Which nutrient analysis databases do you prefer for feeding studies and metabolically controlled research? Which include the most up-to-date product lines, can support adding foods, and are affordable with multiple licenses? I am aware of several and have an idea of what we want to change to, but I would like more feedback from those who use this type of software in a CTRC or other research setting.
I use Genesis R&D from ESHA Research, it has a huge database and you can create your own products with it.
Thanks, Jonathan. I have used the ESHA Food Processor before and found it lacking. I'm guessing the Genesis R&D is a higher grade product? Also, I found this article: Stumbo P. "Considerations for selecting a dietary assessment system." J Food Compost Anal. 2008: 1;21 (S1):S13-S19. if anyone is interested.
I do not know whether Epi-info Nutrition software will be useful for you; I have not use it personally, but it is free.
I have not, but from its web page, it looks very useful. I will make use of it in any future nutrition survey I may contribute to; thank you very much.
Thank you all for your responses. I have been in communication with another CTRC dietitian who uses primarily the Minnesota Database and ProNutra. ProNutra is useful for creating research diets, but the database in the Minnesota Database software is more complete and more frequently updated. She often uses the data in one to update items in the other per her report. The Minnesota Database is better for gathering recall data from participants and analyzing the responses. From what I have read on-line ESHA Food Processor is more of a quick analysis for patient/client interactions, and the Genesis R & D is better for product development.
I have worked on Genesis SQL and it's a great choice. Also, it's the most accepted one also.
However, another good alternative is Nutritionist Pro. I have worked extensively on it and is pretty simple and accurate. It's better than Genesis in some aspects as well.
You can download a free full trial version for 3 days and use it. The video guide is very detailed and helpful.
It's quite cheap and is offered by Axxya Systems
A comment on the ProNutra program recommended by a CTRU dietitian above. The ProNutra program (designed for metabolic studies) has a choice between the two USDA databases. The primary one used for research diets is the USDA database for Standard Reference (sometimes called the SR database), however you can also request the USDA FNDDS (Food and Nutrient Database for Dietary Studies) that is designed for dietary assessment. FNDDS is the database used for the NHANES dietary studies, so it would be appropriate for projects where the intake data is to be compared to national US data.
No matter what software you use, the most important thing is the choice of your food database, you can't overlook it.
Food composition is very different from a country to another, some countries don't even have one yet or it might be incomplete.
NutriSurvey has a list of databases you might want to choose from (http://www.nutrisurvey.de/index.html) also tables are regularly updated, make sure to not use an outdated one.
In small animal veterinary nutrition, the "full" Autobalancer (available to academics and board certified veterinary nutritionists at BalanceIT.com) from my firm is widely used. Most recently in the following study J Am Vet Med Assoc. 2013 Jun 1;242(11):1500-5 (PMID 23683013). This study found a very strong correlation between the software's predicted nutrient value for evaluated canine maintenance diets/recipes and a subset of actually prepared and analyzed diets/recipes. I would concur that the food database is key (the rest is ultimately math and preference regarding user interface, technical support, and other capabilities) and as such we have invested in analyzing some key foods to enhance the USDA Nutrient Database for Standard Reference that we heavily rely on (especially for some core foods' taurine, chloride, iodine, and choline levels).
I have used the ESHA Food Processor before and found it useful.
I have used the FIAS (FOOD INTAKE ANALYSIS SYSTEM, by Texas University) before and found it useful. It allows the development of new recipes and add new ingredients, then use them.
I might add to Hanan Hussien's message about the Univ of Texas program FIAS, that this program uses the USDA Food and Nutrient Database for Dietary Studies (FNDDS) which is used to generate the NHANES dietary data. Also FNDDS is developed using the USDA Standard Reference database. Thus the data is solid and representative.
In re-reading the original question which refers to metabolic studies, I would like to refer back to the mention of ProNutra which is the only one that is specifically set up to support metabolic studies. Features are establishing of studies, generating kitchen production sheets, reporting served versus eaten intakes. This is a complex program with other features for the serious researcher like linear programming module and ability to calculate nutrient ratios.
A good option for nutritional studies in community that address in addition to anthropometric and biochemical variable nutrient consumption is NUTRISURVEY, which has food tables for different countries. Here the link
http://www.nutrisurvey.de/index.html
Nutrisurvey is the best option. Its free, you can import your country specific database, and add new foods.
For the kind of research I conducted, NUTRISURVEY was most suitable. I think ones choice will depend on the type of study.
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