People who log your food should read this

eatcleanNtraindirty
eatcleanNtraindirty Posts: 444 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Hello everyone!

I hope you all are having a great day. To begin my topic I would like to thank those of you who CORRECTLY enter information about food into the database! Thank you!!

There are so many incorrect entries in the database it really annoys me. Have any of you looked up a food item and have found that the calories and the nutrient (carbs, protein, fats) are entered wrong??? Is it just me or does this drive you crazy too? I find so many times that foods are entered wrong into the database. Even things that you scan can be entered with wrong amounts.

If you are one of these people who logs stuff and enters the initial calorie and nutrient content PLEASE DO IT ACCORDING TO THE AMOUNTS ON THE PACKAGING!!! It really bothers me when I find things that I have scanned via the barcode pop up and are not the amounts specified on the package. This really can mess up a lot of people's diary loggings because you are selfish and do not enter the correct amounts. I don't care if it's because you, "don't count fiber as a carb" or think that because something is higher in protein it should have less calories because "protein calories don't count" if you do this, you are WRONG WRONG WRONG!!! And can mess up everyone else who uses that entry.

So do us all a favor and quit MESSING UP THE DATABASE!!!! If you are going to enter something for your own edification and want to change the amounts, by all means go ahead. BUT! start a new food entry and give it a title like, "XYZ Uncle Ben's Brown Rice *not counting fiber cals" Or, "XYZ Uncle Ben's Brown Rice **Jon version**"

Anyone else think the same thing? Anyone want to explain their reasoning for erroneous entries? <I am not going to say, "o ok that's fine then" I still think that you should make a note of your specific entry with some "****" and your name or something. I am just curious as to why people do this, although I do have my own thoughts on why.
«134

Replies

  • Jonesie1984
    Jonesie1984 Posts: 612 Member
    exactly!! Or just add it and it asks you if you want to add it to the MFP database.. DON'T!! It will be saved for your use only but not mess everyone else up who goes and clicks in good faith. hahaha I approve this post whole heartedly :flowerforyou:
  • Fr3shStrt
    Fr3shStrt Posts: 349 Member
    Yes! Thank you for bringing this up!
  • Going4Lean
    Going4Lean Posts: 1,078 Member
    i am always correcting information using the packaging.
  • colson72687
    colson72687 Posts: 9
    Good way to make sure the numbers are right on something you have packaged....scan the barcode using your smart phone! This helps me with even making something up off the fly because I can scan each individual item and then it's my brand/amounts according to what I'm physically making for that meal. Helps tons....OH BEAUTIFUL ELECTRONICS! :)
  • srpm
    srpm Posts: 275 Member
    I wish MFP had a like button right now.
  • PikaKnight
    PikaKnight Posts: 34,971 Member
    Good advice. I always try to remember to double check the foods I enter. The good thing is once it is, I have it..lol. But I wish MFP would clean it up a bit. I do like how there are different measurement entries (cups instead of grams, teaspoon instead of tablespoon, etc)..but it would be great if they could try to consolidate these things more.
  • srpm
    srpm Posts: 275 Member
    Good way to make sure the numbers are right on something you have packaged....scan the barcode using your smart phone! This helps me with even making something up off the fly because I can scan each individual item and then it's my brand/amounts according to what I'm physically making for that meal. Helps tons....OH BEAUTIFUL ELECTRONICS! :)

    But it doesn't help if the person who added the barcode to the database entered the wrong count for fiber or only entered calories and nothing else off of the label.
  • beckamarie
    beckamarie Posts: 23 Member
    TOTALLY AGREE!!! I do realize that with so many european measurements it gets a little confusing but I can work around that....
  • mtabh
    mtabh Posts: 128 Member
    Good way to make sure the numbers are right on something you have packaged....scan the barcode using your smart phone! This helps me with even making something up off the fly because I can scan each individual item and then it's my brand/amounts according to what I'm physically making for that meal. Helps tons....OH BEAUTIFUL ELECTRONICS! :)

    Nope, I frequently scan products and end up with something entirely different. Example - jarred pasta sauce showed up as wine. Must be careful about that as well.....

    And you still have to check the amounts, because they can be off as well.
  • AckieJ
    AckieJ Posts: 199 Member
    Yes it drives me crazy!!!
  • catinohio
    catinohio Posts: 82 Member
    I agree totally; it's amazing how many differences can exist for the same food. And today I just noticed an entry for a green bell pepper with 0 Carbs, but then had values listed for Fiber & Sugar grams.

    I've made many corrections to existing nutritional data to match the packaging (although I sometimes wonder if manufacturers sometimes change the info on their packages).
  • k8blujay2
    k8blujay2 Posts: 4,941 Member
    I check them all the time because of this... and when I see an incorrect entry you know what I do? I edit and correct it.... problem solved.
  • mizzie1980
    mizzie1980 Posts: 379 Member
    I would also like to add something:

    Please include ALL the information!

    Specifically, if the serving size is "1 cup (56 grams)" please include the gram amounts. I find it much easier to weigh than measure. It's much more accurate AND it doesn't dirty up a measuring cup (which gets annoying as heck several times a day).
  • catinohio
    catinohio Posts: 82 Member
    I wish MFP had a like button right now.

    Me too.
  • starfish1783
    starfish1783 Posts: 120
    I completely agree - 100%!!!! :drinker:
  • concordancia
    concordancia Posts: 5,320 Member
    Unfortunately, the app doesn't allow you to confirm or correct entries. Besides, when there are ten entries for the same thing, we should be able to purpose the incorrect ones for deletion. I just had this problem with a specific brand of chicken soup.
  • KenosFeoh
    KenosFeoh Posts: 1,837 Member
    You know, I really don't scrutinize the listings that closely. If I know the calories in something I'm eating, I keep clicking through the options until I find the right number of calories. If I don't know, I look for the same serving size and assume the calories are going to be close enough.

    Oh, and if I enter anything, I follow the package information exactly.
  • 4_Lisa
    4_Lisa Posts: 362 Member
    YEP, drives me NUTS. and yes it does mess things up. Learned that the hard way when I didn't double check things!
  • Alexagetsfit
    Alexagetsfit Posts: 313 Member
    Let me start off with - yes, i agree with you to some extent. Although, something you may not have considered when posting this is that companies tweak their ingredients constantly. Just today, I found two individual packs of chips ahoy cookies with different nutrition facts on the back. One I bought a couple months ago and one I bought this past weekend. So, the new information came up incorrectly because it matched the old info.

    so, it may not be the person entering the information, just that the information is old.
  • AnniePenny
    AnniePenny Posts: 62 Member
    i am always correcting information using the packaging.

    I do this a lot too.. figure that way the system is gonna get at least a little bit more clean same with confirming if the information is actually correct..
  • 4_Lisa
    4_Lisa Posts: 362 Member
    Unfortunately, the app doesn't allow you to confirm or correct entries. Besides, when there are ten entries for the same thing, we should be able to purpose the incorrect ones for deletion. I just had this problem with a specific brand of chicken soup.

    You can adjust it with the app, when the initial scanned info come up, scroll down, it will ask if the information is incorrect (something like that) you can go in and make the adjustments.
  • stines72
    stines72 Posts: 853 Member
    lol i found one last night that was 1 pistachio kernel: 40 calories
  • DebbieLyn63
    DebbieLyn63 Posts: 2,654 Member
    I hear ya. I hate when people put in a food with nothing but the calories listed, and nothing else. Or they put {net carbs) in the title, yet they haven't deducted the fiber grams.
  • TR0berts
    TR0berts Posts: 7,739 Member
    Let me start off with - yes, i agree with you to some extent. Although, something you may not have considered when posting this is that companies tweak their ingredients constantly. Just today, I found two individual packs of chips ahoy cookies with different nutrition facts on the back. One I bought a couple months ago and one I bought this past weekend. So, the new information came up incorrectly because it matched the old info.

    so, it may not be the person entering the information, just that the information is old.


    This is almost exactly what I was going to post. In addition, the same foods have different makeups for different countries. Just another thing to consider.
  • lacurandera1
    lacurandera1 Posts: 8,083 Member
    When I find a stupid, incorrect entry, I make my own, complete with exclamation points and "REAL!" and "CORRECT!" So i don't get tricked again and can easily find my own entry.
  • concordancia
    concordancia Posts: 5,320 Member
    YEP, drives me NUTS. and yes it does mess things up. Learned that the hard way when I didn't double check things!

    There are tons of skim milk entries that don't include the sugars. It is fine and dandy if you don't worry about natural sugars, but that doesn't mean they don't exist!!
  • WEB3
    WEB3 Posts: 121 Member
    I totally agree!
    I once saw someone admit that they change the food in the database so their diary for the day is lower than reality!
    That's cheating yourself, the others who use that entry, totally defeats the purpose of this site AANDD wastes my time fixing entries! bah!~
  • cathyfowler662
    cathyfowler662 Posts: 120 Member
    I totally agree!! I do add my name on all food because of all the incorrect information and I want my husband to be able to use the stuff I enter, too. I put the product name and then 'fowl' so that I know it is correct. I enter everything that they on the packaging. I will more closely put the grams as well as cups, etc as to let people weigh instead of measure. I should know better...I weigh everything too instead of measure. Bad me!!
  • lizzybethclaire
    lizzybethclaire Posts: 849 Member
    I am always fixing entries, but I find it is usually not too much off. This could also be because a company will change their recipe which makes the nutritional information different.
  • DrMAvDPhD
    DrMAvDPhD Posts: 2,097 Member
    I check them all the time because of this... and when I see an incorrect entry you know what I do? I edit and correct it.... problem solved.

    As far as I can tell editing an entry is not an option from the mobile app from which I do most of my tracking. Wish it was, though.

Categories