Extension of Search Capabilities

tcolvinOH

Im sure this is somewhere on someone's list.

I was reading through posts this morning and responded to someone regarding searching through the food database by "type" of food. The "Ask the Oracle" functionality kind of already handles some of this by allowing you to search by nutrient types, pulling up options for vegetarian/vegan diets, or excluding certain types of foods (Seafood, nuts, etc). However, it does not seem to really categorize foods in any way. Categorization could be somewhat subjective, too, so I can see how this might not be an exact science. But you could always use the concept of tagging, so that food items get certain tags as they're entered. Of course, there are other ways you might want to search for foods/recipes too, such as maybe foods used/logged in a date range or something.

Karen_Cronometer

Hi tcolvinOH,

You have some good ideas in there!
There is a way to search foods by category. From the Add Food dialogue, click the gear icon in the top right corner. This will allow you to filter your search by category. These categories were developed by the USDA and include things like Cereal Grains and Pasta, Vegetables and Vegetable Products, Nuts and Seed Products, Pork Products, Poultry Products, etc.

You can access your the data in your diary for any date range using the Full Report in the Trends tab. Define the date range and select the Daily diary to generate a report that includes the foods you have logged for each day in the range. You can also download the foods in your diary in .csv format from the Profile tab. Select the gear icon in the Account Information section and select Export Data. Choose a date range, then select Export servings to get a detailed list of all foods in that date range.

I hope some of those options help you achieve what you are looking for.

Best,

tcolvinOH

These are all decent options for someone who doesnt mind going through the different areas of the app in order to accomplish the task. Especially for someone who is fairly comfortable with technology, this may be an acceptable option. However, from an end user standpoint, you can make an argument that I shouldnt have to go to multiple places to find something that should be in a single place. Some end users are looking for a simple experience. Its also a fair answer to say - "No, not in a simple way."

Having said that, I saw the cog icon on adding food, but it appeared gray to me, so I thought it was unavailable. When I clicked on it, the additional dropdowns appeared. I must not have seen that before. I do not see similar on the mobile app.

Part of the issue with searching is a matter of perspective, also. It may not necessarily be unreasonable to want to be able to search by what would be considered "Breakfast" foods. Some of the categories listed in the Category resolve some of this already.

I realize at the end of the day that no matter what options are available, there's always going to be an option missing that will not meet a specific need.

Having just spent a few minutes in the add custom recipe, it might also be useful to have custom categories and tags.

I just mentally went down this rabbit hole of potential ideas with this process, so I'll just leave it at that for now. Being a software developer by trade, it happens to me frequently. Thanks for the suggestions.