CRON-o-meter: supplements

[BrianMDelaney]

Has anyone created custom supplements for COM that they could share? (I'm still using the free version, because previous attempts at paying failed, though I'm sure I can solve that -- but my using the free version means you can't share with me just yet.)

 

Many of us -- most, I'd guess -- don't add our supplements into our dietary analysis software, but I want to start doing it. A few grams of glycine per day, for ex., is significant!

 

Anyway, I was about to create a bunch of custom supplements, but then I thought someone else may already have created a whole library of them.

 

Brian

[Michael R]

Hi Brian,

I only have two novel foods that I've plugged in as supplements, and doubt you'd want them, but I'm curious: how would you propose sharing them? Are you still using the old desktop version? On the new online version, AFAICS, all you can do is "publish" it, which then goes to Aaron for review (and he's been too swamped to keep up with these (a situatioin worsened by a high ratio of garbage submissions)), and (b] goes out to everyone, not to one target user (not that I would jealously guard my supplement entries ;) ).

[BrianMDelaney]

No, I'm using the online version. When I click on tthe option for upgrading to gold, under benefits I see "Share Foods & Recipes with Friends". Does that have to go through Aaron? (Though it may be that the sharing only works via the "linking" of accounts -- not sure what that would entai.l)

 

Brian

 

[Michael R]

Aha! I didn't know this feature existed: I just figured it out by searching the CRON-O-Meter Forums. You add "friends" under your User Profile and can then share such data. But yes, you have to be a Gold member (and, not to guilt anyone, but I think we all owe Aaron at least the $25 or so it costs for his efforts anyway).

 

All I have for supplements is a couple of protein powders (cross-flow microfiltered whey, Milk Protein Concentrate), soy and sunflower lecithin granules (an on-hold idea to make a near-whole-food Soylent) and a lycopene supplement I don't use any more. On the other hand, I have a fair number of custom foods that have never been put into the CRDB due to the backlog:

 

390. Passata di Pomodoro/Strained Tomatoes, No Salt Added

391. Mozzarella Cheese, Lite Shredded (50% Less Fat), Trader Joe's

394. Fish sauce, 40% Less Sodium, Good Life

397. Chick'n Strips, Teriyaki, Gardein - AS RECIPE

399. Ultimate beefless burger, Gardein - AS RECIPE

401. Pasta Sauce, Fat-Free, 365 Organic

402. Pasta Sauce, Tomato Basil, Low Sodium, Walnut Acres

403. Vegetarian Chorizo Sausage, Soyrizo, El Burrito

405. Salsa, Fire-Roasted Tomato, No Salt Added, Trader Joe's

407. Lycopene Supplement, Lyc-O-Mato, Swanson Ultra

411. Soy sauce, less/low sodium, House of Tsang

413. Salsa, Chipotle, Organic, Muir Glen

422. Shrimp Salad, Thai, Applebee's

425. Pasta sauce, Marinara Eggplant, Whole Foods 365 Organic

427. Yves Veggie Pepperoni RECIPE

430. Milk Protein Concentrate (MPC, 80%)

436. Pasta Sauce, Engine 2 Plant-Strong

438. Peanut Spread, Whipped, Walden Farms

439. Vegetable Juice, Very Veggie, Low Sodium, Organic, R.W. Knudsen

443. Power to the Greens, Organic, Trader Joe's

444. Cheddar Cheese Snacks, Lite, Mild, Trader Joe's

445. Salsa, Chipotle, Hot, "with a slightly smoky taste," Trader Joe's

447. Lecithin Granules, Soy

448. Camu-Camu (Myrciaria dubia), dried, powder

451. Lecithin, Sunflower, Swanson

452. Lemon, Meyer, raw

 

If you (or anyone) wants any of these, drop me a message.

[GenGenimney]

Only slightly off topic...

 

I can't find calorie info on glycine, but I assume as a protein it's 4kcal/g?  Is that right?

 

The one study on methionine "restriction" through glycine supplementation has the ratio at 1:20 as the threshold successful level.  Most of the foods that I eat naturally have 1:3 (animal) to 1:4 (plant) ratios.  I'm eating 1-2.5g methionine right now.  That'll go down quite a bit when I switch out the Greek yogurt for regular after I've stopped working on losing weight and go from 60-80g protein/day to 50-55, but it will probably never be less than 1-2g, which needs 20-40g glycine to balance, out of about 3.5-7g glycine I'm getting now.  Yogurt is pretty awesome with glycine--I was using stevia to sweeten, but glycine works just as well, and I can do a tablespoon in a cup for 12g of glycine.  Lentil soup can't take more than 1tsp/4g.  Might try some in tea, which I usually drink black....

[BrianMDelaney]

Hey GenGenimney! Search "glycine" (in all the forums, not "this topic") for some interesting discussion about glycine, if you haven't seen it.

 

To your ?: I created a glycine entry with, per 1 g serving, 4 kcal and 1 g protein, which one assumes is correct (the latter value certainly is -- and 4 is certainly close to correct). All these protein supplements do count towards our total protein intake, thus the importance of adding the protein value. (Need for "nitrogen"/protein in general is separate from the need for particular amino acids.)

 

Brian

 

P.S. Michael, agree about supporting Aaron, but I'd be happier if he or some admin (there may be just one: A) would answer my questions in the CRON-O-Meter forum first....

[GenGenimney]

I'd already read those.  LOL.  

 

Before seeing those, I had already read the abstract of the rodent study, too, where they used 4%, 8%, and 12% glycine to balance .4% methionine, and only the 8% and 12% worked.  So I was thinking of shooting for getting 20x glycine to methionine, especially since it's such a good sweetener for strongly-flavored things like yogurt.  The LS extension wasn't terribly impressive, but combined with moderate long-term CR.....  (Due to my family history, and CR beyond the point where my bones start to lose density is a HUGE, SCREAMING no-go.  Both my grandmothers died from osteoporosis complications, and one was crippled by osteoporosis for a long time before she died.)

 

I used to make broths and soups all the time from the skin and bones of poultry that we bought, but I'm far too lazy now.

[BrianMDelaney]

Another question posed on the CRON-O-Meter forum that hasn't been answered: is there a way to import data from an Excel (or other standard format) file when creating a new food (or supplement) entry? The idea of adding tons of stuff entry by entry is daunting....

 

For ex., I just received this from Jarrow:

 

Hi Brian,

 

Thank you for your patience regarding Hemp Protein. Unfortunately, neither Jarrow nor our raw material supplier have conducted a full nutritional analysis of hemp protein. That being said, I was able to obtain a limited analysis, courtesy of our supplier in Canada.

 

Here you go:

 

   

Product ID

Hemp Protein Organic 50%

Moisture g/100g

6.88

Protein g/100g

49.3

Total Fat g/100g

11.97

Saturates g/100g

1.44

Trans fat g/100g

Polyunsaturates g/100g

8.75

Omega-3 g/100g

1.98

Omega-6 g/100g

6.77

Monounsaturates g/100g

1.78

Cholesterol mg/100g

Carbohydrate g/100g

24.22

Fibre g/100g

19.63

   

Sugars g/100g

4.43

Ash g/100g

7.63

Vitamin A RE/100g

16.41

Vitamin A IU/100g

164.13

Vitamin C mg/100g

Calcium mg/100g

163

Iron mg/100g

20

Sodium mg/100g

4

Calories / 100g

401.81

Calories from fat/100 g

108

 

I hope this helps. Please e-mail me if you have any further questions.

 

Kind Regards,

Sarah

info@jarrow.com

 

 

An Excel macro (not worth it for this one item, of course, but there are -- potentially -- many more) would make it easy to put this data in a form that could be uploaded to the CRON-O-meter database.

 

- Brian

[James Cain]

I have a gold membership to Cronometer and my wife uses a free account. I have her on my friends list and we share all custom foods and recipes. It's important to know that it's all and not just some of the custom entries. I doubt this would be a major issue, but something to consider.

 

I think Aaron could benefit from some extra help with Cronometer. I get the impression that any major updates are limited by his free time, though I also think it works quite well as it is now.

[BrianMDelaney]

James, do you mean extra financial help (i.e., "Sign up for the Gold Membership!"), or programming help? I like his model of payment (the free version is great, the ads aren't annoying), but I'd be happier paying if I knew more about whether Aaron planned to continue working on the program more than minimally. There are lots of other nutritional analysis programs out there under development and potentially worthy of support.

 

Plus, this bug drives me up the wall:

 

http://blog.cronometer.com/?topic=order-of-entrieswindows-10-bug

 

Brian

[Saul]

Hi ALL!

 

I'm a bit confused about the desirability of glycine supplementation.  Some posts appear to imply that glycine supplementation might reduce the negative effects of excessive methionine in ones diet.

 

(1)  Is this true?

 

(2)  If so, is glycine supplementation a good idea?  If so, how much?

 

(3)  The protein in gelatin is mostly glycine.  So can one effectively supplement glycine by eating diet jello?  If so, how much?

 

  -- Saul

[James Cain]

 

James, do you mean extra financial help (i.e., "Sign up for the Gold Membership!"), or programming help? I like his model of payment (the free version is great, the ads aren't annoying), but I'd be happier paying if I knew more about whether Aaron planned to continue working on the program more than minimally. There are lots of other nutritional analysis programs out there under development and potentially worthy of support.

 

Plus, this bug drives me up the wall:

 

http://blog.cronometer.com/?topic=order-of-entrieswindows-10-bug

 

Brian

 

I think it would be a lot of work time-wise keeping up with Cronometer by himself. As with most software, there comes a point where time becomes the limiting factor for further development, unless more people are hired on. I don't actually know his situation, or how much time he chooses or can devote to Cronometer development.

 

As it stands now I think it's a very usable product with excellent features, so I don't know how much actually needs updated. Looking at the Cronometer forum it seems like Aaron may have a lot of feature requests he'd like to get to, but Cronometer is rarely updated.