Diet Wars: Is Nutrition Data Accurate?
The number of on-line diets and trackers has grown unabated over the last year or two. Everyone wants to track your eating habits and display a graph for you - but can you be sure that the nutrient data is accurate? CalorieLab tells of how one new diet tool has been pilfering data from other sites - and in many cases getting it wrong.
Recently I mentioned a few more free tools including The Daily Plate - a new free diet tracker with many advanced features. Unfortunately it seems they have been scraping or making a 'mechanical reproduction' of other sites' data.
Data from DietFacts and RecipeZaar has ended up on the Daily Plate - and in a number of cases critical numbers have disappeared along the way.
Where does nutrition data come from?
Most nutrition information on the web is based on the USDA food database - a collection of 7,146 different food items (available in different portion sizes).
Many diet sites add value to this data by providing additional tools or adding fast food brands (Fit Day or Nutrition Data for example). Other countries such as Canada also have a freely available database that may be incorporated.
There are also other sources of information:
- DietFacts - This is the best place to go if you are looking for restaurant or hard-to-find products. The author, Kelly Stuart has spent 10 years manually adding items into her database - a real labor of love.
- CalorieKing - A larger organisation that is devoted to inputting nutrient data from many sources.
- Esha Data - This a private label database that contains 23,000 food items (including USDA, brand name items, and fast foods). I suspect this database is behind most of the larger commercial on-line diets.
If you count calories - don't sweat the small stuff. If you ate an apple - you really have no idea of the precise nutrient data - the lab used a different apple.
Focus on trends and patterns in your eating - and don't get overawed by the hype: Daily Plate currently claim they have a database of 98,000 foods!
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Excellent post as a year ago I use to try to calculate each calorie I ate and that meant using measuring cups and spoons for everything. Now I look back on how dumb that was and have to laugh because life is to short and nothing is perfect.
ReplyI don't think it's a big deal really if your calorie counts are off from your actual intake by 200 or so calories a day. The human body is very flexible and being "off" by that much probably won't affect your weight loss too badly. As long as you have a good general idea of your calories consumed, you're probably doing ok.
ReplySometimes thar packaging is wrong too. Just do your best. I see so many free WW sites that have the right NI info but the wrong points either two high or two low.
ReplyI surfed around for a few minutes and though dailyplate site sure looks nice, its looks are deceiving. The site is slow as a dog and the data is practically useless to me. I don't expect perfection but come on! How can a chocolate candy bar with 14 gram of fat have no calories? How can a hamburger have only one calorie? Plus I don't know how many printed error messages popped up. It looks like they just sucked data from wherever they could find it and didn't check it at all to make sure it came through ok. Looks like unreliable programming to me. Should be called an alpha rather than a beta. I might check them out again in another few years. They've got a lot of work ahead.
Replywww.fitday.com is a great site to log calories.
ReplyThank you so much for the kind words about my website, DietFacts.com. A lot of hard work has gone into it, and I'm overjoyed to I learn that people appreciate my efforts. Thanks again!
ReplyI just figured out that a website I have been using-nutritiondata.com, have had its calorie counds all wrong! It says mature kidney beans boiled with salt is only 33 calories for 100 gram, which is less than half. This is one of MANY things I have reaized this website has wrong...thank god I've only been using it for thre days because I have a wedding coming up. I am now boycotting all it's sister sites too! They are: Concierge / Epicurious / Men.Style.com / Style.com / Flip.com / Wired.com / Lipstick.com / NutritionData / YM / Allure / Architectural Digest / Brides
ReplyCookie / Condé Nast Portfolio / Domino / Glamour / House & Garden / Jane / Lucky / Men's Vogue / Self / Teen Vogue / The New Yorker / Vanity Fair
I have been using the nutritiondata dotcom website and have discovered numerous errors in the nutrition data they provide. Particularly, the calorie counts on certain foods, including as potatos and brand names foods, is much lower according to you than it is according reliable sources.
After a little research, I am starting to see a pattern. Their website is funded by some nasty little corporate creeps. Their "nutritionist" Monica Reinagel is writing stuff elsewhere that she is getting paid to write by people with an interest.
And, one look at who the sponsors are on their website...you need not bother with this site.
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