food rating

I've noticed that many of the foods I put in do not get any rating at all, sometimes I put in a food and I get a rating that seems radically inappropriate. Am I doing something wrong? How do I make sure the foods I put in get a rating? I fill out every space on the form, leaving nothing out. Do the foods that I eat that have no rating have an impact on my overall nutritional grade? For example, I've added vitamin enhanced water to my daily log, will this added nutrition help improve my grade, even though it did not get a rating when I entered it? Is there information on the rating system; what is considered, how foods are given a rating, etc. I’ve entered some foods that have no “bad points” but have several “good points”and yet they still get a bad rating, or no rating at all. I find this confusing and I’d really like to understand the rating system and how it works.

http://caloriecount.about.com/cc/help.php?id= 66

Any food that has a grade will have a ? above the grade on the nutrition facts page -- click on that for the same info as above.

When you add a food, usually there is a list that says, "high in blah, blah. Low in blah blah"

Don't wrap your world around those grades -- they are to be a guide -- way to manipulative for them to be the end all.  200g of an A will wipe out (or almost) 50g of an F.

As to why you aren't getting a grade -- I'm not sure why that is happening if you all the spots are full

Thanks for the fast reply.

I am still wondering if all the foods I enter (rated and unrated) are considered when I get the nutrition grade for the day.

I would be curious to know if I'm getting most or all of the recommended daily allowances.

I don't consider the grades to be the end all... but I'd like to know how accurate they are (if I don’t cheat and manipulate them).

It is also true that, about half the time, I do not get a grade for foods I enter. But I always enter all of the nutritional information on the label (and put in 0's for nutritional info not on the label).

One time I entered a food that had 0 calories and, when it did not get a grade, I changed the calories to 5 (even though there were actually 0) and I got a grade. I tried this on a different, unrated, food and I still did not get a rating.

If the ungraded items nutritional value's are still considered in my overall rating this is not a problem. If they are not I'd like to find a way to make sure my foods are rated. The rating would not really help me if it is telling me I get an "A" only because I choose foods that are not rated and should be getting a "C".

I don't know if the unrated foods are considered for part of the grade -- the nutritional information IS included in the analysis, however.

Grade Accuracy is sometimes in the eyes of the beholder -- often a poor grade is because of sodium or sugar that is in a high proportion to the overall weight of the item, even though the amounts are trivial (to most).

I try to stick to things with grades -- mostly because otherwise I feel like I am manipulating the system -- although I know that just because something doesn't have a grade doesn't make it bad.  I've never had a day that ended with worse than a B, I believe.  But part of that is the choices I make, also.  And that I know when I eat two apples I am usually canceling out something "bad".

When you are entering items by hand -- I believe, that if you have all the major blocks full with an actual number other than 0, and at least one micro-nutrient block with a number other than 0, then you should get a grade.

Maybe the the guys (Eric or Igor) will be able to pipe in with some more information if they get a chance

I also try to only log foods with grades. When I can't find one I enter the food myself. Sometimes even that backfires, as I enter all the info I have and still do not get a grade. But, as long as the nutritional info goes into my overall grade, I guess that doesn’t matter. I've also (as an experiment) entered the same food more than once with the same information and gotten different grades.

“When you are entering items by hand -- I believe, that if you have all the major blocks full with an actual number other than 0, and at least one micro-nutrient block with a number other than 0, then you should get a grade.”

What is a micro-nutrient block?

Which of the blocks are considered “major blocks” and which are not? When I enter a food by hand, I have to put zero in some of the blocks because the food doesn’t have any of that item. An example: Dasani plus has 0 calories, 0 fat, 35 sodium, 0 carbs, 0 protein, 10% Vit E, 10% Vit B6 and 10% magnesium. What it doesn’t have is a grade :)

Macro-nutrients are things like vitamins and minerals.  The "major blocks" (or Macro-nutrients) are the fats, carbs, proteins.  I'll bet (but don't know for sure) that a food has to have some "nutritional" value in the macro-nutrient sense for it to be given a grade.  Dasani is basically a vitamin tablet dissolved in water -- it's not "food" really.

It's true that Dasani is basically vitamins and water, but both are essential in a complete diet. I was actually wondering if there was a way that you could view your macro-nutrient percentages to see if you are getting the minimum daily requirements.

wasn't saying there was anything wrong with the dasani -- just that it may be why it doesn't really register in the database.

To see your micro-nutrients -- go to your analysis page and then hover your cursor over the highlighted date -- DO NOT CLICK (otherwise you will just go to the food log for that day).

It doesn't cover all by any measure, but it hits some of the most important one

That's a cool feature :) I'd never would have discovered it by myself, thanks!