Recipe nutrition facts

CookBook calculates the nutrition facts of each recipe when you save it: calories, protein, carbohydrates, fat, fiber and sodium, per serving and for the whole recipe. The Nutrition facts panel appears on the recipe page, including for people who open it from a link.

How the calculation works

1. Each ingredient is linked, by name, to a food from the food composition tables. People who use ShakeThere in English get foods from USDA FoodData Central; in Portuguese, from TACO (the Brazilian Food Composition Table), with a few foods that TACO does not fully cover taken from the USDA.
2. The quantity becomes a weight. Grams, kilograms, ounces and pounds are used as they are. Cups, spoons, cans, cloves, slices and units use the food's household measure (TACO foods borrow the measures of the equivalent USDA food, plus standard Brazilian package sizes). Without that measure, spoons and milliliters use the density of another measure of the same food and, without any, volume is converted as if it were water, as an approximation.
3. The nutrients of each food (per 100 g) are added up and divided by the number of servings. Without the number of servings, the panel shows only the whole recipe.

To taste ingredients are not included.

What is left out

Below the panel, CookBook shows how many ingredients the calculation used and why each of the others was left out:

• no food linked: the name does not look like any food in the tables;
• weight in grams missing: the unit does not say how much it weighs, like "3 carrots" or "1 bunch of parsley".

Adjust the food and weight

1. Open the recipe and choose Edit.
2. Below each ingredient you see the linked food, like "Linked to Carrots, raw". Choose Change.
3. Search for the food by name and select the right one. You can also choose Automatic (CookBook links it by name when you save) or No food (the ingredient is left out).
4. If the unit has no known weight, fill in Weight in grams. For example, 3 medium carrots weigh about 180 g.
5. Choose Apply and then Save recipe.

The food you choose is kept: CookBook no longer changes it on its own, even if you rename the ingredient. An automatic ingredient that you rename is linked again by its new name when you save.

Older recipes

Recipes created before the calculation show you the notice Save the recipe again to calculate nutrition facts. Open the recipe in Edit and save it without changing anything. People who open it from a link see the panel after that.

Limits

The values are estimates: they depend on the table, the chosen food and the weight approximations. They do not replace advice from a dietitian.

Sources

• U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. FoodData Central: SR Legacy, 2018.
• Núcleo de Estudos e Pesquisas em Alimentação (NEPA). Tabela Brasileira de Composição de Alimentos – TACO. 4th ed. Campinas: NEPA-UNICAMP, 2011.