SOFTWARE FOR NUTRITION PLANNING

AND EVALUATION - "NUTPLAN"

Created by:Mirjana Gurinovic MD. PhD. RPH Nutr., FAO Expert

Associate Research Professor, Specialist in Hygiene Nutrition       

Agnes Kadvan B.sc.econ

Planning nutrition for an individual or for a certain group represents an important task in achieving the normative needs of energy, nutritious and protective substances. This is very important to satisfy the Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) for nutrients and energy. Food database in computer program for planning nutrition includes now about 2000 common kind of food with up to 46 nutrients (energy value, protein, fat, carbohydrates, dietary fibers, fatty acids, cholesterol, vitamins, minerals ... etc.) and with a possibility of prompting and expanding with some new food and contents of nutritive elements. The results and price can be displayed for each kind of food for 100 g or some other weight.

Food items may be selected alphabetically, by item number, or by menu. In addition you may add your own food or combine food according to your own recipes. It is easy to create your own recipes and menus with explanations for preparing them (text files). A unique feature of this program is the ability to store the recipes and menus in the memory.

Intake function keys for analysis, menu analysis, and recipe analysis can all be easily accomplished. At your fingertips are available for every recipe or menu list of ingredients with amount (g) and cost of meal for one person or for several people if you have several clients.

According to the total energy value of meal or menu results can be displayed (or you can print them) as the percentage of total fat, protein, carbohydrates, or as the percentage of some food group, or the % of some meals in daily menu.

Nutrient information for selected food, meal or menu for portion size or other standard units of measurement can be displayed directly. Results include: energy value, amount and percentage of calories from fat, protein, carbohydrates, polyunsaturated (P), saturated (S) and monounsaturated (M) fat, ratio P/S and S:M:P, ratio sodium / potassium, calcium / phosphorus, iron / phosphorus, vegetable and animal protein and fat intake, all nutrients on 1000 calories as nutrient density index. You can display any number of customized results in memory.

The nutrient value of some meal or menu can be compared to the RDA based on age and gender of the National or WHO/FAO standards. Results provide as the percentage of satisfied RDA for each nutrient and energy.

Average results for several meals over any period of time are provided. At the same time you can have the list of food and the cost of meals for whole period. If you have to print the recipes, you can have the list of meals on display (selected in groups, like soup, cake, salads...) which you have planned for several weeks.

All the results can be saved to an individuals file, added to the database, saved for later printing, or printed immediately.

The software automatically calculate the basal and total daily energy needs according to body weight, age, gender, physical activity.

This software can be useful for planning individual or social nutrition (in nutrition offices, hospitals, restaurants, schools, kindergartens...) for dietitians, nutritionist, sport nutrition professionals, and individuals interested in good nutrition and health. In that way you can improve the nutrition and satisfied the optimal nutrition needs for better health.