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Cron-o-meter frustrations


BrianMDelaney

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To newcomers using CRON-O-Meter (a great program -- and can't beat the price!). There are some things to watch out for. When no data is available on a particular nutrient in a particular food item, the value presented is zero. That is, of course, incorrect.

 

In some cases, one database will have the information, and another won't, so it helps to try selecting the same food in a diff. database.

 

There can also be errors in the database itself. (We discussed this in a diff. thread re carrots.)

 

The occasion of this post is my astonishment that rutabagas are reported as having essentially no carotenoid content (of the carotenoids that COM reports on). Now, after some reflection, and after checking other white-ish colored Cruciferae, I realized that this is probably not an error. (But google "rutabagas" and "carotenoids" -- a lot of people certainly believe they're high in carotenoids -- maybe it's carotenoids not reported on by COM?)

 

But having to check for errors everytime I look up a food is a mite frustrating.

 

Do other nutritional software programs handle the "no data" problem differently?

 

(About to go shopping, and both brussel sprouts and rutabagas are on sale. :) )

 

Brian

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All:
 

To newcomers using CRON-O-Meter (a great program -- and can't beat the price!). There are some things to watch out for. When no data is available on a particular nutrient in a particular food item, the value presented is zero. That is, of course, incorrect. [...]
 
The occasion of this post is my astonishment that rutabagas are reported as having essentially no carotenoid content (of the carotenoids that COM reports on). Now, after some reflection, and after checking other white-ish colored Cruciferae, I realized that this is probably not an error. (But google "rutabagas" and "carotenoids" -- a lot of people certainly believe they're high in carotenoids -- maybe it's carotenoids not reported on by COM?)


In part this is likely a problem of imprecision of popular names, more pervasive and pernicious than the "yam" thing (if you're an American, yo've probably never SEEN a yam, which is a scrawny African root vegetable with white flesh: the yellow-to-red root vegetables you've been sold as "yams" are sweet potatoes). There are two different speciies of cruciferous root vegetable each variously referred to as "turnips" and "rutabagas" in different places. (Even this table is inadequate: it says that in the USA, "turnips" means Brassica rapa subsp. rapa (the white-fleshed ones with mostlywhite skins and a band of purple), and "rutabagas" means the more consistently dark-skinned, yellow-fleshed Brassica napus var. napobrassica, but when I lived on the East Coast, people always asked which "kind" of turnip/rutabaga you meant, or would pick up "rutabagas" when "turnips" were requested (and no, I'm not just referring to one specific, tiny, beautiful young woman ;) ).

 

When you look at the full USDA report for "Rutabaga, raw", they indicate that  they mean Brassica napus var. napobrassica, which have (surprisingly small) levels of carotenoids, whereas "Turnips, raw" (Brassica rapa (Rapifera Group)) truly have none.

 

It's also possible that the sources you're seeing are just making it up (I would certainly have assumed that there were non-trivial levels of carotenoids in yellow-skinned "rutabagas," and am surprised that there is so little; and I am quite sure that there can't be any to speak of in white-skinned "turnips"). It's also possible that your sources may be from some European country where local varieties of rutabaga are darker-fleshed and higher in carotenoids than those found in the USA.

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Michael, thanks for the reply. "My" sources are nothing other than what I suggested: results of a Google search -- not exactly reliable.


 


But my main concern is how COM handles unknown values. I see "0" for certain minerals, for ex., all the time, where I'm pretty sure the value can't truly be zero. "We have zero data on Se" is, obviously, not the same as "the quantity of Se is zero". I know there are ways to modify foods, and even create new food entries, but I haven't bothered to learn how to do that, because I've been assuming for a while now that a better program will come along.


 


I've heard Nutribase handles missing data differently. Does anyone who uses Nutribase know?


 


Brian


 


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An example: Squash, summer, zucchini, includes skin, raw:

 

http://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/foods/show/3215?fg=&man=&lfacet=&count=&max=&sort=&qlookup=&offset=&format=Full&new=&measureby=

 

Gamma tocopherol isn't reported. But 300 g of zucc. in COM is reported as having 0.0 mg. of gamma-tocopherol.

 

(300 g zucchini, raw from NCCDB is reported as having 1.5 mg. of gamma-tocopherol, which seems more reasonable.)

 

-Brian

 

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