Vitamins and Minerals in Custom Food Entry Topic
NateHevens
02/27/18
On my android phone, I'm trying to add new foods. Currently, for vitamins and minerals, with only a coupe exceptions, it only lets me enter them as percentages only, with no option to change that. But I often enter stuff from the USDA nutritional database, which gives values for these in IUs, mgs, and mcgs. Can I set my app to enter those values as IUs, mgs, and mcgs, or do I have to do some math to get percentages? (I have a maximum subscription, if it matters.)
Dietician
02/28/18
replied to NateHevens
Hello Nate- Good Question! There is a detailed explanation of why MND uses percentages on our FAQ page. Here is the link.http://www.mynetdiary.com/faq.do Scroll down to the section titled: Percentages in Nutrition Facts.
"If you need to compare a food in MyNetDiary with Nutrition Facts printed on food packaging, use MyNetDiary's Nutrition Facts screen, which recalculates percentages from FDA Daily Values. If you see that percentages are different, the food may need an update, or it could be a different food with a similar name - make sure you are looking at the right food! If the food in MyNetDiary is out of date, you can use the PhotoFood service to send us food package photos, we will update food catalog." Let me know if this answers your question! Joanna (Dietician)
NateHevens
03/09/18
Oh thank you! That is helpful. However... you're data is a bit out of date. Apparently, the FDA has changed these values. Here's the link:
https://www.dsld.nlm.nih.gov/dsld/dailyvalue.jsp
They include both the "New FDA Labeling Daily Values" and the "Old FDA Labeling Daily Values".
I can post the new numbers here if you want.
I guess it also answers my question of whether or not I have to do math to get the percentages when I don't have them (as I said... the USDA Nutritional Database doesn't use percentages)... "yes". LOL...
Thanks again for your response.
Dietitian
03/10/18
replied to NateHevens
Hi NateHevens,
The tricky issue is that some food manufacturers have moved to the new food label whereas others have not. So MyNetDiary gets requests to add food labels using the old food label format (and old %DV goals) and the new food label format (and new %DV goals). Meaning, at this point in time, two %DV values are being used on food labels, and this will persist until at least January 2020 when the new food label is required to be implemented.
Because I track too, as soon as I see that my food label is outdated in MyNetDiary, I use the PhotoFood service to have them update the food item (I use the food update feature, take pictures of the front of package and food label, and then save). Please do the same.
There are TONS of food label updates happening this year and the next as food manufacturers transition.
Thanks for posting about this important issue. MyNetDiary is going to be implementing a new screen for new food entry to accommodate this confusing issue of having 2 food label formats and %DV values.
In the meantime, when you see that a food label is outdated, please use PhotoFood Service to have MyNetDiary udpate the food item from your phone's pictures.
Thanks for taking the time to post to us,
Kathy
Katherine Isacks, MPS, RDN, CDE
Daslederman
02/03/19
Hi There - I’ve been confused by my net diary saying that I’m consuming three or four times daily recommended intake of vitamin A and it seems that the food label for raw carrots needs updating. I’ve only eaten a few carrots this week and nothing else with significant vitamin E content.
You suggest to request an update using Photo food system but raw carrots Have no packaging and no nutritional information. I just want my net diary to review its data base, at least for carrots and vitamin A content
Dietician
02/04/19
replied to Daslederman
Hello Daslederman- Thank you for writing in. I will talk with tech support about looking into the accuracy of vitamin a content of raw carrots. From a nutrition perspective: The recommended intake of vitamin A is 700 mcg RAE/d for women and 900 mcg RAE/d for men. Simply eating One medium carrot, translates to meeting 200% of the recommended amount of vitamin A!
Top foods containing vitamin a besides carrots include:
Sweet potato
Beef liver
Spinach
Canned pumpkin
Some ready to eat cereal (though you'd have to eat quite a bit to get to 4 times the recommended amount).
It is actually quite easy to exceed the recommended amount of vitamin A if you eat a healthy diet and include any of the above foods. As for an upper limit, it is rare to get in too much vitamin A from food. Please let me know if this answers your question. Again, I will double check and make sure our database if listing the correct vitamin A content from carrots. All the best, Joanna (Dietician)
Vitamins and Minerals in Custom Food Entry
