Copyright: Copyright © Interactive Outfitters, Inc.
Citation: Computer Diet Analyzer Copyright © Interactive Outfitters, Inc.


Contents

Copyright © 1997, Interactive Outfitters, Inc.

Contents

Getting Started

Guide to Amino Acids

Guide to Bioflavonoids

Guide to Fats

Guide to Minerals

Guide to Other Trace Elements

Guide to Vitamins


Analyzing Consumed Foods

The final step is to analyze your diet. From the Main Menu, click on Analyze Consumed Foods. All the time and effort you have spent entering your consumed foods now pays off. Click on the Analyze Consumed Foods button. Your consumed foods are quickly analyzed and the results for day 1 are displayed.

The Analysis Results screen offers

Daily Analysis Results

USRDA

Vitamins

Minerals

Amino Acids

Fat Distribution

Click on the various tabs to display the corresponding graph. By default graphs are displayed with values expressed as a percentage of daily goals. You may also change the graphs to show the analysis of actual values. The graphs will display each nutrient in the consumed foods compared against the daily goals calculated for you. Click on Show Graph using Actual Analysis Values. The green colored bar represents the 100% goal. The red bar represents the analysis of your consumed foods.

The first informational screen is the Daily Analysis Results screen. Each nutrient value calculated by ComputerDIET Analyzer is displayed here showing the sum of the nutrients for the foods you entered along with the common unit of measurement, for example, I.U. for Vitamin A. Analysis is represented in numeric and graphical format. Analysis results are provided in six major groups or classifications.


Analysis Screen - Daily
•	Daily Analysis Results


Analysis Screen - USRDA
•	USRDA
Click on the USRDA tab. Each of the nutrients with a United States Recommended Daily Allowance (USRDA) is shown. The green bars indicate the USRDA values of 100% of each nutrient. The red lines indicate the percentage of the USRDA contained in your consumed foods. For example, in the graph below, the Calories contained in the consumed foods are approximately 38% of the USRDA value, Saturated Fat is approximately 64% of the USRDA,, and Sodium is approximately 56% of the USRDA. This graph is very useful in checking your consumed foods against the USRDA values.


Analysis Screen - Vitamins
•	Vitamins
Click on the Vitamins tab. The red lines indicated the vitamins in your consumed foods as a percentage of the USRDA versus the green lines of the USRDA value of 100%. If you would like to see the actual numeric values of each vitamin in your consumed foods against the USRDA values, click on the Show Graph using Actual Analysis Values check box.


Analysis Screen - Minerals
Minerals
Click on the Minerals tab. The red lines indicated the minerals in your consumed foods as a percentage of the USRDA versus the green lines of the USRDA value of 100%. If you would like to see the actual numeric values of each mineral in your consumed foods against the USRDA values, click on the Show Graph using Actual Analysis Values check box.


Analysis Screen - Amino Acids
Amino Acids
Click on the Amino Acids tab. Notice that there are no green lines representing the USRDA values. Currently the United Status Department of Agriculture has not set RDA guidelines for Amino Acids. The red lines indicate the actual numeric values of each amino acid in your consumed foods.


Analysis Screen - Fat Distribution
•	Fat Distribution

When you are finished, click OK to return to the Main Menu.


Showing the Analysis for the Next Day

To show the analysis for day 2, click on OK. The day 2 analysis has the same format as explained for day 1. When finished, click on OK to show the analysis for each of the following days.

Showing the Average Analysis Results

After you have seen the analysis for each day, the Analysis Average is shown. It is extremely useful in tracking your consumed foods over a period of time. It works just like the daily analysis screens. Each value is the average of your consumed foods over the period of time you entered your consumed foods.

You have now analyzed your first diet! Dietary analysis with ComputerDIET Analyzer is very flexible. You can analyze your diet for a single day, a week, a month, or any other time period to satisfy your needs. Experiment with ComputerDIET Analyzer to find the time period that best suits your lifestyle.


Getting Started

ComputerDIET Analyzer is copyrighted by Interactive Outfitters, Incorporated.

There are three primary steps taken to perform a dietary analysis with ComputerDIET Analyzer

1. 	Entering your personal information which includes physical characteristics and dietary goals.

2. 	Entering a list of foods that you have consumed.

3. 	Performing the analysis of consumed foods.

Entering Your Personal Information

Editing the List of Consumed Foods

Entering Multiple Days of Meals

Analyzing Consumed Foods

How to effectively use ComputerDIET Analyzer


Editing the List of Consumed Foods

The next step in analyzing your diet is by providing ComputerDIET Analyzer with the food items that you have consumed. ComputerDIET Analyzer analyzes your diet for one or more days. You may also analyze partial days by saving your list of consumed foods for each meal in a separate file. Foods consumed are stored in a Dietary Dataset. A Dietary Dataset stores your consumed foods grouped by days. Therefore each day consists of all food items consumed for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks. To analyze individual meals or food items enter each as a separate “day”.

In most cases you will begin your analysis by entering in the meals from the previous day. Food items are entered via the Select Foods screen. Click on Edit List of Consumed Foods to enter the Select Foods screen.

Locating the foods you have consumed may be accomplished in three different ways.

•	Selecting items from common food groups.

Start with the Common Food Groups combo box. Open the combo box by clicking on the down-arrow. Use the up and down arrows within the navigation bar to scroll through the different food groups that are available. Select the appropriate group, such as “Baked Products” or “Fruits and Fruit Juices”. This will limit the list to only the foods contained within the selected group in the available food list field.

•	Selecting items from the “ALL FOODS” group.

As an alternative to selecting a common food group you may view all available food items combined by selecting “ALL FOODS” in the Common Food Groups combo box.

•	Selecting food items with the Search function.

For the Search function, enter one or more terms in the Search for Food Item field to help identify the food you are searching for, then click the Search button. This will search the complete food list database for any food item containing the text entered and display it in the available list. Searches are performed by looking for the best exact match in alpha-numeric order of appearance in the complete food database. Searches will return the most accurate results when you can identify the food item by specifying complete terms. For example when searching for hot-dog entering “HOT” returns “HOTDOG W/CHILI” as the second found food item. Entering only “HO” will return “CHOCOLATE MILK” as the second food item.

Click on the group that best describes the food items you want to find. The foods in this group will be displayed in the Available Foods window. Many food items can be found in multiple food groups. Use the up and down arrows to scroll through the list to find your food. When you have found your food, single click on it to display standard serving size in the Portion Size Description field. Next click on the Number of Servings Consumed field and enter the number of servings that corresponds to what you have consumed. As an alternative method you may double-click on the food item to display the Add to Selected Foods List dialogue box and enter the number of servings consumed.

For example, let’s say you had two servings of soda that were 12 ounces each. If the portion size for soda is 12 ounces, you had two servings. If you consumed the contents of a 16 ounce container of soda, your serving size is 1.25. Enter all servings sizes in decimal equivalents.

To assure an accurate analysis pay close attention to the portion size when entering the number of servings consumed. When finished, click on Add to List. Repeat this procedure for each of the foods you have consumed. If you want to remove a food, or find a better match for a food you consumed, click on the food in the Consumed Foods window and click on Delete From List. When finished entering all of your foods, click OK. You may return to the Main Menu at any time by clicking on Cancel. Before proceeding to analysis it is recommended that you save your list of consumed foods in a Dietary Dataset file. From the Main Menu open the File menu, select Save, Dietary Dataset.

A Dietary Dataset will contain all food items consumed during the time period you choose to use for analysis. Begin a new dataset when you want to begin a new analysis.


Effective Use of ComputerDIET Analyzer

The ComputerDIET Analyzer Select Foods screen is the key to effectively using ComputerDIET Analyzer. From here, you will enter your consumed foods and choose the length of time you wish to analyze your diet. You can analyze one meal, one day’s meals, one week’s meals, etc. The possibilities are endless!

Let’s explain the steps to enter one meal and analyze it, in greater detail. We will use the following meal as an example:

1 bagel

2 tablespoons cream cheese

2 strips of bacon

1 egg over-easy

8 ounces orange juice

Click on the Edit List of Consumed Foods button. Please read the helpful text displayed at the top of the screen on how to select your foods. You will notice that the Common Food Groups combo box has ALL FOODS selected as the default. Every food item available in ComputerDIET Analyzer is shown in the Available Foods list. You can select all your foods using the default, but there are thousands of foods available. You might want to select a Common Food Group to narrow the list down. This is how we will enter our first food item.

Click on the down arrow next to ALL FOODS in the Common Food Groups combo box. Select Baked Products. The Available Foods list will display all of the baked products. There are many different kinds of bagels to choose from. Click on the down arrow until BAGELS; PLAIN, TOASTED appears. Click on it. The Portion Size Description window displays the portion size for a bagel. It is very important to check the portion size in entering your Number of Servings Consumed. For example, if the portion size of a bagel is 4 oz ( half a bagel), then you had 2 servings. The Number of Servings Consumed windows defaults to 1. Click to the right of the 1, press the Back Space key and enter 2. Finally click on Add to List. The bagel will now show up in the Consumed Foods window.

Next we will enter the cream cheese. Click on the down arrow in the Common Food Groups combo box and select Dairy & Eggs. Click on the down arrow in the Available Foods list until CREAM CHEESE appears. Click on it. Note that the portion size is 1 OZ. 2 tablespoons is about 2 ounces, so click to the right of the 1 in the Number of Servings Consumed window, press the Back Space key, and enter 2. Finally, click the Add to List button.

Let’s use the Search window to find bacon. Click on the window to the left of the Search button. Enter bacon and click the Search button. The Food Items Search Results window will pop up with the foods found in the Foods Matching Search Criteria list. Click on BACON; CURED, COOKED. The Description window will show the portion size of 3 slices. We had 2 slices in our meal. Click on the Portion Consumed window to the right of 0, press the Back Space key, and enter 0.67 (we had 2/3 of a portion). The bacon now appears in the Foods added to Consumed Foods List window. Click on Close. You are returned to the Select Foods screen. You will also notice that bacon has been added to the Consumed Foods window.

Now for the egg. Select Dairy & Eggs from the Common Food Groups combo box. Scroll through the Available Foods list until you find WHOLE CHICKEN EGG, FRIED. Click on it. The portion size is 1 LARGE EGG, which is what we had. The Number of Servings Consumed is set to 1 by default so just click on the Add to List button. Last is the orange juice. Select Fruits and Fruit Juices from the Common Food Groups combo box. Scroll through the foods in the Available Foods list until you find ORANGE JUICE, CHILLED. Click on it. The serving size is 1 OZ. Click to the right of the 1 in the Number of Servings Consumed window, press Back Space and enter 8. Click on the Add to List button.

Great! You have entered your first diet. Click on OK to return to the Main Menu. Now, let’s save the diet. Click on File, Save, Dietary Dataset. Name it “breakfast”, and click on Save. You can click on View List of Consumed Foods to see your current diet or Analyze Consumed Foods to analyze your diet.


Entering Multiple Days of Meals.
Entering Multiple Days of Meals

To get the most benefit from using ComputerDIET Analyzer most users will want to analyze their diet over a period of several days. This is accomplished following the same procedure as outlined for your first day. It is probably most convenient to enter each day’s consumed foods after you have finished eating that day or the next day.

Let’s assume you want to analyze your diet over a weekend. You can enter Saturday’s foods on Sunday morning. Enter the foods and save the Dietary Dataset as “MY_weekend”. When you run ComputerDIET Analyzer to enter the next days’ food items, you will need to open your personal profile and the weekend dietary dataset. To open your personal profile, click on File, Open, Personal Profile. Click on your name and click on Open. Next, open your dietary dataset. Click on File, Open, Dietary Dataset. Click on your dataset name and click Open. Now click on Edit List of Consumed Foods. You will see the foods you have previously entered. To enter the next day’s foods, click on Next Day. The Consumed Foods list will be cleared and you can begin entering Sunday’s foods. When finished, click OK and don’t forget to save your dietary dataset as explained previously. Click on Analyze Consumed Foods. You will get an analysis for each day along with an average for multiple days to assist in tracking your diet over a period of time.


Entering Your Personal Information

You begin analyzing your daily diet by first providing ComputerDIET Analyzer with vital statistics regarding yourself.

Upon starting ComputerDIET Analyzer only two of the five user buttons will be available, Edit Personal Information and Edit List of Consumed Foods.

From the opening ComputerDIET Analyzer screen select Edit Personal Information. The Personal Information screen will be displayed.

Fill in the personal information fields. This will enable ComputerDIET Analyzer to calculate appropriate individual dietary needs for you. You can use the Tab key or mouse to move between the fields that require you to enter text information. Click on the appropriate value for Gender, Body Frame Size, Lifestyle, and Desired % Daily Fat Intake. When you are finished, click OK. You will be returned to the Main Menu. If you want to enter your personal information at a later time, click Cancel.

Name	This is used to provide personalized reports of ComputerDIET Analyzer analysis. You may enter your name in any format you like.
Age	Please enter this in whole number years
Height	Enter your height in whole number feet and whole or decimal fraction inches
Gender	Please make the appropriate selection of Male or Female and if Female whether you are lactating or pregnant.
Body Frame Size	Please make the appropriate selection from the available options.
Lifestyle	Please indicate your current level of exercise activity from the available choices.
Desired % Fat Intake	Please select the percentage of calorie intake that will be derived from intake of fat

After returning to the Main Menu you may choose the Save Personal Profile button from the toolbar. This will store your personal information for future ComputerDIET Analyzer sessions. You may save personal profiles for any number of users.

To review your personal information, click on View Personal Information from the main ComputerDIET Analyzer screen. You will see the information you entered previously, plus your USRDA Nutritional Goals.

To see more nutrient information, click on the Other Nutrient Goals tab.

When you are finished, click OK to return to the Main Menu.