Don't trust the MFP nutritional values!

debdptg
debdptg Posts: 94 Member
edited September 28 in Food and Nutrition
I have been working hard to balance my nutrition, and one thing that I noticed right away was that my diary showed that I was seriously low on potassium. I check which foods I should be eating (which I was) and couldn't understand my deficit, so I researched taking supplements. There were a lot of cautionary tales about taking too much potassium, so I decided against that. Then I found the problem.

I was relying on the nutritional values in the MFP database and they are seriously wrong. Perhaps they are ok for calories, carbs, fat - but then the values for other nutrients is not included. So, now I need to double check each entry. I guess this is why folks put in their own entries and we have so many duplicates that are just a little different.

We are all responsible for what we put into our bodies. That is one great lesson in our healthy eating journey, but we are also personally responsible for making sure we are accounting for our nutrition correctly. Ugh - I really think this will be a lot harder.

Replies

  • zml_mom
    zml_mom Posts: 270 Member
    I noticed a lot of them have duplicates, so I check a lot of them and I added some of my own that I eat a lot
  • WonderNoodle
    WonderNoodle Posts: 549
    The majority of the database is entered by members. Make it a habit to use values with the most "confirmations" to reduce errors.
  • tusher2011
    tusher2011 Posts: 201 Member
    You can edit those values, fyi. On the right where it says "is this correct" or something...if you say no then it gives you the opportunity to edit and save it.

    I agree though, I hate when something is off even by 1g or something...everything else will be right and just one thing is off.
  • oxavecamourxo
    oxavecamourxo Posts: 270 Member
    Yeah I've been monitoring my potassium, too, and noticed that. I check everything when it says there's no potassium in it. I think it's because people enter in their own nutritional information for things & a lot of labels don't list potassium levels.
  • Edestiny7
    Edestiny7 Posts: 730 Member
    I noticed that problem as well. Even the labels for food I have at home do not show potassium. So now, I do not use the labels or user entered entries. I use the entries that do not have an asterisk next to them. They are based on the government nutritional information.
  • Jorra
    Jorra Posts: 3,338 Member
    I don't think it's MFPs fault. It's the fault of food companies that don't list the information on the labels. Very rarely do labels actually have that information. I only see it on things that have a large amount like tomato soup.
  • Keri_girl
    Keri_girl Posts: 44
    I have a Driod cellphone and the MFP app that I downloaded has a bar code scanner. I do my best to scan everything that I can so that the values are correct. If I am eating something that I don't have a bar code available for and I need to use the sources here then I look for the closest match to my food that has the most confirmations. It may not be exact but it's the closest that I can get at the time. I adjust the values later if I need to.
  • Mamapengu
    Mamapengu Posts: 250
    I lot of the food labels I have looked at didn't include potassium. More and more include it now, but not always. So it may be that the entry you are looking at is from an item that didn't list potassium-- makes it hard. When that happens I leave it at 0 rather than guess, if you find the correct value later please correct it!
  • cawood2
    cawood2 Posts: 177 Member
    My mother recently had to go on a low potassium diet, so we went out shopping for a quick lesson in label reading. A lot of products don't list potassium content. I'm not sure if this is because the amount of potassium is negligible, or the manufacturers are just not required to list it. Anyone know? We were working on the assumption that the level was negligible, and checking for ingredients (particularly preservatives) that are potassium compounds.
  • Jorra
    Jorra Posts: 3,338 Member
    My mother recently had to go on a low potassium diet, so we went out shopping for a quick lesson in label reading. A lot of products don't list potassium content. I'm not sure if this is because the amount of potassium is negligible, or the manufacturers are just not required to list it. Anyone know? We were working on the assumption that the level was negligible, and checking for ingredients (particularly preservatives) that are potassium compounds.

    I wouldn't be too quick to make that assumption, a quick Google search will reveal many lists of high and low potassium foods.
  • cawood2
    cawood2 Posts: 177 Member
    My mother recently had to go on a low potassium diet, so we went out shopping for a quick lesson in label reading. A lot of products don't list potassium content. I'm not sure if this is because the amount of potassium is negligible, or the manufacturers are just not required to list it. Anyone know? We were working on the assumption that the level was negligible, and checking for ingredients (particularly preservatives) that are potassium compounds.

    I wouldn't be too quick to make that assumption, a quick Google search will reveal many lists of high and low potassium foods.

    I should clarify... we also were consulting lists of high/moderate/low potassium general food items from a kidney clinic and dieticians.
  • KanCrav
    KanCrav Posts: 439 Member
    A healthy lifestyle isnt just something that you can pick up in the nearest convienience store. Its a pretty awesome thing to have, so I think its worth a lot of work. If this was easy, everyone would be in great health. MFP is a fantastic site for people to learn good habits to inegrate in their lives and bad ones to stay away from. I believe it is our responsibility to decide how serious each of us is about what we put in our body.

    Thank You for posting this, it is a good reminder for us that a healthy way of life is our choice and our responsibility. All too much poeple try to find the easy way outand get fast answers, I believe life is more fulfilling if you work for it.


    Good luck everyone.
  • Pebble321
    Pebble321 Posts: 6,423 Member
    You are quite right, if you want to track a specific component like potassium, it is hard work and you will probably need to research and enter it yourself.
    I've added a few new items to the database and haven't ever entered potassium because it doesn't appear on any food labels that I've seen. I think requirements for labelling are different in Australia to the US, and as there are people from all over the world using MFP, you will find that some of the entries reflect that.
    If the info isn't listed, I can't add it, it's not that I can't be bothered getting it right!
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