Drastically Different Database Information! :-(

KKS1959
KKS1959 Posts: 3 Member
edited November 2024 in Food and Nutrition
Has anyone figured out a way to get the right nutrition information for a particular food from the MFP database?? I use barcodes whenever possible but tonight we had pot roast for dinner and meat doesn't come with a barcode.

The label from the Publix grocery store calls it, "Chuck Roast Boneless". The three entries I looked at vary widely -- the two that are close in terms of calories are very different from each other in terms of fat and protein.

How do you figure out which is the right one to use (especially when there are 50 or more entries to pick from!)?

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Replies

  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    edited July 2015
    Meat is tough. I always feel like I'm guessing.

    I try to use the USDA entries when possible, and that's the third one down, but you have to be careful to be honest with yourself about the fat content. There should be other options that have more fat. The format to search for is beef-chuck or something similar.

    One important thing is picking cooked if you weighed it cooked and raw if you weighed it raw. Assuming you weighed the cooked meat, that's the right one (but for the fat issue possibly).
  • petitehealth
    petitehealth Posts: 148 Member
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    Meat is tough. I always feel like I'm guessing.

    I try to use the USDA entries when possible, and that's the third one down, but you have to be careful to be honest with yourself about the fat content. There should be other options that have more fat. The format to search for is beef-chuck or something similar.

    One important thing is picking cooked if you weighed it cooked and raw if you weighed it raw. Assuming you weighed the cooked meat, that's the right one (but for the fat issue possibly).

    Me too. I also try to look up the calories on calorieking.com if MFP is bringing up too many random calorie amounts. After visiting calorieking.com, I select a MFP entry that is the closest.
  • KKS1959
    KKS1959 Posts: 3 Member
    Thanks, Calorie King seemed to have a good answer!
  • ahoy_m8
    ahoy_m8 Posts: 3,053 Member
    I have the same problem with salmon--so many entries that vary so widely, even for raw only! And I agree about getting the fat content accurate for beef &pork. I use nutritiondata.com, too. For chicken, I weigh it raw if I possibly can. How it's cooked can make a huge weight difference.
  • Christine_72
    Christine_72 Posts: 16,049 Member
    How does calorie king differ from mfp?
  • meshashesha2012
    meshashesha2012 Posts: 8,329 Member
    when i have a choice and i dont have a barcode, i go with the highest. better safe than sorry
  • BWBTrish
    BWBTrish Posts: 2,817 Member
    make your own!
  • Christine_72
    Christine_72 Posts: 16,049 Member
    I don't know how so many people manage to make their own meat entries. I buy the majority of my meat at the butcher, and it gets put into a normal freezer bag, which obviously has zero nutritional info
  • BWBTrish
    BWBTrish Posts: 2,817 Member
    you look it up on the usda site and make an new entree here.
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    edited July 2015
    ahoy_m8 wrote: »
    I have the same problem with salmon--so many entries that vary so widely, even for raw only! And I agree about getting the fat content accurate for beef &pork. I use nutritiondata.com, too. For chicken, I weigh it raw if I possibly can. How it's cooked can make a huge weight difference.

    Salmon's actually pretty easy. The trick is to stick with the USDA entries if you can find them (the format, as with the beef entry I pointed out above, is fish-salmon). Beyond that, pick Atlantic or Pacific, wild or farmed, and--most important--cooked vs. raw depending on when you weighed it. Ignore the other user-inputted entries.
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    TheOwlhouseDesigns wrote: »
    you look it up on the usda site and make an new entree here.

    This, although I tend to find the USDA entries already here match up when I check them, so I usually just make sure I find them.
  • leggup
    leggup Posts: 2,942 Member
    Those vary widely because they're cooked and, I assume, seasoned with butter and spices? That weight is the cooked weight, not the raw weight, correct? If you bought it cooked from Publix, use the Publix entry.

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