Food Dictionary, Adding Foods to

 

At a Glance

 

You can add new entries to the Food Dictionary by keying in nutrient information from the labels.

 


 

 


 

In Detail

 

Whenever you run across a food (or a vitamin pill, or anything else you ingest that has nutritional value) that isn't in Diet Power's dictionary, if you have nutrition facts from the label, you can add the food to the dictionary yourself. You can do this not only by opening the Food Dictionary, but also while you're using the Food Log or the Recipe Box.

 

Any food you add to the dictionary will also be available to other users in your household, because everyone uses the same dictionary.

 

Difference Between a "Food" and a "Recipe"

 

Before following the instructions below, make sure that the item you're adding to the dictionary is a food, not a recipe.

You can add a recipe to the dictionary as a food if you already know its nutrient makeup (from the cookbook where you found it, say) and you don't want to bother listing ingredients or directions. But if you want to create a full-fledged recipe, including ingredients and directions that can be printed out and shared with other people, you need to follow different steps¾see Recipe Box, Creating Recipes in.

 

A Timesaver

 

If the food you want to add is similar to an item already in the dictionary, you can edit a copy of that item instead of creating the food from scratch. See Food Dictionary, Editing Copies of Items in.

 

Worried About Brand Names?

 

It doesn't pay to obsess over brand names. You can save a lot of time—and actually get a more complete picture of your nutrition—by logging the generic foods that are already in the Dictionary. Details.

 

To add a food to the dictionary:

 

From your Home Screen:

  1. Open the dictionary by:

or

  1. Make sure no food is highlighted. If one is, click it to remove the highlighting. This will activate a tab labeled "Create a Food."
     

  2. Click the Create a Food tab. Diet Power will open a blank page.
     

  3. Fill in as many blocks on the page as you can. (Tip: Using the numeric keypad will speed entry of nutrient data. So will the up- and down-arrow keys and the keypad's plus and minus keys¾both of which move the cursor up and down the page.) You must complete the food name, serving size, and number of calories per serving (even if the number is zero). You can leave all the rest blank, but your Nutrient History will be more accurate if you always complete as many blocks as possible. (At the very least, Diet Power recommends filling in the fat, carbohydrate, protein, and alcohol blocks. These make up the food's Key Ratio, which is valuable for getting quick assessments of your dietary balance.) Pressing the Tab or the Super Enter key after you fill in a block will take you to the next block. Diet Power will automatically put the cursor in the "Amount" or the "% DV" column, whichever is standard for that nutrient.
     

  4. When you're finished filling in the blocks, click the button labeled "Add This Food."

From the Food Log:

  1. Click the Create a Food tab. Diet Power will open a blank page.
     

  2. Fill in as many blocks on the page as you can. (Tip: Using the numeric keypad will speed entry of nutrient data. So will the up- and down-arrow keys and the keypad's plus and minus keys¾both of which move the cursor up and down the page.) You must complete the food name, serving size, and number of calories per serving (even if the number is zero). You can leave all the rest blank, but your Nutrient History will be more accurate if you always complete as many blocks as possible. (At the very least, Diet Power recommends filling in the fat, carbohydrate, protein, and alcohol blocks. These make up the food's Key Ratio, which is valuable for getting quick assessments of your dietary balance.) Pressing the Tab or the Super Enter key after you fill in a block will take you to the next block. Diet Power will automatically put the cursor in the "Amount" or the "% DV" column, whichever is standard for that nutrient.
     

  3. When you're finished filling in the blocks, click the button labeled "Add to Dict. & Log." Diet Power will add the item to both the Food Dictionary and today's Food Log.

From the Recipe Box:

  1. Click the Create a Food tab. Diet Power will open a blank page.
     

  2. Fill in as many blocks on the page as you can. (Tip: Using the numeric keypad will speed entry of nutrient data. So will the up- and down-arrow keys and the keypad's plus and minus keys¾both of which move the cursor up and down the page.) You must complete the food name, serving size, and number of calories per serving (even if the number is zero). You can leave all the rest blank, but your Nutrient History will be more accurate if you always complete as many blocks as possible. (At the very least, Diet Power recommends filling in the fat, carbohydrate, protein, and alcohol blocks. These make up the food's Key Ratio, which is valuable for getting quick assessments of your dietary balance.) Pressing the Tab or the Super Enter key after you fill in a block will take you to the next block. Diet Power will automatically put the cursor in the "Amount" or the "% DV" column, whichever is standard for that nutrient.
     

  3. When you're finished filling in the blocks, click the button labeled "Add to Dictionary."

If you change your mind...

 

...at any point before clicking the Add button, you can go back (with the mouse, Shift-Tab, or the up- and down-arrow keys) and further revise any block. You can also abort the whole process: just click the button labeled "Discard Changes" or "Discard This Food," or hit the Escape key. After asking you to confirm your decision, Diet Power will throw away the food and take you back to the option you were working in. (You can also abort by clicking Cancel. This will not only discard the food but also close the option you were working in, taking you back to the Home Screen.)

 

Your additions will be marked.

 

Every food that a user adds to the dictionary is automatically preceded by a special symbol, like this:

 

image\diet0050.gif Bread, white, enriched (Boswell's Bakery), 1-oz slice

 

The little apple is there to remind you of an important difference between foods added by users and those in Diet Power's original set: Anyone can edit the added foods, and anyone can edit copies of the originals, but no one can edit the originals themselves.

 

Filling in the Blocks

 

For help with individual blocks on the Create a Food page, see Foods, Filling in Nutrients, Etc., when Creating or Editing.

 

To leave the Create a Food page:

 

If you want to save your work, click the Add button. Diet Power will write the new food into the dictionary and take you back to the option you were working in.

 

If you'd rather discard the work, click the Discard button. After asking you to confirm your decision, Diet Power will throw away the food and return you to the option you were working in.

 

If you haven't done any work, click the tab labeled "Food Dictionary," "Food Log," or "Recipe Box" to go back to the option you were working in; or click OK or Cancel to close the option and return to the Home Screen. (If the OK and Cancel buttons are not visible, see Taskbar, Hiding to Make Screens Deeper.)

 


 

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Last Revised:6/30/07