Generic or every item

melbournemummy79
melbournemummy79 Posts: 80
in Food and Nutrition
I am fiddling about with a salad..
I see there is a generic entry for garden salad and that is what I am eating...
Should I go ahead and use that or should I individually list every item in the food diary for the salad?

Replies

  • tommygirl15
    tommygirl15 Posts: 1,012 Member
    I do it individually for accuracy
  • mockchoc
    mockchoc Posts: 6,573 Member
    I'd add each ingredient indiviually. I'm important to be as precise as you can be.
  • sarski77
    sarski77 Posts: 79
    What kind of stuff is in the salad?

    If it's just lettuce and other greens I probably wouldn't bother entering everything individually.
  • melbournemummy79
    melbournemummy79 Posts: 80
    Its pretty much a garden salad with lettuce, spring onion, carrot, tomato :)
    The extra items like jalapenos, ham ,dressing and beetroot I added separately already anyway.
    Thanks for getting back everyone.
  • ILiftHeavyAcrylics
    ILiftHeavyAcrylics Posts: 27,732 Member
    If I know the individual ingredients I always log them separately. It's the only way to get an accurate log. If I'm at a restaurant or someone else's house then I log the best approximation. Salad isn't a huge issue unless yours has cheese, croutons and/or dressing. Other things (lasagna for example) there will be a big difference.
  • sarski77
    sarski77 Posts: 79
    With carrot and tomato I'd probably weigh everything individually :)
  • taunto
    taunto Posts: 6,420 Member
    ok I know your question only concerns about a salad but I will go ahead and give you a small guide anyways. You like to read don't you? I like to type so lets assume you like reading!

    Salads are a HUUUGE variety. A salad to me is onion + tomato + cucumber + lemon juice + salt. A salad to somebody else is completely different and to others, something else. You get the drift aye? What do you do when you have idea what the ingredients are but do know that its all veggies? You go for the generic. At worst, you're a few macros and calories off but in general, you're close enough. But if you made it yourself, either enter them all seperately or if you make that salad often, go for making a recipe for yourself and then just use them in the future (Click Food --> Recipes --> Enter New Recipe).

    Now, what if you're at a restaurant and you want some spaghetti and sauce. IDK about you but I don't know what they put in it. The possibilities are endless and if you're off, you can be easily off by 200 calories for a meal (too much or too little). For these situations, in the begining its fine to rely on the generic entries. Even after a year I still use them. Or make your own recipes if you know what the restaurant put in the dish. HOWEVER, try and establish a sense of how many calories your meal is worth. After a year + on here, I can usually tell if the MFP database is off. I know that my serving of curry wasn't so cheap in calories or sometimes, that cheese I just had tasted too rich. You can always double check by googling the calories.

    This will be a long process, for now, just keep it simple and rely mostly on the MFP database :)
  • Prettymisssparkles
    Prettymisssparkles Posts: 1,274 Member
    I have been adding everything, Usually I just make a recipe out of them. I made one for salad bar salads, one for homemade salads and one for salads at my mom's. Makes it a little more easy having them saved. That way I can reuse them next time I need to, and not have to do the tedious task of adding everything each time.
  • funhouse77
    funhouse77 Posts: 179 Member
    I make my on recipes on the database and have a 'recipe' for my general salad that I have at some point most days.
  • JesterMFP
    JesterMFP Posts: 3,596 Member
    I always just add the items individually. How does the person who added the entry for a generic salad know what you are eating? Even if there is some standard (is there?) surely the amounts of each item will vary. If you usually have the same items and amounts when you make salad, then it might be easier to create a recipe yourself and use that each time.

    I guess compared to other things, making a vague guess about salads isn't too bad (when it's things like tomatoes, cucumber, lettuce...) - the calorie difference won't be that huge. It wouldn't be as bad as logging a generic "cheesecake" or "omelette". I'm concerned about tracking nutrients as well as calories though, so I like to be as accurate as I can!
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  • bwnorton
    bwnorton Posts: 100 Member
    I also like the time savings of the generic salad entry. What I did is start making a generic salad base using the types of lettuce and greens I normally do. And, like everybody else on this thread, weigh out the other ingredients and count them. That's the only way you'll know and take control! Which is a major point of this website.
  • rubberbiscuit
    rubberbiscuit Posts: 128
    I created a recipe in my diary for tossed salad. Then if I add calorie dense ingredients to my salad, like sunflower seeds or avacados, I change the ingredients in my recipe. This way my calories are pretty accurate with very little effort.

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