USDA National Nutrient Database App: Calories to Vitamin K – iNutrients For iPad And iPhone

Massachusetts based Indie developer James Hollender’s version 2.1 of his iNutrients app contains the latest USDA National Nutrient Database (SR-26), which requires no Internet access, for 10 classes of nutrients: Calories, Carbohydrates, Dietary Cholesterol, Fiber, Potassium, Proteins, Saturated Fat, Sodium, Sugars and Vitamin K. The database now includes 8,463 different foods and 15,135 food servings.

Despite the enormous number of foods and food servings in the USDA National Nutrient Database, there are still many which aren’t included, especially most name brands. Having the capability of defining Custom Foods that are missing fills this gap, which then makes keeping track of daily nutritional intake more complete.

It’s slick and quick to be able to input the information from a packaged food’s nutrition label and moments later see color codings for all ten nutrients indicating the ranking of their concentration. As an example, the developer talks about a popular brand name frozen dinner. Once the data from the nutrition label is input and saved, the color rankings show up for the Custom Food indicating Carbohydrates are Extremely High (Black); Sodium is Very High (Dark Red); Calories are High (Red); Potassium, Saturated Fat & Sugars are Moderately High (Orange); Proteins are Moderate (Yellow); Cholesterol & Fiber are Moderately Low (Light Green); and Vitamin K is Unknown (Gray) because data wasn’t available. This immediately points out that maybe this small meal, eaten frequently, isn’t as nutritionally good as originally thought.

Each Custom Food Definition has one main Serving Size and an allowance to add up to three additional ones. Nutrient data is extrapolated for each of the additional Serving Sizes based on their weight compared to the main Serving Size.

There is nothing that prevents the user from collecting nutritional information for a complete meal and then creating a single Custom Food for that meal. This provides the capability to speed input of the same meal eaten frequently.

All Custom Food Definitions are automatically included in searches of the entire USDA database.

If for some reason the user doesn’t agree with the developer’s default Color Scales for the ten nutrients covered, each individual scale can be customized. Making a change will be reflected for all previously recorded data when next presented.

The iNutrients app provides information based on the USDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference concerning ten key nutrients:

* Calories – Great for anyone concerned about weight management
* Carbohydrates – Used to make glucose which is the fuel that gives you energy
* Cholesterol – Dietary Cholesterol – Aids in the production of Vitamin D
* Fiber – Essential for cardiovascular health; prevents constipation; improves control of diabetes
* Potassium – Helps with anxiety and stress; blood pressure; brain function; cramps, etc.
* Proteins – Important for Bodybuilders, Vegetarians or Vegans
* Saturated Fat – Eat only moderate amounts to keep healthy
* Sodium – Would you believe there’s sodium in water?
* Sugars – Help keep your sugar intake under control
* Vitamin K – Vitamins K1, K1D & K2 – Extremely important for anyone taking Blood Thinning Medications like Coumadin or Warfarin

These nutrients are listed and presented throughout the app in alphabetical order. Icons used to help easily identify the nutrients are from other apps by the developer, each covering a single nutrient corresponding to the nutrients in this app are used throughout.

For the price of 2 individual nutrient apps, users can get all 10 nutrients in a single app.

iNutrients utilizes information taken from 100% of the USDA National Nutrient Database for each of these ten nutrients, unlike the individual apps which only cover less than 10% of what’s available. Users will find the Search functionality lightning fast as all needed infromation from the USDA database is local to the app – no internet connectivity is required.

From the Search functionality the user can save information for the foods they eat each day. They are able to pick a serving size and then either record a multiple of 0.1 – 9.9 servings; or optionally create a custom serving size from 1 to 500 grams. As they change the serving size they can graphically see the the effect on the various nutrients via color coding ranging from white to black:

* Black – Extremely High
* Dark Red – Very High
* Red – High
* Orange – Moderately High
* Yellow – Moderate
* Light Green – Moderately Low
* Green – Low
* Light Blue – Very Low
* White – Extremely Low

The My Data section allows users to access up to a full year’s worth of Food Serving Intake Items stored in their Personal iNutrients Database. Select any Intake Item to get the complete information available. From the display users can tap the Action button in the upper right corner to:

* Delete – Delete the current Food Serving.

* Change Number of Servings – Change the number of Servings for the current Food Intake Item.

* Change the Intake Date – Move the current Food Serving to another day. – This is extremely useful if the user wasn’t able to enter what they’ve eaten on the day it occurred; just simply enter it and then use this function to change to the date needed.

* Copy the Intake Item to Today – This allows the user to copy an individual Food Intake Item from any day, making a copy for the current day.

Also available is an allowance to copy all the Food Intake Items from a single day to the current day. This is extremely handy for people who eat the same foods on a regular basis.

The Customize section provides a means for users to create their own Custom Color Scale for each nutrient if desired in addition to the new feature of creating or updating Custom Food Definitions.

This universal app shows rotating images occasionally on the right, when run on an iPad, that are representative of the 25 different Food Groups designated by the USDA. Versions of these images will typically be seen whenever a food group is identified on iPad, iPhone or iPod touch. More features are planned for upcoming future releases, especially in the areas of customization and reporting.

Device Requirements:
* iPhone, iPad or iPod touch
* iOS 6.0 or later
* Universal Application
* 31 MB

iNutrients 1.2 is $3.99 (USD) and available worldwide exclusively through the iTunes App Store in the Health & Fitness and Medical categories.

iNutrients 2.1:
http://www.hollender.com/iNutrients.html

Purchase and Download:
https://itunes.apple.com/app/id580660547

YouTube Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHpa9hmy8IA

LinkedIn Profile:
http://www.linkedin.com/in/jimhollender