Foreign/uncommon Food

KassieCanDoThis

Sometime it is really hard to find the nutritional information of foreign foods or meals. If you can't find the nutiritional info for a food do you just not eat it or just not worry and enjoy? How about those of you who are not american, Do you just not eat certain foods from your country because you cant find them online or do you look for something similar and log that?

Spanaval

I put in my own recipes, look up nutritional information for myself, etc. There is not a lot that's not in the database, as far as I can tell.

avir8

Yeah this is a common problem for me especially indian and thai food, I just enter the semi-highest calorie item in the database as a rough estimate of what I ate.

dixiewhiskey

Yeah I experience this a lot which really sucks.. I love foods from my family's countries (South Africa, Jamaica, Germany, etc,) and a lot of other ethnic foods but many I can't enjoy because the salt and fat content are through the roof. Once in awhile isn't too bad though but it makes it hard to decide how much I can eat when I have to sit there and log over 20 things at once lol

dixiewhiskey

So to answer your question.. I unfortunately avoid most of the time but if I am the one cooking or present when the food is being prepared then I have an idea in my head of how much of each ingredient is being used. When I do indulge and don't know the info, I just try to find the closest thing

head_in_rainbows

Well I am Swedish and I can always find the calories of Swedish food in Swedish language on internet it does not come only in English

But when it comes to your first question ... you can always try to find the values in foreign languages. If it is German try translating teh name to German and add Kalorien and so on ... The aswares are going to be in German but you can figure it out

opuntia

I tend to find something similar to log. Or if I have a day when I've gone out for meals and eaten a whole variety of stuff that isn't going to be listed on the site, I will simply not log that day.

Illona88

It's usually in there in my language.

Otherwise I just look it up on the packet and add it to the database here on myfitnesspal.

ceppie

this is what I love about MFP, that there are all ready so many food in the database....
I am German and most I can just add, because it is there. If not then I go for something similar or just add the food (if I have the nutritian details).

Going out is a bit more complicated and I tend to guess then. In the end I want a life style change, not a diet. So I do not worry too much if the calories are not 100% correct. For me this is about being aware of what I put into my mouth and most of the time the problem is rather what i eat on my own at home then what I eat in front of others.