Live data from Hacker News

Show HN: OpenNutrition – A free, public nutrition database

opennutrition.app

11–20 of 160 posts

Re: Show HN: OpenNutrition – A free, public nutrition database

#11
It looks good. Do you have a way to differentiate food in different locations? E.g. 500ml Coke in the UK vs US might be different.

(Also I type in Can of coke and it has no results, which is probably an annoying thing to have to map to 330ml Coke, but might be useful on the todo list!)

Re: Show HN: OpenNutrition – A free, public nutrition database

#14
Thanks! I've got an error after scrolling the result page for "kidney beans" on Chrome, it blanks the display with the message: Application error: a client-side exception has occurred (see the browser console for more information).

Could you possibly add an option to see the nutrient content per 100g serving? This is way more usefull to Europeans than something like a cup as a unit.

Re: Show HN: OpenNutrition – A free, public nutrition database

#15
post #3

Congrats on the launch! Looks slick and reactive. Now I wish there was an app to analyse my meals from pictures and estimate the calories/macros, I guess it exists somewhere but I doubt the accuracy, honestly the only thing I really want from so-called AIs.

There are a few made for people with diabetes that offer macro estimates based on a photo, e.g. https://www.snaq.ai, https://gluroo.com. I'm sure others exist that are for a more general or fitness-minded audience.

Re: Show HN: OpenNutrition – A free, public nutrition database

#16
Overall, very cool and seriously much needed! How does the micronutrient estimation work? Or is that part of the secret sauce?

I was looking at this page: https://www.opennutrition.app/search/original-shells-cheese-... and saw the amino acid, vitamin, and mineral sections; there are many things listed which aren't covered by the official nutritional data. These entries also have very precise numbers but I'm not sure where and how they're derived and if I could put any serious weight in them. I'd love to hear more if you're willing to share!

Re: Show HN: OpenNutrition – A free, public nutrition database

#17
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I wish I could click on the picture to enlarge it, so I can confirm that what I am looking for is what I am looking at. You want to enlarge an ai generated image to know if it matches what you have at home ?

I guess I missed where they mentioned their images are AI generated. I assumed they were being pulled from some database.

You can derive it from the fact that there's no feasible way to get such uniform (and cute) image data for every food item.

Though I want to add that this is a good application of AI image gen since the images are useful for quick visual confirmation that the item is in the same ballpark of the thing that you think it is.

Re: Show HN: OpenNutrition – A free, public nutrition database

#18
post #3

Congrats on the launch! Looks slick and reactive. Now I wish there was an app to analyse my meals from pictures and estimate the calories/macros, I guess it exists somewhere but I doubt the accuracy, honestly the only thing I really want from so-called AIs.

If you'll find an app like this, try to do an experiment: estimate calories by taking a picture, then add 30g of olive oil (270 kcal) to the same dish and see if the app will detect it.

Re: Show HN: OpenNutrition – A free, public nutrition database

#20
post #3

Congrats on the launch! Looks slick and reactive. Now I wish there was an app to analyse my meals from pictures and estimate the calories/macros, I guess it exists somewhere but I doubt the accuracy, honestly the only thing I really want from so-called AIs.

The OpenNutrition app does that :)

Logging foods by image is a great way to get started being accountable with eating, and I'll use it if I'm out and don't want to manually figure out all the different components of something, but it's impossible for even the most well-trained human eye to understand food composition visually. A lot of AI-focused diet apps have gone in this direction as their primary method of input because it removes the need for a database, but the marketing these apps run that this is in anyway accurate as a primary search mechanism is, to me, really borders on abject dishonesty and sets users up for long-term failure. Just because an ingredient is invisible when prepared doesn't mean it's not there.

Post reply on HN