Stop trying to kill other MFPers - the salt issue
TheMrWobbly
Posts: 2,541 Member
Okay so that is a bit strong however it is not unusual for people with both low sodium intake and high sodium intake to suffer serious health issues including heart attacks and we, as a group, are not understanding the salt / sodium or gram / milligram requirements on MFP.
Most food packets give you the salt content of a product - not all so check! Salt contains 38.8% sodium. If somebody is already reducing their salt intake and you add a product with 1000 mg of salt and you put sodium as 1000 mg that person is going to think they have had almost half their RDA when they are not even close. I saw a thread where someone thought they had 18,000 mg of sodium - some people take what you put as gospel so please take care.
Most food packets give the salt content in grams as it looks a less frightening number. I see people who had a full chinese with 2 mg of sodium. Try 2,000 mg!!!
Maybe it all balances out, maybe not. Please be a friend to everyone and check what is in the sodium column.
Have a great day!
Most food packets give you the salt content of a product - not all so check! Salt contains 38.8% sodium. If somebody is already reducing their salt intake and you add a product with 1000 mg of salt and you put sodium as 1000 mg that person is going to think they have had almost half their RDA when they are not even close. I saw a thread where someone thought they had 18,000 mg of sodium - some people take what you put as gospel so please take care.
Most food packets give the salt content in grams as it looks a less frightening number. I see people who had a full chinese with 2 mg of sodium. Try 2,000 mg!!!
Maybe it all balances out, maybe not. Please be a friend to everyone and check what is in the sodium column.
Have a great day!
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Replies
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So for those clicking disagree this is the Harvard page on Salt and Sodium
https://hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/salt-and-sodium/
Give an argument if you want to disagree.2 -
You'll get disagrees because really? You need to vet every food you use to be sure it says what you want it to say. It only takes a few seconds.
Using foods from the database means you'll get items entered by members from all over the world, labeling isn't the same everywhere AND some people won't enter many of the nutrients. This type of post/thread won't change anything.
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Thanks @cmriverside - a good reference point for people to check.
I wasn't asking those that don't have the information to get it, I was asking those that do if they enter food could they check and enter it correctly.2 -
Yeah, good luck with that.
There are millions of food entries already in there. Your thread/post won't change that, and m a y b e 20 people will even read this and care.12 -
I operate under the assumption that all user-created entries are dubious and double check the values I care about.
Since I primarily eat whole foods and get the syntax for them from https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/, this is not onerous.9 -
Lol, I likely consume about 4,000 mgs of sodium or more a day. Being Asian, I keep using Asian ketchup on everything. For those that don't know, Asian ketchup is soy sauce.
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kshama2001 wrote: »I operate under the assumption that all user-created entries are dubious and double check the values I care about.
Since I primarily eat whole foods and get the syntax for them from https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/, this is not onerous.
This.
Also:TheMrWobbly wrote: »Most food packets give you the salt content of a product - not all so check!
This is incorrect for people in the US (and likely Canada). Our packages don't have "salt" but have sodium in mg.
I think the problem you are talking about may be a bigger issue for posters in the UK, as people put in the salt number in the sodium column. But the fact is that any packaged item should be checked against your own item, as package information differs over time.11 -
This is why i take MFP food database entry's with a grain of salt.31
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I love salt6
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Jokes aside, honestly, i don't really concern myself of nutrients, just calories, but i never trust MFP database. I always do a google search and find comparable calorie information.3
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I think the disagrees might be based on:
1) the overly dramatic thread title, and
2) the preaching tone of the post
Just my salty 2 cents 🤔29 -
I don't trust any of the micronutrient information on mfp. The thing that's usually right is calories, and everything else is sort of hit or miss (although macros tend to be right more than everything else). Not everyone cares about sodium so unless you enter it yourself, you can't rely on it. Given the limited amount of data food labels are required to include, mfp isn't all that appropriate for tracking micronutrients anyways.
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You got a disagree from me for both the content of the post, and for the title that literally accuses us of trying to kill people. That’s not cute or funny.28
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The thing is: MFP users come from all around the globe. And food labels vary from country to country. In my country, Belgium, labels show the amount of salt, not sodium. Might be the opposite in other countries. People who don't know the difference will enter data without realizing it's wrong.
Instead of chastising MFP users, it would be more constructive to suggest to MFP to make their app more 'global' and show both sodium and salt content, and automatically calculate one if a value is entered for the other.12 -
In technical parlance known as GIGO or garbage in garbage out.cmriverside wrote:Using foods from the database means you'll get items entered by members from all over the world, labeling isn't the same everywhere AND some people won't enter many of the nutrients.
The solution is a curated database but at this stage, there is zero chance of that being adopted here. There are other similar online programs that do limit access or in other ways manage the accuracy of the data. Some MFP members participate in the social aspect of the program but maintain their food diary elsewhere. I am among them.2 -
In technical parlance known as GIGO or garbage in garbage out.cmriverside wrote:Using foods from the database means you'll get items entered by members from all over the world, labeling isn't the same everywhere AND some people won't enter many of the nutrients.
The solution is a curated database but at this stage, there is zero chance of that being adopted here. There are other similar online programs that do limit access or in other ways manage the accuracy of the data. Some MFP members participate in the social aspect of the program but maintain their food diary elsewhere. I am among them.
Absolutely.
And MFP would lose a lot less of its members if it would differentiate between the Admin-entered items and all the other user-entered ones. Either a separate list, or bolding the text or making it a different color in the list...something.
It's not rocket surgery, but we've been saying this for years.
It's been I think seven years since they screwed up and took away our easy ability to pick the correctly entered ones. Now the only way is to use the syntax from USDA, like kshama2001 said above. It's pretty lame.7 -
cmriverside wrote: »
In technical parlance known as GIGO or garbage in garbage out.cmriverside wrote:Using foods from the database means you'll get items entered by members from all over the world, labeling isn't the same everywhere AND some people won't enter many of the nutrients.
The solution is a curated database but at this stage, there is zero chance of that being adopted here. There are other similar online programs that do limit access or in other ways manage the accuracy of the data. Some MFP members participate in the social aspect of the program but maintain their food diary elsewhere. I am among them.
Absolutely.
And MFP would lose a lot less of its members if it would differentiate between the Admin-entered items and all the other user-entered ones. Either a separate list, or bolding the text or making it a different color in the list...something.
It's not rocket surgery, but we've been saying this for years.
I thought that was the meaning of the green Verified badge next to certain foods?
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Fair play - the title was meant to cause a reaction as so many people don't engage, it then explained it was a bit strong.
I will keep on updating the products I see every day for everyones benefit and hope the discussion continues.0 -
So you were over dramatic in order to get a reaction. That's called trolling26
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cmriverside wrote: »
In technical parlance known as GIGO or garbage in garbage out.cmriverside wrote:Using foods from the database means you'll get items entered by members from all over the world, labeling isn't the same everywhere AND some people won't enter many of the nutrients.
The solution is a curated database but at this stage, there is zero chance of that being adopted here. There are other similar online programs that do limit access or in other ways manage the accuracy of the data. Some MFP members participate in the social aspect of the program but maintain their food diary elsewhere. I am among them.
Absolutely.
And MFP would lose a lot less of its members if it would differentiate between the Admin-entered items and all the other user-entered ones. Either a separate list, or bolding the text or making it a different color in the list...something.
It's not rocket surgery, but we've been saying this for years.
I thought that was the meaning of the green Verified badge next to certain foods?
A lot of those are wrong, and no, they aren't necessarily the entries that were imported from the USDA by the site creator. As a side FYI, the ones that say "USDA" are user-entered too, so really and truly, VET EVERY FOOD before you use it against either the label or the product website or the USDA site.
and this...TheMrWobbly wrote: »Fair play - the title was meant to cause a reaction as so many people don't engage, it then explained it was a bit strong.
I will keep on updating the products I see every day for everyones benefit and hope the discussion continues.
When you "update" an item, it doesn't change it for me, only you. It then becomes a part of your MY FOODS list and when you then use it on your food diary it will go into your "Recents" and "Favorites" list and will show for you with the new info. For everyone else, it stays the way it was.
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TheMrWobbly wrote: »Fair play - the title was meant to cause a reaction as so many people don't engage, it then explained it was a bit strong.
Well, you definitely got a reaction, just not the one you wanted. Life’s crazy that way. 😏9 -
"When you "update" an item, it doesn't change it for me, only you." I thought that updating entries change it for all subsequent users who select that item. I agree it won't change it if it's an entry in your Recent list and you always / only ever select entries from there but if you have to re-select for any reason, surely you'd get the updated entry?
"I thought that was the meaning of the green Verified badge next to certain foods?" The green ticks just mean an entry has been verified by sufficient people. When you look at the nutritional value of an entry it asks if it's correct. If enough people say 'Yes', it gets a green tick.The downside is that if/when the manufacturer changes the product, even if you say it's not correct, you can't change it. This is one reason why you have multiple entries for the same food product.
To the OP, I'm in the UK and regularly change the sodium values because it's obvious people have entered the salt figure that's shown on our labels. Clearly they don't register that their food label says g for grams and the MFP entry asks for mg. It is mildly irritating but, as I personally don't track sodium, I only change the entry if there's another value that I want to update. I wouldn't edit something just for the sodium value.1 -
TheMrWobbly wrote: »Fair play - the title was meant to cause a reaction as so many people don't engage, it then explained it was a bit strong.
I will keep on updating the products I see every day for everyones benefit and hope the discussion continues.
This clickbait tastes...self righteous...and salty.16 -
cmriverside wrote: »
In technical parlance known as GIGO or garbage in garbage out.cmriverside wrote:Using foods from the database means you'll get items entered by members from all over the world, labeling isn't the same everywhere AND some people won't enter many of the nutrients.
The solution is a curated database but at this stage, there is zero chance of that being adopted here. There are other similar online programs that do limit access or in other ways manage the accuracy of the data. Some MFP members participate in the social aspect of the program but maintain their food diary elsewhere. I am among them.
Absolutely.
And MFP would lose a lot less of its members if it would differentiate between the Admin-entered items and all the other user-entered ones. Either a separate list, or bolding the text or making it a different color in the list...something.
It's not rocket surgery, but we've been saying this for years.
I thought that was the meaning of the green Verified badge next to certain foods?
Unfortunately, the "verified" green check marks in the MFP database are used for both user-created entries with sufficient upvotes and admin-created entries that MFP pulled from the USDA database (no upvotes needed). To find admin entries for whole foods, I get the syntax from the USDA database and paste that into MFP.
The USDA just changed the platform for their database and it is unfortunately a little more difficult to use. For example, in order to find the entry I wanted for chicken I had to include a bunch of keywords. "chicken, breast, cooked, roasted" gave me https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/fdc-app.html#/?query=chicken, breast, cooked and from that you can see the syntax for the MFP entry to use is "Chicken, broilers or fryers, breast, meat only, cooked, roasted"
Note: any MFP entry that includes "USDA" was user entered.
For packaged foods, I verify the label against what I find in MFP. (Alas, you cannot just scan with your phone and assume what you get is correct.)1 -
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TheMrWobbly wrote: »
Im sorry somebody 💩 in your Cheerios this morning. That would probably make me grumpy, too. 😒7 -
So that wasn't chocolate milk? Damn!0
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TheMrWobbly wrote: »
There's a difference between headlines and trolling on forums.
I'm not offended, but you really need to get out more.8 -
The danger with salt is too little, not too much.1
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