Salt in data base

johnsat
johnsat Posts: 7
edited November 8 in Food and Nutrition
I need to watch my salt intake; like a lot of people I am on the edge for high blood pressure. I am using fitness pay to lose weight too. My question is why do so many entrys on the data base have wrong sodium content. Some entrys just put the salt content in grams as sodium mg's, others miss it completly and some just have a random number. Are others having the same issue. I admit converting salt to sodium is not a sum I can work in my head but everys one is entering the data via a computer or smart phone so there is no real excuse for getting it wrong.
Am I just unlucky with the foods I pick or am I over reliant on what's there to make my entry quick and easy

Replies

  • CyberTone
    CyberTone Posts: 7,337 Member
    edited December 2014
    Many users are not very accurate when creating foods in the database. You have the choice to use the closest one or edit the user entered item. Over the past 18 months, I have probably corrected about two dozen incorrect entries, because like you, I need to keep track of my sodium. My priority is to correct those food entries I know I will use quite frequently.

    There are two ways to access the Edit database entry page:

    1. When doing a Food > Food Diary > Add Food > Search, highlight the database entry, click on the "nutritional info" link underneath the "(member submitted, X confirmations)" to bring up the Nutrition Facts pop-up window. Click the "No" under "Is this data accurate?" Click Edit to bring up the Edit Food page where you can correct the entry values.

    2. When doing a Food > Database > Search, highlight the database entry and click Edit to bring up the Edit Food page.

    Take for example: ASDA - Chocolate Fudge Cake found on the ASDA website at this URL: groceries.asda.com/asda-webstore/landing/home.shtml#/product/910000331869 and in the MFP Food database at this URL myfitnesspal.com/food/edit/1479413

    There are multiple values that are not correct, such as Calories, Cholesterol, Sodium, and Protein, among others. The sodium listed on the ASDA website is 0.5g, which equals 500mg. The user who entered this into the MFP Food database incorrectly entered 0.5 instead of 500mg, so this needs to be corrected. Continue to correct any other incorrect values and once you have made all of the corrections you find, place a comment in the Edit Summary field and click Save Changes. You will now become the owner of that database entry and it will appear in your "My Foods" until someone else decides to edit it and takes over the database entry.

    I wish it were more simple, but it is not. Good luck!
  • cottontailkitchen
    cottontailkitchen Posts: 2 Member
    Yesterday I was prompted by a pop up asking my how long I spend entering items into my food diary & was surprised to find nearly every option was under 10 mins - I spend way more time than that! OK, I am an avid user & love MyFitnessPal but I reaIised today one of the reasons I spend so long is because I too like to keep track of sodium / salt & & most of the time I spend is taken up amending the sodium entries in the database, re-navigating to the food diary page & re-searching for my new entry, which is a bit frustrating. However, I think most mistakes in this field are due to a lack of understanding (as opposed to other inaccuracies with, say, fat where an error is possibly a simple case of misreading or mistyping - that will always occur, it is unavoidable).

    Could a small info box be placed on the food database entry page near the sodium entry that explains the field is sodium so if the food nutrition table gives a salt value use xxx as a simple conversion (I use 1g of salt = 413mg sodium)?

    Alternatively, have 2 fields - salt & sodium - but not sure how that would work when trying to analyse as they are essentially the same thing?

    Or make it possible to edit & add food immediately instead of having to navigate back & re-search? I think this may be complicated though as I understand by editing you are creating a new entry not just modifying the existing one.

    Just trying to think of a way to help people understand the difference, which to be honest, I didn't really until I started using MFP & developed an interest. If more people are regularly exposed to the difference & how to calculate it, perhaps more entries would be accurate to start with & it would save me time everyday!!

    Just a thought...
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