Beware - Errors in database info - Doubdiary!

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Hrtnrse
Hrtnrse Posts: 17
in Food and Nutrition
Fellow Fitness Pals,

Today I checked some of the nutritional information on the food packaging against what is listed when I "add" to my food diary from the searchable database. I found NUMEROUS errors. Not sure where the database info comes from. I assumed it was all input by MFP personnel and verifiable. Not so.

I happened to notice on the FAQ page that all members have the ability to make corrections to the database items so it occurred to me that information might not be totally correct.....and this is the case.

Most of the time, the calories are correct but it seems most everything else is hit or miss.

I found errors regarding:
1. S content (it seems some just assume all carbs are sugar)
2. Rounding up for information that should include decimals. For instance, if the product listed 0.5 g fat, the database listed 1 g. This is particularly a bummer for small servings that may be used several times a day, like offer creamer.
3. Severral "n/a" in places where the correct information should be. This happened a lot for the vitamin listings. So bummed, All this time, I thought my wine didn't contain carbs!

To remedy this for myself, I'm double checking all of my commonly used foods and using the "Create a New Food" function more often.

I still love this app....I just started last week and have lost nearly 5 lbs.......but I'm more cautious with my food diary.

Have a great...and healthy day!

Heartnurse

P.s. Sorry for the "Doubdiary" in the title. It's supposed to say "Double check your diary". But alas, my fingers hit the "submit" button mid-editing and the program will not let me change it. I am a blog rookie for sure!
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Replies

  • elanaknt
    elanaknt Posts: 40 Member
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    In the Terms of Service for the app I noticed that users can submit information and was a bit concerned. I've only been using this for a few days but I find it easier on my slightly obsessive personailty to just pick the big few I am really concerned about (cals, fat, carbs, sugar, fiber, protein) and make sure those are correct. If in doubt, resort to the scanner (LOVE this feature!). Thanks for posting a heads-up!
  • Crochetluvr
    Crochetluvr Posts: 3,143 Member
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    Thanks for the heads up! I wont put a food in the database unless I have the package to list the proper nutritional amounts. If there is something missing, I dont put 0....I leave it blank. And I think some believe you cant adjust the decimals. I have changed amounts I have eaten to .75 at times and the program calculates the amount perfectly.
  • Hrtnrse
    Hrtnrse Posts: 17
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    If in doubt, resort to the scanner (LOVE this feature!). Thanks for posting a heads-up!
    [/quote]

    How do I get the scanner?
  • Hrtnrse
    Hrtnrse Posts: 17
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    The scanner sounds great! How do I get it?
  • devonette
    devonette Posts: 263 Member
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    I do not own a cell phone, so I can't use the scanner feature.

    I've added foods to the mfp database using the info from the nutrition information on the side of commercially available packages. The one problem I have with adding foods to the database from my own recipes so that other family members can use it is that I can only see the information for the 6 nutritional components that I've chosen to show in my diary, and not the rest. Apparently people who use smart phones can see all nutritional information, but those of us on computers can't, so I'm unable to add info for those I don't track, like sugar, fiber, type of fat, etc., because I honestly have no clue -- it doesn't show on mine.
  • devonette
    devonette Posts: 263 Member
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    Oh, I also wanted to add that you can't always trust the nutrition info provided by restaurant chains. For example, I recently got a sandwich from Cosi. Their official website listed the calories as 527 for that sandwich (listed as weighing 11.5 ounces), as well as other nutritional info, which is exactly what someone entered into the database, so that's what I put in my journal. The next time I got the sandwich, I weighed it first, and it came to almost 16 ounces! I then deconstructed it, and weighed the various components, and the chicken alone was 8 ounces, the bread was 5 ounces, the cheese was 2.5 ounces, and so on. So the 527calorie sandwich I had allowed for was actually about 250 - 300 calories more!
  • bethmillerwilson
    bethmillerwilson Posts: 43 Member
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    The scanner feature is for iphone. You can use your phone to scan the bar code of the food item and the nutritional info is then put into mfp. The blackberry app doesn't have this, I am not sure about the android app.
  • laurensayz
    laurensayz Posts: 70 Member
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    When are you using MFP on the computer, you can click and see if it has been 'confirmed' by other users. I usually do my log from my computer, so I like that. The ones with confirmations are more accurate than not. If I'm using the phone app, I look at all of them until I find the one that has a calorie match to whatever I am holding in my hand. I don't mind if its a few off. A few calories is not a life or death situation to me. Now, if it were off by say 50+ I might would reconsider adding it in myself if I could not find the appropriate one.
  • ilikepandasyay
    ilikepandasyay Posts: 96 Member
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    The scanner feature is for iphone. You can use your phone to scan the bar code of the food item and the nutritional info is then put into mfp. The blackberry app doesn't have this, I am not sure about the android app.

    Android app has it too! Very useful :)
  • ZombieSlayer
    ZombieSlayer Posts: 369 Member
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    I do not own a cell phone, so I can't use the scanner feature.

    I've added foods to the mfp database using the info from the nutrition information on the side of commercially available packages. The one problem I have with adding foods to the database from my own recipes so that other family members can use it is that I can only see the information for the 6 nutritional components that I've chosen to show in my diary, and not the rest. Apparently people who use smart phones can see all nutritional information, but those of us on computers can't, so I'm unable to add info for those I don't track, like sugar, fiber, type of fat, etc., because I honestly have no clue -- it doesn't show on mine.

    For the recipes - My trick is to use SparkRecipes.com, recipe builder. It gives you ALL the nutritional information (including some you can't add on MFP at all).
  • becon1022
    becon1022 Posts: 39
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    when you go to add on your cell phone on the right side of the search bar there is a bar code app touch that then hold the bar code up like you going to take a pic of it very easy i bar code everything usually
  • ucsneakerz
    ucsneakerz Posts: 25 Member
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    If you want to scan an item go through the same process you would to enter anything else, then when you would enter your food title in "search for food" you will see a blue bar code looking icon just to the right of where you would enter search times, tap the barcode icon and you'll be able to use it using your cell phones camera. Like mentioned above, this is a feature that only comes with the smart phone version of MFP.

    As far as the accuracy of the database foods, its totally true that some are mistaken. When you are selecting a food using the computer version of the program you can see how many times the information has been confirmed. So, when in doubt, its always safer to pick the food that has been confirmed by a good number of people. If you pick one that has only been entered by one person you are relying on that one person's accuracy of entering it.
  • UsedToBeHusky
    UsedToBeHusky Posts: 15,229 Member
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    The database allows the users to make corrections. I implore you to use this option as there are already many duplicate entries in the database.
  • becon1022
    becon1022 Posts: 39
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    theres a multi-add tap above the search bar so you dont have to go in & out just scan or pick from your stored list your whole meal then when done hit add. if you touch a food item on your cell phone then it'll take you to the page to change serving also when you scan something before you add it you can change serving size
  • Hoakiebs
    Hoakiebs Posts: 430 Member
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    If in doubt, resort to the scanner (LOVE this feature!). Thanks for posting a heads-up!

    How do I get the scanner?
    [/quote]
    You can download it to a smartphone, iProduct (must have camera).
  • Hrtnrse
    Hrtnrse Posts: 17
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    Yay! Thanks to all of you, I have learned how to scan food items and check the "confirmed" nutritional information. I've tried both features and I am so happy. The scanner worked great and I'm happy to see that many of my usual foods have been confirmed.

    Thanks Pals!

    P.s. I see that many of you have done really well with your weight loss! Nice to know I'm getting good advice from people who are making it work so well! Hope to be among you soon.
  • tolygal
    tolygal Posts: 602 Member
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    Sometimes I cannot bear to see that I have surpassed my daily calorie allotment, so I edit the info on some foods, lowering the calorie amounts. It helps me feel better about what I ate. I'm sorry if it causes anyone else problems.

    Am I reading this correctly? Are you saying that you edit a food in the database to enter wrong nutritional data? Which would mean that every other user who uses that item either has to re-edit it or they get wrong data in their own diary? I sure hope I read that wrong. Either that or I hope you are joking - I can't tell.
  • Hrtnrse
    Hrtnrse Posts: 17
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    Sometimes I cannot bear to see that I have surpassed my daily calorie allotment, so I edit the info on some foods, lowering the calorie amounts. It helps me feel better about what I ate. I'm sorry if it causes anyone else problems.
    Well this site is for support no matter what so if it makes you feel better thats all that matters!
    Thank you for understanding. I don't know why people have to bully me about editing the food database. :angry:

    They obviously need a lesson in the meaning of this site,we must unconditionaly support everyone ALL.THE.TIME.

    I support your decision here. It works especially well for pizza. I ate a whole pizza and it was only 300 calories. True story.

    We have all been there! Lol!
  • bethmac_va
    bethmac_va Posts: 65
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    Unless I can scan my food, if I am in doubt, I check other websites for calorie content, then come back to MFP to find the closest thing that matches. I find that nutritiondata.self.com is pretty reliable, as is calorieking.com. For me, as long as the calorie, protein, carb and fat contents are reasonably accurate, I don't worry about the other nutrients on occasion.
  • ae2rigc
    ae2rigc Posts: 37
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    Unless I can scan my food,
    Scanning doesn't make it accurate, only identifies the product and pulls from the database. So if someone has entered incorrectly or some tool has edited it to be incorrect, you'll get that incorrect data.

    I had a thing scan that had carbs out by a factor of 10 today, input with wrong decimal. Yesterday, had something where kcals were actually the kj so read higher.

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