1nut(1) nut(1)
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6 nut - analyze meals with the USDA Nutrient Database
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9 nut [dbname]
10 Nut [FLTK OPTION]... [dbname]
11
13 NUT allows you to record what you eat and analyze your meals for nutri‐
14 ent composition. The database included is the USDA Nutrient Database
15 for Standard Reference, Release 26.
16 This database of food composition tables contains values for calories,
18 protein, carbohydrates, fiber, total fat, etc., and includes all the
19 nutrient data in the USDA database, including the Omega-6 and Omega-3
20 polyunsaturated fatty acids. Nutrient levels are expressed as a per‐
21 centage of the DV or Daily Value, the familiar standard of food label‐
22 ing in the United States. The essential fatty acids, Omega-6 and
23 Omega-3, are not currently mentioned in these standards, and a refer‐
24 ence value has been supplied.
25 You may search this list of foods and view nutrient values for differ‐
27 ent serving sizes; you may also rank foods in order of level of a par‐
28 ticular nutrient. You may change the daily calorie level to correspond
29 to your personal metabolism, and the levels for fat, carbohydrates,
30 fiber, and protein are automatically adjusted. You may customize the
31 ratios of carbohydrates to protein to fat to suit your personal regi‐
32 men. You may add your own recipes to the database, by creating them
33 from the foods in the database. You can also add foods from the infor‐
34 mation on commercial food labels. The program is completely menu-driven
35 and there are no commands to learn.
36 NUT can be called with an optional argument to specify a database sub‐
38 directory. For example, if a user tracks meals for other family mem‐
39 bers, each person can have his own database, and each database is
40 entirely separate. The database subdirectory name (if there is one) is
41 displayed on all screens.
42 The functions included are:
44 Record Meals: Foods are found in the database, a number of servings,
46 weight, or calories is entered, and thus a meal is recorded showing the
47 amount of each food eaten. The meal date can be entered in full
48 "yyyymmdd" format or as a positive or negative offset from today, such
49 as "-3" or "+1". All numbers expressing food quantities are entered as
50 decimal numbers, but the number of servings can also be entered as a
51 common fraction such as 3/4. An analysis screen can be brought up by
52 typing a dot. Individual foods are deleted from the meal list by
53 entering the food number shown, but you can also modify the quantity by
54 typing the food number and a new quantity, for example "2 100g", i.e.
55 change food #2 to 100 grams.
56 Automatic Portion Control: A major feature of NUT is to be able to as‐
58 sociate a meal food with an automatically-adjusted quantity to enable
59 easy portion control. For instance, if you want food #4 on the menu to
60 always be adjusted so that the entire meal exactly meets the Daily
61 Value for protein, type "4 p"; if food #7 is a carb food, type "7 c" to
62 adjust non-fiber carb; or if food #1 is a fat food, type "1 f" to auto‐
63 matically adjust the total fat of the meal. An alternate way to spec‐
64 ify the previous three commands in a single command is "pcf 4 7 1".
65 Then, as you edit other food quantities or add or subtract foods, the
66 automatic portion control produces an entire meal that exactly fits
67 your plan. There can only be one protein food, one carb food, and one
68 fat food designated per meal. An inappropriate designation such as
69 designating table salt as a fat food will usually result in a quantity
70 of zero. Negative quantities in designated foods indicate too much pro‐
71 tein, carb, or fat in non-designated foods. To remove a portion control
72 designation, type the food number and the designation you want to
73 remove; for instance, if food #5 is designated as a fat food, type "5
74 f" to remove the designation, or else type a new pcf command that does
75 not include food #5 as a fat food. There is also an extension to the
76 feature to balance a meal for Thiamin "t", Pantothenic Acid "n", Vita‐
77 min E "e", Calcium "l", Iron "i", Potassium "k", and Zinc "z", but
78 these commands have to be issued individually and not as part of a
79 "pcf" command. These additional commands "t", "n", "e", "l", "i", "k",
80 and "z" are only valuable when meals habitually lack the specified
81 nutrient and it makes sense to try to get some of the nutrient at every
82 meal to avoid a large cumulative deficiency.
83 For the program analysis to come out right you must record all the
86 meals the program is set for. For instance, if set for three meals,
87 and you eat more than three, combine them into three; if you eat less
88 than three, record some mimimal item such as an ounce of water for each
89 missing meal. (See below under "Delete Meals and Set Meals Per Day"
90 for the means to set the program to between 1 and 19 meals per day
91 instead of the default 3.)
92 Analyze Meals and Food Suggestions: An analysis of meals in the data‐
94 base is presented in terms of the percentage of each nutrient, where
95 100% signifies a rate of 100% of the DV (Daily Value) per day. The
96 program will analyze any subset of the latest meals recorded, consid‐
97 ering each meal to be an appropriate fraction of a day. By pressing
98 "s" on the analysis screen, nutrients for which the DV have not been
99 achieved are listed, and some random foods are chosen from the database
100 which contain the additional nutrients. By pressing "e" all values are
101 reset to the absolute values in the analysis to provide an easy method
102 to compare periods (this feature is not in the graphical interface).
103 By pressing "o" all DV defaults are restored replacing comparison mode.
104 By pressing "d" the display alternates between DV percentages, absolute
105 values of the DV nutrients, and a series of screens of all additional
106 nutrients in the database. There is a "p" option that moves the
107 screens back the other way. When you leave the analysis screen (or the
108 "View Foods" screen) with a particular set of nutrients showing, that
109 set of nutrients will be used in the other functions in the program,
110 including printing menus, ranking foods, and drawing graphs.
111 If the value "(nd)" shows up on a screen, it signifies the database has
113 no data for that particular nutrient for the foods viewed.
114 If the analysis screen is brought up during "Record Meals", it analyzes
116 backwards from the meal being viewed, which might not be the last meal;
117 however, the "Analyze Meals" screen from main menu option 2 always ana‐
118 lyzes from the last meal in the database.
119 The "Record Meals" and "Analyze Meals" analyses each separately remem‐
121 ber how many meals were last analyzed, so that a user could, for exam‐
122 ple, always look at a single meal on the "Record Meals" analysis, and
123 always look at a couple of weeks of meals on "Analyze Meals", but not
124 have to specify how many meals each time.
125 Shortcut to food rankings and graphs: From the analysis screen you can
127 type the name of a nutrient as shown, such as Calcium with the capital
128 "C", and if NUT can find the nutrient, it will provide the food ranking
129 and graph functions for that nutrient directly without having to go
130 back to the Main Menu and navigate the hierarchy. You only have to
131 type enough of the beginning of the nutrient name so that NUT can
132 uniquely identify the nutrient.
133 Delete Meals and Set Meals Per Day: Some or all of the collected meals
135 may be removed from the database; or an automatic feature may be
136 selected which keeps the meal database from getting unnecessarily huge,
137 deleting the oldest meals in excess of a number of meals set by the
138 user. When all meals are deleted, an option may be set to change the
139 program's default from 3 meals a day to 1 to 19 meals a day.
140 View Foods: Foods can be viewed using the same interface as for "Record
142 Meals," specifying whatever serving size the user wishes to see ana‐
143 lyzed for nutrient content, and if necessary typing a "d" or "p" to
144 change the display to a different set of nutrients. You can type just
145 the beginning of a food name or a part of a food name, and a numbered
146 menu of all possible completions continues to be shown until a unique
147 food is chosen.
148 If the value "(nd)" shows up on a screen, it signifies the database has
150 no data for that particular nutrient for the foods viewed.
151 Add Foods and Modify Serving Sizes: This item has three selections,
153 "Add a Recipe," "Add a Labeled Food," and "Modify Serving Sizes."
154 To add a recipe, foods are selected in exactly the same way as adding a
156 meal, a number of servings or weight is entered for each food, and the
157 recipe is recorded. Then the software divides the recipe into the num‐
158 ber of servings desired, and provides an opportunity to adjust the
159 weight of the servings to allow for water gained or lost in prepara‐
160 tion.
161 NUT allows you to add a labeled food with an ordered list of ingredi‐
163 ents and a nutrition statement (this feature is not in the graphical
164 interface). The new food will have additional nutrients that were not
165 on the nutrition statement, but that the database says are in the food.
166 First, the labeled food is named. Next the program requests that the
167 food's listed ingredients be found in the order of greatest to least.
168 Do not worry about ingredients you cannot find. No amount or weight is
169 set for any ingredient--the ingredient is simply selected. Selected
170 ingredients may be grouped with parentheses where an ingredient number
171 is followed by either "(", ")", or "!" to begin a group, end a group,
172 or remove a group indicator. To delete an ingredient, simply type its
173 number; to move an ingredient, type its number, an "m", and the desti‐
174 nation--such as "5m2". When the ingredient list is complete, the
175 nutrient lists are presented so the nutritional information can be
176 copied into the program. Whenever you quit a nutrient screen, an oppor‐
177 tunity is presented to select a different set of nutrients. The "DV"
178 percentages for this part of the program are the USA standard
179 2000-calorie Daily Values, and not any customized options--but users
180 can always set the label's nutrient information in grams. Only Daily
181 Value nutrients greater than zero are considered as constraints when
182 NUT constructs an approximate recipe in order to fill in nutrient val‐
183 ues that were not expressed on the food label. Occasionally the
184 "recipe" that NUT estimates for a packaged food will only show a
185 "trace" of every ingredient, and this is NUT's way of saying that
186 according to the food database, there is no way to match the ingredi‐
187 ents with the constraints of the nutrition statement. After the recipe
188 is displayed there is an additional opportunity to edit the nutrient
189 values. Perhaps the food was so heavily fortified with vitamins that
190 the user waited until after NUT constructed a recipe to specify the
191 additional vitamin amounts. Whatever the rationale for additional
192 editing, the user has total control over the nutritional information no
193 matter what NUT's approximate recipe suggested. The new food record is
194 saved in the database in the same manner as a recipe.
195 To modify the serving size of an existing food, the food is selected
197 and the serving sizes on file are displayed so one can be selected.
198 Alternately, the user may simply type in his own serving size consist‐
199 ing of number of grams, the serving unit (such as cups or tablespoons),
200 and the serving quantity.
201 View Nutrients and Rank Foods: The nutrients are reviewed and one of
203 the nutrients is selected to list all the foods rich in that nutrient.
204 The food database can be queried in this manner for nutrients per 100
205 grams, per 100 grams dry weight, per 100 grams within a USDA-defined
206 food group, per 100 calories, per serving, per serving minimizing some
207 other nutrient, and per recorded meals (average intake per day). The
208 set of nutrients operated on are the last set viewed or analyzed.
209 The "Rank Foods per Recorded Meals" option is useful for discovering
211 which foods contribute the most to your intake of a particular nutri‐
212 ent. When you use "Record Meals" to view a meal earlier than your last
213 meal, this "per recorded meals" option looks back from that same meal,
214 to show which foods you were eating during that earlier period. Like‐
215 wise, the program remembers how many meals were last analyzed, and only
216 searches that subset of meals to find which foods to list.
217 Note that processed foods which contain hydrogenated vegetable oil or
219 significant "trans-" fats may not contain as much of the essential
220 fatty acids as the program shows because the USDA database does not yet
221 completely distinguish between essential fatty acids and the "trans-"
222 fats, which cannot serve for essential fatty acids in the body.
223 Set Personal Options and Log Weight: These screens set options for
225 nutrient levels to use when analyzing meals. Some of the carbohydrate
226 and protein settings are mutually exclusive and affect the fat percent‐
227 ages as carbs, protein, and fat of course must total 100%; however,
228 calories per gram vary from food to food, so the percentage of calories
229 from carbs, protein, and fat will vary even if grams of each remain
230 constant, so consider these settings approximations.
231 The options for polyunsatured fat and the "Omega-6/3 Balance" target
233 select reference values (there are no "Daily Values" for these) based
234 on Dr. William Lands' empirical equation for the percentages of Omega-6
235 and Omega-3 fatty acids in tissue phospholipids based on diet. The
236 program recomputes all fatty acid values automatically whenever the
237 analysis changes.
238 "Weight Log Regression" does not tell you what you weigh; what it does
240 is apply linear regression to a series of daily weight and body fat
241 percentage entries to smooth out the random noise and tell you which
242 direction your weight is trending, how fast it is going there, and how
243 much of the change is lean or fat. To make a daily entry, type the
244 weight and body fat percentage at the prompt, like this: "150.2 17.9".
245 If you did not measure the body fat percentage, just type the weight.
246 This algorithm is free of units, so it will work with weights in pounds
247 or kilos or even stone (but not stone plus pounds). The daily entry is
248 automatically timestamped, so it should be entered into the program
249 immediately after measurement and the program will not accept more than
250 one entry per day. If you want to erase the weight log and start over,
251 just type a "!", or you may directly edit the file "WLOG.txt" in the
252 ".nutdb" directory. Clearing the weight log leaves the very last entry
253 in order to quickly start a new cycle of logging. The daily lean and
254 fat mass totals can be seen explicitly by looking at the "WLOG.aux"
255 file in the ".nutdb" directory.
256 The "Calorie Auto-Set" feature utilizes "Weight Log Regression" in a
258 special way to automatically optimize the calorie level to improve body
259 composition. Since the user is inputting daily weight and body fat
260 percentage measurements and eating according to the calorie level
261 shown, NUT can determine if fat mass is going down and lean mass is
262 going up at that particular calorie level. If so, NUT does nothing.
263 If fat mass is going up, NUT lowers the calories by 20. If both fat
264 mass and lean mass are going down, NUT raises the calories by 20. If
265 NUT makes calorie adjustments and is able to correct the direction of
266 the regression lines and thus achieve true progress, NUT then automati‐
267 cally clears the weight log to start the cycle again, and initializes
268 the new weight log with the terminus of the previous regression.
269 Therefore, each regression cycle between clearings should reflect lean
270 mass going up and and fat mass going down. Cycles alternate between
271 the previously described cycle which preferentially prevents fat mass
272 gain and an inverse cycle which preferentially prevents lean mass loss:
273 In this alternate cycle, if lean mass is going down, NUT raises the
274 calories by 20, but if both lean and fat mass are going up, NUT lowers
275 the calories by 20. The automatic clearing of the weight log signals
276 success for a cycle, but there may be periods of progress when no calo‐
277 rie adjustments are necessary.
278 Plot Daily and Monthly Trends: The list of nutrients is presented and
280 one nutrient is chosen for its level to be graphed facing a plot of
281 protein, carbohydrate, and fat calories. The user enters the number of
282 the nutrient plus a letter, either "d" or "m" to specify "daily" or
283 "monthly" i.e., "22m". It is only necessary to enter the "d" or "m"
284 once in order to set the mode. Monthly graphs cover the entire period
285 of the meal database; daily graphs cover 36 days back from the last
286 meal viewed or analyzed. The graphs of Daily Values for fat are spe‐
287 cial and show the constituent fat types symbolically where . =
288 non-fatty acid constituents, s = saturated, m = monounsaturated, 6 =
289 unspecified Omega-6, 3 = unspecified Omega-3, L = linoleic acid, A =
290 arachidonic acid, n = linolenic acid, e = EPA, and d = DHA. In a simi‐
291 lar vein, the "Total Carb" graph shows non-fiber carb as "." and fiber
292 as ":".
293 Record 'The Usual'--Customary Meals: When NUT asks what you are having,
295 you can answer "the usual." Specifically, this function allows you to
296 record a customary meal, and give it a name. Later, when recording a
297 regular meal, all these foods can be added to the meal quickly by typ‐
298 ing "theusualname", where "name" is the name you gave to the customary
299 meal. Foods added this way can be individually deleted from the meal,
300 and other foods added, because this function does not make the individ‐
301 ual foods lose their identity as in "Add a Recipe."
302 Print Menus from Meal Database: Makes a printable file (called
304 "menus.txt" in the current directory) which lists foods and quantities
305 recorded for each meal, and a nutrient analysis that is the sum of
306 nutrients for each meal, not the rate of nutrient intake as on the
307 "Analyze Meals" screen. In common with other functions in the program,
308 it looks back from the last meal recorded or analyzed, only prints the
309 number of meals last analyzed, and prints that set of nutrients last
310 displayed on an analysis or "View Foods" screen.
311
313 sr26.nut Joined text version of USDA Nutrient Database
314 FOOD_DES.txt USDA-format food records for user recipes and edits
315 NUT_DATA.txt USDA-format nutrient records for user recipes and edits
316 WEIGHT.txt USDA-format weight records for user recipes and edits
317 WEIGHT.lib Joined serving sizes from USDA Nutrient Database
318 food.db Food database
319 meal.db Meal database
320 theusual.db Customary Meals database
321 OPTIONS.txt Personal Options records
322 WLOG.txt Weight Log records
323 WLOG.{date} Cleared Weight Log named with date of clearing
324 WLOG.aux Copy of Weight Log with fat and lean weights calculated
325 fontsize Controls changes in resizing of graphical interface
326 version NUT software version number
327 menus.txt ASCII print file of meal database
328
330 Jim Jozwiak (jozwiak@gmail.com, av832@lafn.org)
331 http://nut.sourceforge.net/
332
334 Copyright (C) 1996-2014 by Jim Jozwiak.
335 2014.06.14 nut(1)