First of, well done for logging your food - it's a first step towards better understanding what goes into your body every day 💪.
OME food log gathers nutritional values from various sources, which differ in terms of how exhaustive they are. On top of that, the information you get depends on the type of product you log.
Packaged products
Food manufacturers are required to provide the following nutritional information on the packaging:
Energy value (Total calories);
Amounts (in grams) of carbohydrates, sugars, fats, saturates, protein and salt;
Other ("supplementary") nutrient values if the claims about them are made on the packaging (e.g. "a source of vitamin D").
Providing information on all other nutrients is non-mandatory, and while some manufacturers choose to do so, others list only bare minimum. Unfortunately, if nutrients are not listed on the packaging, we are not able to provide their values in the food log, even if a product might contain them.
As a rule of thumb, private labels tend to have less nutritional information than branded products, so if you're curious about whether there are more nutrients in a food you've just logged, you might want to find a similar branded product and see whether the information differs.
Home cooked meals/recipes
Using our manual search option you can quickly log popular home cooked meals or recipes from your meal plan. While this speeds up the process, it may result in less accurate nutrition information. Because actual nutrition values vary depending on specific ingredients you've chosen and tweaks you've made to the recipe, we only provide approximate values of basic nutrition information:
Energy value (Total calories);
Amounts (in grams) of carbohydrates, sugars, fats, saturates, protein and salt.
If you want more detailed breakdown of vitamins and minerals that can be found in each recipe, it's best to log each ingredient individually.
Non-packaged products
The nutritional information for this category of products varies the most - depending on your method of logging, you could be provided with exhaustive list of vitamins and minerals or only minimum information. If you've logged such product and think some nutrients are missing, try logging a similar item and see if the information changes.
When it comes to knowing your nutrients, there are a few rules of thumb to keep in mind:
Keep it simple 👌 - we've highlighted the most important nutrients you should keep an eye on in your progress tab;
Read your goals 🧐 - if there are particular nutrients you need based on your biological testing results and questionnaire, you will find information on what they are and how to get them;
Check your meal plan labels 🛒 - if the recipe is rich in particular vitamin or mineral that you need, we'll highlight this;
Ask your coach 🙋♀️ - remember, your coach is there to help you, so don't be afraid to message them with any questions you might have!