Nutrition-tracking app

January 10, 2015 10:45 AM

I am looking for an app where I can log everything I eat and at the end of the day or week, it will tell me which nutritients I am lacking in my diet. Does this exist?

I am worried about my vitamin, iron, protein etc. intake. I have started making a list of foods I usually eat, the amount of nutrients in them etc., but it's tedious and once I'm done with it, I'd still have to do a lot of math to figure out how much of, say, Vitamin D I got and how much I'd still need. So I was thinking, there must be an app for this, right?

It can be for Android (Kindle Fire) or iPhone.

Thanks in advance!

posted by LoonyLovegood to Health & Fitness (11 answers total)

Best answer: In MyFitnessPal you can choose which nutrients, vitamins to track and it will tell you how much of those you have received, based on the foods that you eat. You can also set Daily Nutritional Goals for these nutrients and it will tell you which ones you are deficient in as you go through the day and allow you to adjust your eating habits accordingly.

So yeah, MyFitnessPal.
posted by John Kennedy Toole Box at 10:57 AM on January 10, 2015 [5 favorites]

Best answer: MyFitnessPal is the standard recommendation, and it's pretty good. You can scan barcodes or select from custom foods other people will have entered, like "Brown Rice" in various quantities.
posted by rhizome at 11:00 AM on January 10, 2015 [2 favorites]

Best answer: Agree with MyFinessPal, but when choosing an item, make sure you look to see if the vitamin quantities are there. A good portion of the foods in the database are entered by users and often the lazier ones will just add calories and no other nutritional information.
posted by cecic at 11:05 AM on January 10, 2015 [1 favorite]

Seconding cecic to take the time and double check that the nutrition facts for your common items are correct. Even if they have more of the nutritional information than calories, it has been wrong - even the user submitted "corrected" versions.

If it's for a specific medical reason, working with a nutritionist might be helpful since daily reference values are definitely not a stand-in for factors like bioavailability and absorption issues.
posted by palionex at 11:35 AM on January 10, 2015

An app is a good place to start for logging data, but if at all possible, get a real human nutritionist and have them analyze your bloodwork a few times a year. As palionex mentions, just because you're taking in nutrients doesn't meant they're getting absorbed (like iron), so just using the app might provide a false sense of security. Also, unless you like eating liver, there's not any other substantial dietary sources of vitamin D, so a supplement is your best bet, adjusted for the level of sun you are getting throughout the year.

So, I think it's safest to have a doctor or nutritionist get a baseline for you, and establish daily intake goals for all those nutrients, then use the app to track them.
posted by oxisos at 11:39 AM on January 10, 2015

Response by poster: No medical concerns, simply wondering if I'm getting enough protein etc. since I'm a vegetarian, but also trying not to overeat soy products (hello, late period!) My iron levels (I know it's best taken with vitamin C) were good at the last few checks, and I will remember to take vitamin D supplements again.

Just wondering, is MyFitnessPal US-based or can you scan other products as well? I'm in Switzerland.
posted by LoonyLovegood at 11:52 AM on January 10, 2015

Best answer: My assumption here is that if it's in their database and you scan it, it's going to come up. The app itself is free, so it's worth testing it out, IMHO, before you go any further down the rabbit hole. If it turns out that it's Switzerland Deficient, then you may have to come up with US equivalents to your Swiss products.

As an ex-vegetarian, I know how difficult it can be to get everything you need. My unasked for recommendation is to avoid my mistake and avoid processed food as much as possible and stick to the fruits and veggies and legumes section of the store, as opposed to the Lays Potato Chips section of the grocery.
Good luck and bon appetit!
posted by John Kennedy Toole Box at 11:58 AM on January 10, 2015

You can enter anything you want in there that you don't find. It's labor-intensive, but then it's there for the future...
posted by cecic at 12:54 PM on January 10, 2015

I used MyFitnessPal in the UK, I'd imagine it works in Switzerland as well.
posted by Enchanting Grasshopper at 12:59 PM on January 10, 2015

You can search the MFP food database without signing up, if you want to see how extensive it is before creating an account.
posted by brianogilvie at 8:25 AM on January 11, 2015

Response by poster: Thank you, everyone! I got my iPhone and downloaded MyFitnessPal and it knows most food items I enter.
posted by LoonyLovegood at 11:35 AM on January 19, 2015