Software Tools for Nutritional Tracking?

Deagol asks: "After reading about it several times on Slashdot, I decided to start the Hacker's Diet this month. I've even lost 3lbs so far. I'm looking for software tools to make this thing easier. So far, I've been using Nut to track my calories and see what nutrients I need to balance. Though Nut has been invaluable, it lacks a clean recipe and menu interface (it has them, but it's light on features). I did the usual google/freshmeat/sourceforge search, but turned up very little. gnutrition looks promising, but it's 2 years unmaintained and uses an old version of the USDA database. My requirements are: that it use the current USDA database; have a flexible recipe and menu functions which tracks calories and nutrients; and finally that it runs under Linux (prefer OSS). Multiple-user support and easy of use would be nice, but not required."

Comments

fitday?

[sporty]

http://www.fitday.com

I kinda liked fitday when i was trying to gain weight. It's also free. You don't get to export/import data, but as a temporal solution, it works.

As for tracking who you are, you can lie on most of the info. Worst of it possibly is, they'll track an anonymous person's diet. Is your intake that sacred? :)

Btw, last time i checked was a year ago. YMMV.

Watch out for the USDA Pyramid

[Paul Burney]

The diet you refer to doesn't offer many suggestions about which foods to eat (focusing mostly on total calories), but I urge you do avoid the USDA pyramid you may have learned about in school.

The current USDA pyramid is flawed and promotes many unhealthy habits. Like much of the field of "nutrition", the pyramid isn't based on scientific facts, but rather conjecture and speculation.

Some of the main flaws with the current pyramid are the recommended amounts of complex carbohydrates per day, the dubious inclusion of potato as a vegetable, and the absence of "good" fats from the pyramid.

There was a very nice article with real scientific/medial data behind it in Scientific American a few months ago. Take a look before heading into that new diet.

There is also a nice picture of the proposed new pyramid. For those using Lynx, the base contains whole grain foods and plant oils. The next tiers contain vegetables and fruit, with the emphasis on vegetables. The middle tiers consist of nuts, legumes, fish, poultry and eggs and dairy. At the top, under "use sparingly" are red meat and the hacker diet, white rice/white bread/potatoes/pasta and sweets.

Good luck. I hope you can keep the pounds off.