeing food entered into the database that are just completely wrong!! I am sick of people trying to cheat by entering the wrong calories for a particular food just so you can be under your calories for the day. I have seen some foods that have all the nutritional info just wrong like it was just made up.

    Then I'll search for a food and I'll have to search through 50 of the same food to find the one that is actually correct based of the nutritional label.

    People please stop adding your own versions of food to the database, it is messing people up badly, especially new people that may not know that the info is wrong.

    I have corrected so many that it is hard to even put a number on it. When I see wrong info put in for a food, I will be correcting it and adding a (corrected) to the end of the food name.

    Uuuugh, I am so sick of it!

    Ok rant is over now.

    Keep Ranting!!! I agree it is very frustrating!! Thanks for correcting!
  • catcrazy
    catcrazy Posts: 1,740 Member
    I think country to country may vary ,plus I think some people new to this site may not look at the package size as I cant see anyone entering the wrong info just to keep their diary down ,it is time consumming looking through loads of stuff .


    I saw this "*Generic - Brewed Coffee With Non Dairy Creamer & 3 Tsp Sugar" at 30 calories.......the sugar alone is 30 calories (minimum) and as most people dont use a level teaspoon its likely higher, creamer really packs a punch and is probably at least twice the calories possibly thrice, thats not accidental, at best its lazy but more likely to be cheating themselves. I noticed this entry because a friend added it to her diary...x3 cuppas. Thats a lot of extra calories she thought she could consume because someone was trying to fiddle their own numbers
  • jackal75
    jackal75 Posts: 95
    Thank you to the person that reminded us about the entries without an asterik.

    I also get frustrated at times with the incorrect entries. I get just as frustrated with multiple entries. If I type in "Quaker Instant Oatmeal Apples & Cinnamon" I would like to maybe see three entries that have a US, UK, and Canada entry that are marked as such. However I tend to see ten to twenty entries. Fifty to seventy percent are not consistent with the label in front of me.

    I also would like to have an option to see listings in order of most confirmations. Maybe have a filter that will show me items that I have myself confirmed?
  • sassyg
    sassyg Posts: 393
    1 calorie per 100ml for Diet Coke here...
  • modifyinglife
    modifyinglife Posts: 70
    Amen to that!
  • crystal_sapphire
    crystal_sapphire Posts: 1,205 Member
    Be careful though, I've noticed lots of food that's different in Canada than it is in the US...there should be some sort of management system...that's why I always confirm the entry if I find a good one.

    exactly

    there are some huge differences i portion sizes sometimes.
  • Painten
    Painten Posts: 499 Member
    I don't know if i believe it's people trying to fiddle the numbers. I think it's a coutry thing. From what i can tell some thing vary widely from country to country. I'm pretty sure from entering info in that milk in america ihas more calories than in england, on this thread you can see diet coke in england has more calories than diet coke in america.

    Don't assume everyone is cheating. It is annoying when there are ones that seem wrong but just put up with it.
  • crystal_sapphire
    crystal_sapphire Posts: 1,205 Member
    Isn't there anything in this website's database that wasn't created by us?!

    Yes.

    The site administrator has entered all basic food items - and they are entered correctly, and with all the nutrients and varying measurement choices. For instance, I prefer to use grams instead of ounces, and I track Potassium. Most people are entering their foods with ounces or cups and no one enters Potassium.

    To find the site admin's entries, type in your description, and scroll through the database and look for items with no asterisk ( * ) in front of them. The site admin and your "My Foods" will both appear this way. You will know they are correct! That's the benefit to the search database function, in my opinion.

    to be fair, food labels in canada don't have potassium on them. i wish i could enter the potassium but i don't have an amount even on items sch as frozen veggies or frozen fruits.
  • tiger87lilly
    tiger87lilly Posts: 139 Member
    Isn't someone monitoring this?
  • youngronin
    youngronin Posts: 28
    That's deep.....people really need that self-justification that bad, huh?
  • kelika71
    kelika71 Posts: 778 Member
    Agree and very annoyed at the enormous amount of ridiculous items listed incorrectly. Good thing I'm not running it, I'd ban the people trying to cheat the system.

    If it's a country thing, I dunno, put some sort of marker on it. When I have to sit here for what seems like forever to find correct stuff, it seems almost pointless.

    Maybe start making rules to post an entry to the database, otherwise keep them to yourself? Say, a 3 month probation period? lol
  • Painten
    Painten Posts: 499 Member
    I have seen some things marked uk, maybe from now on we could mark the country we are in when entering the values.

    People in this thread have stated they are correcting them, maybe they could then correct the name to include the country in aswell as the nutritional values.
  • girlruns
    girlruns Posts: 344
    2 things that would be helpful:

    1st, seeing AT LEAST the calorie count before you enter it into your diary. That way, if it is wildly wrong, you can see that before you even add it.

    2nd, being able to "share" foods with the people you choose. My husband is trying to start on here, and he gets frustrated trying to search for things that I already have in my diary, or if I did a "my food" (I just made a bunch of muffins) I have to share it so he can have it as well.

    As nice as a clean up would be, I think these things would cut down on a lot of peoples search times.
  • LadyT02182011
    LadyT02182011 Posts: 113
    I noticed this problem when I first started logging my food. To eliminate this confusion for me. I input all of my own info under MY FOODS and save it, but I do NOT click on option to save to database. This has helped me tremendously. I have found that it's much simpler for me to do a little research on my own and check with the actual food companies regarding their nutritional values as well as input my own measurements for EXACTLY what I am cooking and calculating.
  • etroupe
    etroupe Posts: 54
    that is one of the reasons I go to the website of the company or check the labels on most of my entries...I don't trust that a lot of the stuff in the data base is correct.
  • smareeh
    smareeh Posts: 117 Member
    I noticed this problem when I first started logging my food. To eliminate this confusion for me. I input all of my own info under MY FOODS and save it, but I do NOT click on option to save to database. This has helped me tremendously. I have found that it's much simpler for me to do a little research on my own and check with the actual food companies regarding their nutritional values as well as input my own measurements for EXACTLY what I am cooking and calculating.

    This is what I have done too. Everything I make I input as a new recipe in my foods. Because a lot of time I make lots of subs for normal dishes.
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