How to use the food database to create meal plans

More and more nutritionists are employing meal planning software to efficiently create meal plans for their clients and make it easier to modify them.

However, meal planning softwares can only be efficient if they have a comprehensive and detailed food database. It determines the rigidity or flexibility of a meal planning software and can help you judge which one to pick. 

Why do you need a good food database?

When creating a meal plan with your meal planning software, it must have a comprehensive food database so that you have the flexibility and versatility of creating a meal plan.

The first and foremost advantage that it provides is the possibility of creating a meal plan that your clients are comfortable with. If you can provide a favorable meal plan that adheres to their likes, dislikes, and preferred cuisine, it can be extremely easy to transition your clients into a healthier lifestyle.

Some of the advanced food databases also provide a calorie count and macronutrient content of each food item so that you can calculate the overall nutritional levels of each meal.

Furthermore, having a comprehensive food database can also help you add alternatives to each element of your meal plan. For example, if your meal plan features roti or bread as the carbohydrate source, you can add an option of maybe rice or oats that can be an equivalent substitute.

Essential elements of a good food database

Comprehensive list of food items

Your food database should feature a comprehensive list of food items covering a vast range of cuisines and locally available to the clients. This also provides flexibility and versatility in creating meal plans.

Info on calorie count and macronutrient content

It is ideal to have detailed data on the calorie count and macronutrient content of each food item so that you can calculate the nutritional stats of each meal. This can help you create a more cohesive diet plan and add alternatives to each meal element.

Food dishes ranging across multiple cuisines

An ideal food database should feature recipes and food dishes that range through multiple cuisines so that you can cater to the wider demography of the target audience. It can also help you create meal plans that are favorable to your clients’ palette, which can increase their compliance rate.

A good recipe database

While you can suggest meal plans ranging from a plethora of different cuisines, it will be worthless if your clients don’t know the precise procedure of creating those meals. Hence, your database should also provide a good resource of recipes to guide your clients and help them extract the optimal nutrition from their products.

How to use Zoconut’s food database to create meal plans

Understanding the Food Database

In the section, we will understand the food database(food details) and the know-how to create a new food item.

  • Go to My data present on the left side of the dashboard. 
  • Select the food details present in the My Data section.
  • All food items are available in my food items.

  • In this section, we will learn how to create a new food item
  • Create the food item name 
  • Create any other name of the food item.
  • Add the macronutrients according to 100GM of the food item.
  • Choose the servings of the food item.
  • Click on the additional servings.
  • Mention the serving of the food item. 
  • Click on submit to add a new food item.

   

Adding food items into meal plan templates

In this section, we will know how to create a plan template.

  • Click on the new plan template button present on the plan template dashboard.
  • Create a plan name, description, and plan duration for the diet plan. 
  • A new dashboard will appear for creating new diet plans for the clients.
  • Max duration of the Plan is 30 days.
  • Plan duration doesn’t exceed Package duration
  • Diet plan duration should be within package duration

  • Click on the plan introduction to share the basic information on diet plans.
  • Create a plan introduction and write a plan note on it. 
  • Click on the text button present on the right side of the screen. 
  • Create a diet note to enter in the text and then diet introduction in the text box

  • Go to the diet section present on the diet section.
  • A new dashboard will appear to create a new detailed diet plan. 
  • Select the day from and till the diet plan day,
  • Select the dine name, timing of the meal, and meal notes, if needed, can be added.

  • Click on the food button to create a daily diet meal for the clients. 
  • Search the food items for the diet 
  • Add the food items for diet meals
  • Select the quantity, measure for the meals.
  • Select the days if you want to repeat the same meals every day or other days.
  • Click on done to create the meal.
  • There are 8582 food items listed on our website.

With a comprehensive food database, you can have the luxury and freedom to create flexible meal plans for your clients which are more comfortable and easy to follow. Not only will it increase their compliance rate, but it will also help you offer alternative food elements to break the monotonous feel of having a meal plan. 

With Zoconut’s expansive food database, which includes more than 300 food items and 8000 food dishes across multiple cuisines, you can create the most ideal meal plans for your clients.

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