Targets and colors

Marus

Hi,

I was thinking that it might be useful when there is no target for RDA to set as the target the maximum limit value (UL) [if there is one] and the color to become green if it is lower than the target, or red if it exceeds it.
The logic is as follows. There are some nutrients, like Cholesterol, which is not needed to be consumed, so they have no RDA. It's ok if you eat a small amount, but you should not exceed the upper limit (UL). In this case, 200mg Cholesterol. It would be nice to see a green bar with percentage that shows how much do you have until you reach the dangerous upper limit. The green color will mean that any percentage is allready enough.

And I have another idea for a new nutrient: Total Fructose. It can be calculated as: (Sucrose / 2) + Fructose. Like Net Carbs are.
I understand that fructose is dangerous if it is eaten in large quantities... So I think we should watch it. This will be another nutrient with no RDA but with a UL, that will use the first feature. From what I read, it is said that one should keep fructose intake lower than 25-35g/day.

This is just a thought...

bracconiere

i think as far as this goes. that you can make custom targets. change chol to 5 mg min, 200 max and it'll be green, then red?

Marus

But there is no RDA (min target) for Cholesterol.

bracconiere

you could make it 0 min then? you can edit your targets manually is what i'm saying.

if you put 0 min though it just gives you a n/a for percent though. color would be right i believe...

BrianMI

I agree this would be really nice for to be able to specify whether a circular Nutrient Target is showing % of minimum or % of maximum, particularly on the Android/IOS apps, where it's easy to swipe to the nutrient target circles, but more painful to drill down into, e.g., Saturated Fats.

BRBWaffles

"Dangerous", haha. I eat anywhere between 600mg and 1000mg of cholesterol every day. I have a custom minimum requirement set for 1000mg just so I can lol whenever I occasionally reach it.

But, you can do almost exactly what you're asking by setting the minimum and maximum cholesterol intake to 200mg. You just don't get a green bar.

david_g

I noticed that now I can see cholesterol go red from green when I get over limit (I have min set to 0 and max to 200, but it would be great to see how far I am towards that percentage by a progress bar vs. just a green/red flag for over under. I have the same request for Saturated and Trans Fats

Marus

Just what I was saying...

Karen_Cronometer

That is a good idea @david_g and @Marus to customize your nutrient targets to show % min or % max as a way to target whether this is a nutrient you want to aim to reach a certain target or stay under a certain target - we will put this on our list of feature requests.

I have a few targets that I track that have no RDA - for example I want to stay under a certain amount of caffeine. I keep these nutrients in my list of highlighted targets, so I hover over it to quickly see how much I have consumed and/or check the value of the nutrient in the Nutrient Targets to see the value and where it is coming from. While I don't have a % target shown it still helps me keep my intake in check.

Best,

Marus

Yes, the caffeine will never have a RDA because it's not wanted, so the bar color should be green all the time, unless it have an Upper Limit and is exceedeed. In this case it should turn red. If there is no RDA but is an UL, the UL must become the reference for the bar %. A variable green bar until 100% and then red.

Karen_Cronometer

@Marus compare the previous screenshot above (minimum target = 0; maximum target = 350 mg) to when I set my minimum target and my maximum target to the same value (350 mg)

I am under 350 mg:

I am over 350 mg:

Marus

Indeed, it shows the %, but the color is yellow, and this indicate something that is not enought, a deficiency of that nutrient. But we all know that caffeine is not required. The color must be green (when is no RDA), to tell that even the percent is not 100% you have already enough of that nutrient.

Karen_Cronometer

Hi Marus,

Oh i see! I tend to think of green as I am getting what I need. So perhaps what might help is if you can could customize your own colours in the future?

Cheers,

Marus

I think the same way too: yellow = go for it ! / green = everything ok / red = caution !
For me there is no need for custom colors. Those are perfectly fine.
The only thing is that green can be used for amounts less than 100% too, if there is no RDA, and the percentage should reflect the UL.

david_g

I'd be fine with any o the proposed color combinations proposed.

BrianMI

I think yellow/green/red are ok. But we have two different situations we want the colors to reflect.

In the "normal" case, there's some nutrient we want to exceed, but not get too much of. So, e.g., my Calcium is yellow until I've hit my minimum, green after consuming my minimum, but then red if I go beyond my maximum.

In the "don't exceed" case, there's some nutrient for which there's just a maximum I really don't want to exceed. So, e.g., say that I don't want to consume more than 20g of saturated fat. Anything between 0g and 20g is fine. So my bar would be green up to 20g, then red thereafter. Any percentages shown would be as a percent of 20g. Only the two colors would show in this case.

Marus

Exactly !!