Food Diary for vitamins/minerals/trace elements

Animord · 04-07-2014 9:42am #1

Does anyone know of a food diary that you can use to tell you if you are hitting your RDA of all the minerals, vitamins and trace elements?

I know MFP will give you some of the info - but it is only the main ones - calcium, iron etc.

Thanks

Day Lewin · 05-07-2014 12:12pm

Well, its not a diary, but look on the side of the Multivitamin bottles - I suppose any good brand.

There's usually a list of the side of the various vitamins and minerals that are in it, with also a list of how much of that one is recommended in a day, and what percentage of that is supplied by this brand.

They often claim to be "complete" (or close, LOL) so maybe you could use that list as a kind of basic guide?

Just trying to be helpful!

Animord · 05-07-2014 12:23pm

Thanks for trying! I know what a person needs to be eating, but what I was hoping was that there was a diary out there that I could put in all my food for (say) a month and it would give me a report saying 'low on selenium' or whatever

My question really is that for say selenium, I know I am getting enough because I eat Brazil nuts regularly, but I am sure I am also getting it from other sources - so I wanted the whole lot added up for me... lol I know my diets is fine because I have just had a whole blood panel done but I was just interested.

Not sure I am being very clear! But thanks all the same.

juke · 05-07-2014 3:47pm

have you tried Cronometer? https://cronometer.com/

It does the minerals/vitamins etc, but I've never logged more than a day at a time, so I don't know what kind of report it can generate.

Animord · 05-07-2014 4:56pm

That is brilliant, thanks so much - more or less exactly what I wanted.

Just Like Heaven · 06-07-2014 8:03pm

+1 for Cronometer.

ford2600 · 07-07-2014 9:32am

fewtins wrote: »

+1 for Cronometer.

Addictive site!

Somehow eating HFLC I've managed to consume just 15.5% of my calories from protein. Still 154g for an 80kg man is quite a bit of protein

Was just one day, must log a weeks food and see.

El_Dangeroso · 07-07-2014 6:01pm

Another +1 for cronometer. They even tell you the breakdown of omega 6/3 in your diet, which was an eye opener for me.

Of course all rda's and amounts of nutrients are approximate and come from the USDA database - so US focused (for example Irish milk is higher in vitamins than US milk), but it gives you a rough idea.

helliwen · 09-07-2014 9:20am

Just set myself up a Chronometer account - very impressed so far :-)

helliwen · 17-07-2014 12:33pm

Does anyone have any reliable recent sources for RDAs of standard vitamins and minerals? Cronometer takes the American standard as its standard setting, but I believe many of these are too low. I'd hoped that someone like Chris Kresser would have these online in a handy list but I haven't been able to find one yet.

El_Dangeroso · 17-07-2014 12:38pm

Not to my knowledge, testing for vitamin and mineral content of a food is very expensive. So I doubt anyone has undertaken that.

There may be isolated studies with relation to irish beef if you have a look.

Alf Veedersane · 17-07-2014 12:38pm

The FSAI published these RDAs for the Irish population back in 1999 if that's any use.

http://www.fsai.ie/assets/0/86/204/fb3f2891-2896-4bf9-903f-938f3c2ad01f.pdf

Alf Veedersane · 17-07-2014 12:39pm

Or Annex 1 of this EU Directive gives limits. The Directive was published in 2008.

http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2008:285:0009:0012:EN:PDF

helliwen · 17-07-2014 12:46pm

Thanks Alf, I'll check those out.

El Dangeroso, I meant the RDA's for intake rather than the vitamin/mineral content of foodstuffs :-) I believe, for example, that the RDA for vitamin A is much lower than it should be. OK, there are interactions which have to be accounted for (A and D for example, or omega 3-6 balance), but I was wondering where to get a good baseline recommendation.

El_Dangeroso · 17-07-2014 12:47pm

D'oh, just realised that. I clearly haven't had enough omega 3 today

helliwen · 17-07-2014 12:56pm

But your point was very valid - I love the idea of tracking micronutrients, but it's never going to be accurate. It bothers me though when red lights appear because I've eaten a portion of liver, hence the RDA question!

El_Dangeroso · 17-07-2014 2:09pm

helliwen wrote: »

But your point was very valid - I love the idea of tracking micronutrients, but it's never going to be accurate. It bothers me though when red lights appear because I've eaten a portion of liver, hence the RDA question!

Vitamins and minerals will vary depending on soil quality and also how you cook the food, so you're never going to know 100% accurately.

Basically get mostly there and you're doing good. Otherwise you can just get neurotic about it.

Food Diary for vitamins/minerals/trace elements

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