Changing entry for a food in the database

R7seven
R7seven Posts: 8 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Sometimes when adding a food to my diary, the food in the database shows the item in tablespoons or cups. The info for the food is correct but I like to measure my food in grams. When I try to edit the info it will let me, but I can never get it to take both the new gram entry along with cup/tablespoon. I do see other foods entered with both so there must be away. Can anyone tell me how?

Replies

  • Lietchi
    Lietchi Posts: 6,841 Member
    It depends on the entry, some entries only have one serving size option, others have several. Your best/easiest bet is to look for a different entry for the food you want to log, one that contains a 1g or 100gr serving size.
  • R7seven
    R7seven Posts: 8 Member
    Thanks so basically if there is no entry with grams I just need to add a new food to the database, I was hoping there was just a way to just edit it to just add another serving size for grams.
  • lemurcat2
    lemurcat2 Posts: 7,885 Member
    edited December 2020
    Usually there should be a gram option entry findable -- definitely for whole foods, and US packaged foods generally all have a gram option (although it might require some math, like 1 servings=56 g).
  • glassyo
    glassyo Posts: 7,743 Member
    There is. At least on the web version.

    When adding a food, click on the entry and then click on nutrition info. Where it says "is this data accurate" click no and it'll give you an option to edit the entry.

    Aaaaaaaaaaaand ok, nevermind. Because now it's just thanking me and not letting me edit.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,052 Member
    glassyo wrote: »
    There is. At least on the web version.

    When adding a food, click on the entry and then click on nutrition info. Where it says "is this data accurate" click no and it'll give you an option to edit the entry.

    Aaaaaaaaaaaand ok, nevermind. Because now it's just thanking me and not letting me edit.

    Verifying - we used to be able to edit but as of this writing I am unable to edit on the web version.

    But do try to find an entry you can use or do the math for. I'm anemic and iron values are often wrong but I am almost always able to find one eventually.
  • lynn_glenmont
    lynn_glenmont Posts: 10,093 Member
    R7seven wrote: »
    Sometimes when adding a food to my diary, the food in the database shows the item in tablespoons or cups. The info for the food is correct but I like to measure my food in grams. When I try to edit the info it will let me, but I can never get it to take both the new gram entry along with cup/tablespoon. I do see other foods entered with both so there must be away. Can anyone tell me how?

    Generally, the foods that have both volume and mass units as options for servings were created by MFP staff. Users can't create database entries with more than one serving size option. There was a database-wide "fix" a few years ago that attempted to create metric equivalents for the units commonly used in the U.S., and vice versa, so that the drop-down menu for user-created entries would offer both options, as well as offering scaled-up and scaled-down units based on the original serving unit (e.g., a "pound" option for an entry originally created with the serving size in "ounces"), but that created a lot of inaccurate or nonsensical entries, probably because "ounce" is both a weight and a volume unit. So you may see some user-created entries that look like they have both volume and mass options.

    As always, you should check the database info against package info or another source like the USDA nutrient database. I have seen entries where "1 g" (one gram) of a food supposedly had hundreds of calories.
  • rosebarnalice
    rosebarnalice Posts: 3,488 Member
    I prefer grams myself. The majority of foods have multiple similar entries, so if I find one without a gram option, I just go back to the search list and choose another one
  • R7seven
    R7seven Posts: 8 Member
    Thanks for your help everyone, it explains why I can’t add a different type of measurement. I will continue to either find an entry that matches, figure the math in my head or just add a food to the database with the gram measurements if Needed.
  • glassyo
    glassyo Posts: 7,743 Member
    kshama2001 wrote: »
    glassyo wrote: »
    There is. At least on the web version.

    When adding a food, click on the entry and then click on nutrition info. Where it says "is this data accurate" click no and it'll give you an option to edit the entry.

    Aaaaaaaaaaaand ok, nevermind. Because now it's just thanking me and not letting me edit.

    Verifying - we used to be able to edit but as of this writing I am unable to edit on the web version.

    But do try to find an entry you can use or do the math for. I'm anemic and iron values are often wrong but I am almost always able to find one eventually.

    Because I broke it. I was literally going through all the steps while typing (after going through them first to double check) to type them up right and it suddenly got all polite. :)
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,052 Member
    lynn_glenmont wrote: »
    R7seven wrote: »
    Sometimes when adding a food to my diary, the food in the database shows the item in tablespoons or cups. The info for the food is correct but I like to measure my food in grams. When I try to edit the info it will let me, but I can never get it to take both the new gram entry along with cup/tablespoon. I do see other foods entered with both so there must be away. Can anyone tell me how?

    Generally, the foods that have both volume and mass units as options for servings were created by MFP staff. Users can't create database entries with more than one serving size option. There was a database-wide "fix" a few years ago that attempted to create metric equivalents for the units commonly used in the U.S., and vice versa, so that the drop-down menu for user-created entries would offer both options, as well as offering scaled-up and scaled-down units based on the original serving unit (e.g., a "pound" option for an entry originally created with the serving size in "ounces"), but that created a lot of inaccurate or nonsensical entries, probably because "ounce" is both a weight and a volume unit. So you may see some user-created entries that look like they have both volume and mass options.

    As always, you should check the database info against package info or another source like the USDA nutrient database. I have seen entries where "1 g" (one gram) of a food supposedly had hundreds of calories.

    This is often just an error for admin-created entries - it says 1 g when in fact the values are for 100 g.

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