| Microdiet is very user friendly. |
| On-screen help is available at all points in the program. |
| An extensive and flexible database of foods and nutrients is provided. |
| The UK McCance and Widdowson data sets together with American and
Italian data sets are supplied with the software. Click
here for details. |
| The database can be modified by the user. Nutrient values can be
edited and extra foods can be added. Assistance is provided when entering
nutrients from a food label. |
A recipe can be converted to a single database food. |
| Up to 150 nutrient values are available for each food. The user
can choose a smaller subset of up to 28 nutrients for display and
can also choose the order in which nutrients are presented. |
| Five common units of weight and two or more portion sizes are available
for every food. The user can easily add others. |
| Tables of recommended daily nutrient intakes are provided for comparison
with nutrient totals. |
| Facilities are provided to allow you to backup and restore your
database. |
| You can find and list foods on the database that are high or low
in specified nutrients or that satisfy several nutrient targets. |
| Foods can be imported from another user and added to your database. |
| A client file is provided which allows you to save information for
your clients. Body Mass Index (BMI) is calculated automatically when
height and weight are input. |
| Foods can be selected from the database by name, part of a name
or food code. |
| Search files can be limited to a subset, e.g. McCance and Widdowson
6th Summary edition foods only. |
| Foods on the list can be allocated to up to 7 named meals on up
to 7 days. |
| If required, quantities of foods with the same food code listed
separately can be combined into one entry on the list. |
| A food on the list can be exchanged for another food on the database. |
| Lists of foods can be saved for future use. |
| Meal names and extra nutrient names can be edited. |
| The spreadsheet of foods and nutrients or nutrient subset can be
exported to a text file for use with other packages such as Microsoft
Excel. |
| The software calculates nutrient totals and allows foods to be evaluated
in a variety of ways. |
| On the analysis page you can toggle easily between all nutrients
and your selected subset. |
| Nutrient totals can be compared with a selected set of dietary reference
values. |
| Any nutrient total can be examined to determine the contribution
of each food on the list. The results can be listed in descending
order of contribution or ordered by food group. |
| Nutrient totals and pie charts showing energy breakdown are available
for individual meals and days. |
| There is an option to display nutrients in 100g of the food list
or some other selected amount. |
| To satisfy the requirements of Quantitative Ingredient Declarations
(QUID), the labeling section includes the food list in weight order
and an entry for each food as a percentage of total weight. An option
is provided to allow for weight lost in cooking. |
| A statistics module compares sets of nutrient totals, e.g. for different
clients or different days, and finds the range, mean, standard deviation
and coefficient of variation. The spreadsheet of nutrient totals can
be exported to a text file for use with other packages such as Microsoft
Excel or SPSS. |
| For the adventurous, an optimisation section is provided for modification
of a diet to satisfy specified nutrient requirements and constraints,
taking into account personal food preferences. The results are sometimes
surprising as well as informative. The optimisation theory can also
be used to explore the best foods to add to the diet. |
| An automated report can be created. The report can contain food
list and analyses and may include a variety of charts and tables selected
by the user. The resulting rich text format file can be edited and
printed or saved and opened in a word processor such as Microsoft
Word. |
| A personalised report header can be created with your own or your
organisation details which is then automatically applied at the top
of all your reports. |
| A spreadsheet with nutrient totals for meals and days can be automatically
included in the report. |
