🔍 How to Search & Understand Your Results

🥗 Common Foods - Quick Reference

Fruits:

• "Banana" or "Banana raw"
• "Apple golden" or "Apple fuji"
• "Orange navel" or "Orange valencia"
• "Strawberries raw" (use plural!)
• "Peaches raw" or "Peaches yellow raw"
• "Grapes red"

Vegetables:

• "Broccoli raw" or "Broccoli cooked"
• "Spinach raw" or "Spinach cooked"
• "Carrot raw"
• "Sweet potato baked"

Proteins:

• "Chicken breast raw" or "Chicken breast cooked"
• "Egg whole raw" or "Egg whole cooked"
• "Salmon raw" or "Salmon cooked"
• "Beef ground raw" (NOT "Ground beef raw"!)
• "Turkey breast raw"
• "Pork chop raw"

Grains & Breads:

• "Quaker oats old fashion"
• "Brown rice cooked"
• "Quinoa cooked"

Breads (Use Brand Names!):

• Popular Brands: Nature's Own, Sara Lee, Arnold, Dave's Killer Bread, Pepperidge Farm
• Organic/Sprouted: Food For Life (Ezekiel), Silver Hills, Rudi's Organic Bakery
• Store Brands: 365 by Whole Foods, Trader Joe's

Examples:

• "Nature's Own whole wheat bread"
• "Dave's Killer Bread"
• "Sara Lee wheat bread"
• "Ezekiel bread" (Food For Life brand)
• "whole wheat bread" (generic - finds a branded version)

🔧 Not Finding What You Need?

Try These Tips:

• Add brand name first: "Nature's Own whole wheat bread" instead of just "whole wheat bread"
• Add variety/type: Instead of "apple", try "apple golden", "apple gala", or "apple fuji"
• Specify raw vs cooked: "chicken breast raw" vs "chicken breast cooked"
• Use plural for fruits: "Strawberries raw" instead of "Strawberry"
• Put main food FIRST: "Beef ground raw" NOT "Ground beef raw"
• Check the barcode: Use the 12-digit UPC for packaged items

📊 Understanding Your Results

After you analyze your foods, the calculator shows multiple layers of insight. Here's what each section means and why it matters.

📊 Food Quality Scores

This section appears for packaged and branded foods. It shows three independent scores that together give you a complete picture of food quality.

Nutri-Score (A through E)

A European nutrition grading system that rates overall nutritional quality on an A-to-E scale. It factors in calories, sugar, saturated fat, sodium (bad) versus fiber, protein, fruits/vegetables/nuts content (good).

NOVA Processing Level (1 through 4)

The NOVA classification tells you how processed a food is. Developed by researchers at the University of São Paulo, it's now used by the WHO and governments worldwide.

PRAL Acid/Alkaline Score

PRAL (Potential Renal Acid Load) measures whether a food creates an acid or alkaline effect in your body after digestion. This isn't about how the food tastes — lemons are acidic but have an alkaline PRAL. It measures the acid load your kidneys have to process.

So which is "better" — alkaline or acidic?

Neither one is inherently better — balance is what matters. Your body maintains blood pH at exactly 7.35–7.45 regardless of what you eat. You cannot make your blood "more alkaline" with food. What PRAL actually measures is the acid load your kidneys have to handle.

🔬 Ingredient Safety Scan

This section scans the actual ingredient lists of branded foods against a database of additives that are banned or restricted in other countries but still allowed in the US. Each flagged ingredient shows:

"Found in" shows which of your foods contains this ingredient. When the same additive appears in multiple foods, they're grouped together so you can see the full picture at once.

"Restricted/Banned in" lists which countries have taken action — whether that's a full ban, a mandatory warning label, or concentration limits.

🧪 Additive Analysis (E-Numbers)

E-numbers are the European classification system for food additives. Every additive approved for use in food gets an E-number (E100 = Curcumin, E621 = MSG, etc.). This section scans your foods' additive lists from Open Food Facts and rates each one:

The difference between this section and the Ingredient Safety Scan above: the Ingredient Safety Scan checks USDA branded food ingredient lists for known hazardous names (Red 40, BVO, etc.). The E-Number Analysis uses Open Food Facts' pre-tagged additive data with European E-number classifications. Some foods may appear in both — that's two independent checks confirming the same concern.

🧬 Medicinal Properties Identified

When your food list includes herbs, spices, or medicinal foods (turmeric, ginger, garlic, cinnamon, green tea, etc.), this section shows their researched medicinal properties that go beyond standard nutrition.

🔬 Rare Bioactive Compounds Detected

This section highlights unusual or health-significant compounds that the USDA does measure but most nutrition apps completely ignore. Out of 477 nutrients in the USDA database, most apps show 6-15. We check all of them and highlight the rare ones.

Each compound shows its amount in your food, its category (carotenoid, flavonoid, polyphenol, etc.), its health significance, and which foods are the richest sources. Free users see 5 compounds; Pro users see all detected.

🌿 Herbal Remedies for Your Symptoms

This section only appears when you select symptoms before running the calculator. It queries a database of 500+ herb-symptom mappings to find herbs most relevant to your specific health concerns.

Understanding the effectiveness dots

Each herb card shows 1 to 5 green dots in the top-right corner. These represent how well-matched the herb is to your selected symptoms:

The score combines two factors: relevance strength (how well-established the herb is for each symptom) and symptom coverage (how many of your selected symptoms the herb addresses). An herb that strongly treats 3 of your 4 symptoms will rank higher than one that weakly treats just 1.

Orange tags on each card show which of your selected symptoms that herb addresses. Free users see 3 recommendations; Pro users see all ranked results.

📈 Nutrient Table & Risk Scores

The main results table shows each nutrient's intake versus your recommended daily intake (RDI), personalized to your age, gender, and diet type.

Understanding the columns

Risk score color scale

Risk scores factor in more than just your intake — they also consider your symptoms (if selected), your diet type (vegans are at higher risk for B12), and known population-level deficiency prevalence. A nutrient might show 70% RDI intake but still have a 50% risk score if you're in a high-risk group.

🍽️ Recipe Recommendations

Below the nutrient table, you'll see recipe suggestions specifically chosen to address your nutrient gaps. If you're low on Iron, you'll see iron-rich recipes. Low on Vitamin D? Recipes featuring salmon, eggs, or fortified foods.

Recipes come from multiple sources — our database of 491,000+ recipes, plus external recipe APIs (Spoonacular, Edamam, TheMealDB) to ensure variety. Each recipe shows which deficient nutrient it targets and why it was recommended.

📚 Where Does This Data Come From?