Foda - The Food Database

What FoDa Does!

The reason I wrote it was to see how my diet shaped up, and to show what foods in what quantity I needed to eat to bring my fat intake down to acceptable levels for optimum energy levels and health.  I originally designed a basic version, but the user interface and statistics were a bit naff, so I had to do a bit of a rethink, this is the result... The All New FoDa V2.

Some Features are:

• Keeps a database of any foods nutritional breakdown, which you can add to.
• Keeps a Hierarchical log organised by day of the year (and meals if you require) of all foods you have eaten (and entered into the program obviously)
• Enter Quantity eaten in grams or portion size and calorific details calculated automatically
• See instantly if you are achieving your Recommended Daily allowance (as researched by the DHSS in 1977) per day
• See instantly what percentage of calories you are getting from fat per day. (The World Health Organisation recommend an intake of around 30% of calories from fat, but, you try doing the calculations required to work this out by hand and  you will wish you had a computer program that could do all this for you....)
• See instantly how much Protein you are getting per day
• Sort Foods into Carbohydrate, Protein etc. Order
• Includes UK RDA values, and some information on the 1991 DRV values
• Advanced energy requirement calculation in registered version.

If you like it, and want to continue using it beyond a 30 day trial period, then I ask you donate £20 (or equivalent) to a charity which aims to relieve famine/poverty, and you can use the Charity (Where?) Version on any one single computer.  (That is to say, you need to donate £20 to a famine relief charity per copy installed on each computer! (please))

What FoDa looks like!

What the Users Say!

PWRSoft have designed a flaming masterpiece here - Paul Rogers

I started using FoDa the Food Database because I was wondering what on earth I was eating in terms of  the fat content and whether I was in fact eating enough, given that I did at one time do a lot of cycling. FoDa has certainly given me an insight into my Diet - Paul Rogers

I Think its bloomin marvellous me. - Paul Rogers

If you need to loose weight or gain weight, you need FoDa the Food Database to monitor your intake. (and a set of good scales for weighing food…, another set for weighing yourself... and all the information off the backs of the packets, and some time to enter all the information correctly) - Paul Rogers

Any comments from users are welcome (except totally negative ones…) - Paul Rogers

Cheques / Postal orders from users registering are even more welcome.... - Paul Rogers

The registered version!

1. Advanced energy requirements calculations based on the 1992 dietary reference values research by the department of health and your activity levels for each day.  This will provide a closer estimate for each days calorific requirements.
2. A printing function to produce lists of foods and logs.
3. A fix to the bug that crashes the program when you save a log if you have not got all of Borlands IDAPI run-time installed on your computer. (Derrrrrr... I missed a DLL needed for just one function....)

This is a view of the DRV Dialog available in the registered version

Important User Information!

1. your weight (without clothes!) according to some accurate scales and whether it is increasing or decreasing
2. accurate records of exactly what food you have eaten (in grams) and accurate entry of the data into FoDa
3. Any special dietary requirements of the individual such as disease, genetic conditions, etc.

Please consult a dietary specialist or doctor before radically changing your diet.

One important point to note concerns the ALCHOHOL content of foods. FoDa currently does not have any field for alchohol, only Carbohydrate, Fat, Protein, and Vitamins. To allow entry of alchohol consumption, you can calculate the equivalent carbohydrate content for the alchoholic item and enter it in the carbohydrate field. This does not allow individual tracking of alchohol units, but does estimate the amount of calories you will be getting from consuming it, and still calculating the correct % calories from fat.

I noticed that the database entry for CIDER is currently incorrect and has no alchohol taken into consideration in the carbohydrate field, and so will appear to give many fewer calories than it actually does in the flesh.

The CURRENT DATABASE has a lot of foods entered from the backs of the packaging. Due to the recent revelations in the press that some of these facts are not all they appear (i.e. the foods typically contain more fat than specified) , it is wise for everyone to check the figures entered against their favourite calorie counting book, or the back of recent packet foods used by them.

Maybe a governmental or international agency will take it upon themselves to instigate a regular calorific check of all foods sold, but as no-one has yet got round to solving the food mountain problem (a problem to some.... money in the pockets of others) I doubt it will happen, call me a cynic and you would be correct.

Both these problems will be cured in the "Soon to be Announced" New, Improved recipe, FoDa21 which will also include

• MDI interface, allowing multiple logs to be viewed.
• Recipe creation and entry as new food types in the database
• Individuals weight and exercise history records

Useful Links

United States Department of Agriculture