Show HN: Intuitive nutrition information

Wow--I really clicked with this immediately--super intuitive. Also, holy crap is it fast--instant results.

Some initial reactions/suggestions:

- I want to be able to edit entries in a list in-line. When I looked at it on my Android phone, each word's link was separated which made me think I could click each element individually to change it in place vs. having to re-enter it on the right panel. Think of it like Google or Pinterest's search interface where you modify individual words in place vs. doing it somewhere separate. For modifying integers, you could even use a dropdown or scroll menu on mobile since numbers would likely be relatively low.

- When I have the input field selected, pause the animation. In fact, maybe make it stop looping once I've entered one or a couple things. It is distracting and I've shown I understand how to use the box. Instead, consider putting static text examples somewhere below--an input key if you will.

- You have an engaging hook--let me take the next step of engagement. Add user accounts and the ability to save lists as recipe's or shopping lists, share them, and list the most popular ones based on shares. Instant boost to k-factor.

- In the list below the bar graph, I'd love to see line-item nutritional stats (perhaps marked by corresponding graph series color) for contribution of total calories of that type. For example, I have a smoothie recipe with 1C almond milk in it. Without clicking on it, I should be able to see displayed both the absolute values as well as the percentage of total recipe calories, carbs, fat and protein the line item is adding.

- Let me make lists of lists, list of lists of lists, etc.--ie. menu planning. A list is a recipe, a list of lists is the menu, a list of lists of lists is a weekly meal plan that would be awesome to plug into Amazon Fresh or something of the sort (if it had an API). Let me buy n-deep lists with a click.

- Consider showing the source of the data for users to verify or investigate further. If I am substituting something for one of your entries though that you don't have, I should be able to enter my own custom items as well as their nutritional information. This obviously is easier to implement for individual users and their shared recipes vs. incorporating in to your master lookup data.

- The mobile interface is slick, but I'd love a native app down the line as well.

- Let me upload a photo(s)--particularly on mobile where I might have made something, want to snap a photo, toss together the recipe quickly, and share it out. Think Instagram for recipes.

Would love to know more details about the project.

1. What did you use for building the front/back ends?

2. How did you make it so blazing fast?

3. What's your data source?

4. What made you decide to launch this? Consider adding an "About" page.

Awesome stuff.

100g white rice - 8% protein (2g).

I assume the reason for this is because its cooked and its taking into account water content but it feels unintuitive. Also it then doesnt tell me specifically how much carbs/fat there is, just a percentage. If people are going to use this for quick checks for specific diets it won't be all that useful.

In fact it's probably worth just using the percentages for the colour bars and only having pure values in grams shown as numbers. You could add a toggle to show percentages so that people planning a days worth of food could have a percentage split for their macros.

Aside from this I love this idea and the way its presented and would definitely use it if it had enough information.

So you assume everyone is "bulking" or "cutting", or following that kind of "program"?

Ok, I wasn't sure if it should say calories or kilocalories so I tried to look up which is the right one. Then for my surprise this is widely misused and now it's generally accepted to use Calories (with capital C) when you actually mean kilocalories. In Hungary every nutrition listing is in "kcal" (AFAIK) so this is the first time I encountered with this.

But... The correct one IS kcal. Or kilojoule, if you want to be even more universal.