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USERS MANUAL THE BETTER DIET ANALYZER, VERSION 3.0 For IBM PCs and Compatibles Copyright (c) 1990, 1991 by John H. Byrd Better Diet Analyzer User Manual Syntonic Software Copyright 1990, 1991 by John H. Byrd Page 2 ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Table of contents INTRODUCTION ................................................. 4 On dieting ...............................................4 Welcome to Shareware .................................... 5 License ................................................. 5 Registering The Better Diet Analyzer .................... 5 User support ............................................ 6 Association of Shareware Professionals (ASP) ............ 6 Disclaimer .............................................. 7 Acknowledgements ........................................ 7 Suggested uses .......................................... 7 System requirements ..................................... 8 Style conventions ....................................... 8 SETTING UP THE BETTER DIET ANALYZER ......................... 10 Program overview ....................................... 10 Installing The Better Diet Analyzer..................... 10 Floppy disk users ...................................... 11 Running CONVERT.EXE .................................... 12 The Better Diet Analyzer and Microsoft Windows ......... 14 USING THE BETTER DIET ANALYZER .............................. 16 Entering meals ......................................... 16 Correcting entries ..................................... 18 Keeping daily lists .................................... 20 Weekly summaries ....................................... 24 Changing the date ...................................... 25 Saving and retrieving files ............................ 25 Printing your files .................................... 27 Printing sideways ...................................... 27 Printing standard format ............................... 29 Other print options .................................... 29 CUSTOMIZING THE FOOD DATABASE ............................... 30 Adding and editing ..................................... 30 Using the Recipe Builder ............................... 32 Deleting food records .................................. 33 Using MAKERSC.EXE ...................................... 33 Restoring deleted food records ......................... 34 Using TABLES.EXE ....................................... 34 Hints on entering data ................................. 35 ACCESSORIES AND FEATURES .................................... 37 Using The Better Diet Analyzer's calculator ............ 37 Using Help ............................................. 37 Screen colors .......................................... 37 COMMON PROBLEMS ............................................. 40 USING SHORTCUTS ............................................. 42 The Better Diet Analyzer fast-key summary .............. 42 Better Diet Analyzer User Manual Syntonic Software Copyright 1990, 1991 by John H. Byrd Page 3 ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── APPENDIX A: DATA FORMAT ..................................... 43 Portions ............................................... 43 Calculating percentages ................................ 43 APPENDIX B: NUTRITIONAL GUIDELINES .......................... 46 Coronary heart disease ................................. 46 A diet to reduce your heart attack risk ................ 48 The sports performance diet ............................ 51 Carbohydrate loading ................................... 52 References ............................................. 55 INDEX ....................................................... 56 Better Diet Analyzer User Manual Syntonic Software Copyright 1990, 1991 by John H. Byrd Page 4 ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Introduction ON DIETING Dieters are an odd mix of determination, optimism and desperation. We're determined to forsake the very food we love, usually to make a dramatic change in our bodies. We wouldn't embark on this journey if we didn't expect to succeed. And we maintain our optimism even as we wade our way through the continual feast that never ends in our well-fed and prosperous culture. Yet, for all our determination and optimism, we seem to be ready victims for brash promises and outright quackery. OK, maybe you're not the type who falls for gimmickry. But I'll bet if I promised you a diet that would guarantee you'd lose weight, reduce your serum cholesterol and give you more energy, you'd try it. You might even stick to every prescribed food for awhile, convinced that my recipes were somehow better suited to your goals. See what I mean? People who loved food up until the day they went on a diet will suddenly start classifying every food as either medicine or poison. If it's on the prescribed list, they'll take it dutifully and daily. If it's on the avoid list, they'll avoid it like arsenic. If you can see yourself thinking like that, you'll start to understand what you're up against. It's no wonder so many diets fail. What you'll find here with The Better Diet Analyzer is a tool to help you leverage your determination and optimism. Use your strengths and you might increase your confidence and knowledge. That's what it will take if you're going to shrink that desperation down to a point where it won't sabotage your goals. The Better Diet Analyzer won't put you on a Program. I am neither a physician nor a dietician, so I can't offer you advice on which foods to eat and which to avoid. I am, by training and inclination, a journalist, so I will provide you with impartial information gathered from the most credible and authoritative sources I can. (See "Appendix B: Nutritional guidelines.") Eat what you want. Design your own program. Or don't design any program at all. Have fun. Enjoy your food. Use The Better Diet Analyzer to monitor what you eat, and you'll soon come to understand better what's in food, and what's in you. Think of the program as a biofeedback device -- it mirrors your behavior and enables you to look at yourself in a new and different way. WELCOME TO SHAREWARE This program is Shareware. Like thousands of other Shareware programs, it is a professionally-written, user-friendly and powerful computer program to help you meet your computing needs. If you're not familiar with Shareware, you may be surprised at the program's power, ease of use and, Better Diet Analyzer User Manual Syntonic Software Copyright 1990, 1991 by John H. Byrd Page 5 ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── most of all, low price. Perhaps the most remarkable thing about Shareware is that authors give you the program and expect you to pay later. The Shareware industry is growing at a phenomenal rate for a number of reasons. First and foremost is low cost. The Shareware medium provides a lower-cost way for Shareware authors to publish their work without mammoth advertising budgets. And users support Shareware because it costs a fraction of commercial programs without sacrificing power or utility. Moreover, users ALWAYS get to try before they buy. LICENSE The Better Diet Analyzer is copyrighted, but is distributed on an evaluation basis for free or for a nominal fee. You may use the program for up to 60 days, and you may copy it for others to evaluate too. At the end of a 60-day evaluation period, however, you must register the program by paying the registration fee. You can use the form included in the file REGISTER.FRM. You may not alter or modify The Better Diet Analyzer in any way, except to add custom food records to the database for your own use. If you share or otherwise distribute the program, you must do so with the original Shareware files as released by me. Distribution of a modified database is strictly prohibited. The restriction against alteration includes but is not limited to disassembly, reverse engineering or patching the program. In any copying or sharing of the program, these restrictions also apply: All files, including the help file and program documentation must be included. No fee, other than for the copying medium and shipping, may be charged. Commercial sale or use of The Better Diet Analyzer is strictly prohibited without express written permission of John H. Byrd. REGISTERING THE BETTER DIET ANALYZER You may have obtained your copy in any of several ways. The program is available for downloading from hundreds of electronic bulletin boards in the United States, from large on-line services such as CompuServe or GEnie, from many disk vendors who publish catalogs of Shareware programs and in retail software stores. Even if you obtained your evaluation copy of The Better Diet Analyzer from a disk vendor who charged a handling fee, you still must register the program or be in violation of federal copyright law. I received none of the handling fee. The only compensation I receive for the hundreds of hours of hard work I've put into the program comes from you and other users who register. Better Diet Analyzer User Manual Syntonic Software Copyright 1990, 1991 by John H. Byrd Page 6 ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Registering The Better Diet Analyzer and other Shareware programs will also help ensure the continued success of Shareware and make additional lower-cost programs available to you and other computer users. Registration is easy and inexpensive. Fill out the registration form in file REGISTER.FRM and enclose a check or money order for the amount specified. You may use a personal check if you like. What will you receive if you register? You will receive: o The LATEST version of the program, including the latest nutritional data; o A professionally printed users manual to The Better Diet Analyzer; o A registered version without the opening and closing Shareware notification screens; o Free telephone or mail support (your choice, but don't call collect) and bug fixes for one year; o Notification of all future upgrades and discounts on upgrades. o The serenity of knowing you did the right thing. USER SUPPORT Despite my best efforts to design an open and friendly piece of software and write careful and lucid documentation, I've found that frequently I haven't done enough. Sometimes specific problems need to be addressed. Registered users will get free support for one year. This includes answers to any questions you have about The Better Diet Analyzer and help in resolving problems you might have with its operation. If you have a problem, comment or question, I want to hear from you. You can contact me by telephone, by mail or via CompuServe. Call me at (704) 542-0473. For best results, call after 6 p.m. Eastern time, or on weekends. Or write to: John Byrd Syntonic Software P.O. Box 13471 Charlotte, NC 28270-6993 Or you may post e-mail to me on CompuServe at 72060,1556. Whatever method you choose, I'll do whatever I can to get The Better Diet Analyzer to work for you. ASSOCIATION OF SHAREWARE PROFESSIONALS (ASP) John H. Byrd is a member of the Association of Shareware Professionals (ASP). ASP wants to make sure that the shareware principle works for you. If you are unable to resolve a shareware-related problem with an ASP member Better Diet Analyzer User Manual Syntonic Software Copyright 1990, 1991 by John H. Byrd Page 7 ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── by contacting the member directly, ASP may be able to help. The ASP Ombudsman can help you resolve a dispute or problem with an ASP member, but does not provide technical support for members' products. Please write to the ASP Ombudsman at 545 Grover Road, Muskegon, MI 49442 or send a CompuServe message via CompuServe Mail to ASP Ombudsman 70007,3536. DISCLAIMER The Better Diet Analyzer is provided "as is" with no warranty of any kind, expressed or implied. Neither John H. Byrd nor Syntonic Software shall be liable for any loss or damage that results from the use of this product. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Version 3.0 would never have made it to the public if it weren't for the help of many users, beta testers and friends who found bugs, noted problems and suggested improvements. I want to extend thanks to the friends whose well wishes I exploited and the perfect strangers who have exchanged megabytes of messages with me in "cyberspace." I am especially grateful to the members of the Health & Fitness (GO GOODHEALTH) and Cooks Online (GO COOKS) Forums on CompuServe and participants in the CltNet (Charlotte) Echo on FidoNet. I also want to thank TurboPower Software of Scotts Valley, CA, for releasing to the public domain Pascal and assembler code for swapping to expanded memory. Portions of TurboPower's EXECWSWP Version 1.5 (11/90) are used by The Better Diet Analyzer. SUGGESTED USES The Better Diet Analyzer is most effective when used regularly as a food diary. In other words, enter everything you eat, every day until your goals are met. The program will automatically keep track of your food consumption and list results in a number of formats. You can keep all entries for up to 180 days, or about six months, in a single file. Admittedly, maintaining a comprehensive food diary for weeks at a time can be tough. If you don't feel up to that, try "sampling" your consumption. Enter the foods you eat for two or three days to get a "snapshot" of your typical eating habits. Try another snapshot in a week or so. You may be surprised to find out how good or bad your dining habits are. You can also use The Better Diet Analyzer over time to monitor your improvement in meeting nutritional goals. Other uses for The Better Diet Analyzer might be comparing the contents of different brands of food or restaurant products. Or you can use the program to make instant analyses of food product labels. The Better Better Diet Analyzer User Manual Syntonic Software Copyright 1990, 1991 by John H. Byrd Page 8 ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Diet Analyzer already has hundreds of data records from major brand names, and you can easily add more. In addition to the raw nutritional data contained on labels, such as numbers of grams of fat, etc., BDA automatically calculates and displays the percentages of calories from each component, making it much easier to assess a food's nutritional value at a glance. You can also use The Better Diet Analyzer to compile and analyze recipes. Beginning with Version 3.0, you can use the Recipe Builder to enter a recipe's ingredient list. BDA will calculate each portion's nutritional value and, if you want, record the recipe in its permanent database so you can use it again and again. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS The Better Diet Analyzer requires an IBM PC, PC-AT, PS/2 or compatible machine. A hard disk drive is highly recommended. It is possible to operate the program using two floppy drives, but performance may not be satisfactory. See "FLOPPY DISK USERS," page 11. You will also need DOS Version 2.0 or higher, and 384 kilobytes of available RAM. If you have expanded memory, so much the better. Be sure your EMS meets the LIM 3.2 or 4.0 specification. Your expanded memory manager (EMM.SYS) must be loaded by including the necessary line in your CONFIG.SYS file. (See your EMS documentation.) If you have extended memory (XMS), certain memory managers can simulate expanded memory. Microsoft Windows works well, and most systems that have extended memory come equipped with a memory manager that can simulate EMS. Again, see your documentation. (Also see, "THE BETTER DIET ANALYZER AND MICROSOFT WINDOWS," page 14.) If you do not have EMS or XMS, don't worry. The Better Diet Analyzer will run quite well without them. The Better Diet Analyzer supports most video cards. It runs only in text mode, so does not require CGA, EGA or VGA graphics. The program does not currently support a mouse. It runs fine under Microsoft Windows 3.0 as a non-Windows application. STYLE CONVENTIONS The following documentation contains many typing and keyboard instructions for using The Better Diet Analyzer. Frequently, a letter key is specified. In this manual, we'll always use the capital letter form, but it's not necessary to use the shift key (unless the text specifically says to do so). The Better Diet Analyzer is not particular at all about upper case or lower case letters when it comes to commands. A lower case "p" will do just as well as a capital "P" in almost every instance. Most keyboard instructions will be enclosed in angle brackets <>. If one key must be held down while another key is pressed, then the combination will be joined by a "+" sign. For instance, <Alt+L> means to hold down one of the two Alt keys and press the "L" key. (Upper or lower case "L" will do just fine.) Frequently, additional commands may follow in sequence, and then the letters will be separated by a comma. For instance, Better Diet Analyzer User Manual Syntonic Software Copyright 1990, 1991 by John H. Byrd Page 9 ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── <Alt+P, O) means to hold down the Alt key, press the "P", followed by the "O". The Enter key will be designated by <Enter>. This key may be labeled "Return" on your keyboard, but it does the same thing. <ESC> means the Escape key. Other key instructions are pretty much obvious. Better Diet Analyzer User Manual Syntonic Software Copyright 1990, 1991 by John H. Byrd Page 10 ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Setting Up The Better Diet Analyzer PROGRAM OVERVIEW Central to The Better Diet Analyzer is the Meal Screen. This is the screen where you enter your meals. As you enter each food, BDA adds it to a running list and displays its contents in one of three formats. The day's total is displayed at the bottom of the screen. Each of the three screen formats includes the food name, the number of portions and calories. In addition, you can choose to display 1) grams of protein, carbohydrate, fat and alcohol; 2) percentage of calories from protein, carbohydrates, fat and alcohol; or 3) grams of fat, percentage of calories from fat, milligrams of sodium and milligrams of cholesterol. Similar to the Meal Screen are the Day Screen, Week Screen and Recipe Builder. The Day Screen shows a list of each daily total in your file, displayed in the same formats as the Meal Screen. BDA automatically creates and maintains the Day List, but you can modify it. The Week Screen shows the average total for selected Days. Using the Day Screen display, you define which days you want averaged into weekly totals (or monthly totals, or three-day averages, or any period you want). BDA will automatically calculate the averages for all nutrient categories and add a record to the Week List. The Recipe Builder is a special screen used to compile recipe ingredients for insertion into the main database. No lists are maintained on this screen. The Better Diet Analyzer also has a built-in Database Editor that can be popped up from almost anywhere in the program, and a built-in pop-up calculator that works like most pocket calculators. You can use the Database Editor to add new foods to the more than 1,400 supplied with The Better Diet Analyzer, delete foods from the database, edit those you have added or simply view the nutritional contents of various foods. INSTALLING THE BETTER DIET ANALYZER Make backup copies of The Better Diet Analyzer. Hard drives crash, floppy disks get damaged or lost. A backup costs a buck or less. Put it in a safe place. It is highly recommended that you use a computer with a hard drive. If you received program disks directly from Syntonic Software, use SETUP.EXE to install BDA on a hard drive or floppies. If you downloaded the Shareware version or ordered the program from a vendor, first uncompact the files (if they are compacted) onto your hard drive. SETUP will help you create a new subdirectory for the files and move them there. Or, you can just copy all files to the same subdirectory. (See also "FLOPPY DISK USERS," page 11.) To convert your old database entries from earlier versions of BDA, see "RUNNING CONVERT.EXE," page 12. Better Diet Analyzer User Manual Syntonic Software Copyright 1990, 1991 by John H. Byrd Page 11 ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── If you obtained The Better Diet Analyzer on disk, then the files may be compressed, or they may be listed separately on more than one disk. The following files are necessary to run the program: BETTER3.EXE main program file BETTER.HLP help file INSTALL.EXE installation utility FOOD.MDF main database FOOD.MDX database lookup table FOOD.MDK database lookup table FOOD.RSC records of deleted foods TABLES.EXE utility to rebuild damaged lookup table MAKERSC.EXE utility for handling resource file CONVERT.EXE utility for converting the BDA 2.04 database MANUAL3.DOC this file, the online manual FLOPPY DISK USERS The cautionary note about backups goes triple for you. The working disks you use to run the program take a lot of wear and tear. Eventually, they won't work at all and will need to be replaced. Which you can't do if you don't have at least one backup. While it is possible to run The Better Diet Analyzer Version 3.0 and higher on a computer with no hard drive, you might get more satisfactory results from using The Better Diet Analyzer Version 2.04. The earlier version is smaller and will fit on one 360 kilobyte floppy disk. If you cannot find Version 2.04, please contact me at Syntonic Software. If you downloaded Version 3.0 from a bulletin board and the largest floppy disk your computer supports is 360 kilobytes, your first task will be to extract the files onto the appropriate disks. If you're dealing with file archiving software, you'll need to extract the files in groups -- all files together will not fit on one 360K floppy disk. Once the files are uncompressed, SETUP.EXE will put them on the correct disks for you. The program requires three empty, formatted diskettes (360K) or one 720K or 1.2 megabyte or 1.44 megabyte disketts. You can also copy the files onto disks by hand. They should be grouped in the following way: Disk 1: BETTER3.EXE BETTER.HLP FOOD.MDX FOOD.MDK Better Diet Analyzer User Manual Syntonic Software Copyright 1990, 1991 by John H. Byrd Page 12 ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Disk 2: BETTER.HLP FOOD.MDF FOOD.RSC TABLES.EXE MAKERSC.EXE CONVERT.EXE Disk 3: MANUAL3.DOC Note that BETTER.HLP is on BOTH Disks 1 and 2. Start the program with Disk 1, and insert Disk 2 when prompted. When another disk is needed, BDA will prompt you to insert it in the drive from which the program started. Once the program is set up and running, select "File/File Options" <F10, F, O> or <Alt+F, O>. Type the name of the drive where you'll store your data, for instance "B:". Press <Enter>, then select "Save Options" by pressing <S>. Your food diary files will be saved on the B drive. RUNNING CONVERT.EXE If you have an earlier version of The Better Diet Analyzer you've undoubtedly added zillions of your favorite foods to the database. First, the good news: you'll be able to use those entries in the new version. Now, the bad news: You'll have to go back and add the protein and carbohydrate data if you want them to compute correctly in the new version. Of course, you can always use the new version just like the old one: Pay attention only to calories, fat, sodium and cholesterol data. In fact, one of BDA 3.0's three display formats shows just that data, just like the old versions. But I guarantee that you'll soon be wanting to see your protein and carbohydrate information too. Better Diet Analyzer User Manual Syntonic Software Copyright 1990, 1991 by John H. Byrd Page 13 ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── So, here's what you do: Run CONVERT.EXE to extract your custom data records from the old database file. Convert them at your leisure and add them as they're ready to the new database. ┌───────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ Better Diet Analyzer Conversion Program │ │ Copyright (c) 1991 by John H. Byrd │ └───────────────────────────────────────────┘ ┌───────────────────────────────────────┐ │ │ │ Search FOOD.GTC (Version 2.x) │ │ │ │ Edit Records │ │ │ │ Add to FOOD.MDF (Version 3.x) │ │ │ │ Quit CONVERT │ │ │ └───────────────────────────────────────┘ CONVERT should be in the default subdirectory containing all your new BDA 3.0 files. To extract your old custom records, choose "Search FOOD.GTC." CONVERT will ask you for the correct subdirectory, find your custom records and put them in a file named FOOD.CNV. The records will stay there until edited by you. Once you've extracted the records you can immediately begin editing them, or you can wait until you have collected your assortment of food labels, diet books, brochures and government publications. If you've decided to wait, just select "Quit CONVERT." OK, so now you've got the data on your old custom records? It's OK if you only have a couple. You don't have to do them all at once. Launch CONVERT.EXE, and select "Edit Records." The Editor works just like the old familiar Database Editor from BDA Version 2. If you've forgotten how it works, see "Customizing the food database," page 30. Your old records will be popped up in the Editor pretty much as you left them in the old version. Now, all you need to do is add the gram totals for protein, carbohydrates and alcohol. If you want, you can also add another word to the food name. The old version used only three words for key words. This version uses the first four words from the food name (the first line in the Database Editor) and almost everything from the second line. You can edit as many or as few records as you want. After you've finished editing records, save the records and their lookup table by pressing <F2>. If you want, now you can add the edited records to the new database by selecting "Add to FOOD.MDF (Version 3.x)." CONVERT will add only those records that you've edited, and will remove them from the conversion file FOOD.CNV. Once it's added the records, CONVERT will swap itself to expanded memory (if available) or to disk and Better Diet Analyzer User Manual Syntonic Software Copyright 1990, 1991 by John H. Byrd Page 14 ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── run TABLES.EXE. TABLES will incorporate your records into the new database lookup table. If there isn't enough room on your disk for CONVERT to swap, it won't be able to run TABLES. You'll have to run it yourself from the DOS command line. (See "USING TABLES.EXE,", page 34.) When all records have been edited and moved to FOOD.MDF (the BDA 3.0 main database), CONVERT will erase the conversion file from your disk. THE BETTER DIET ANALYZER AND MICROSOFT WINDOWS The Better Diet Analyzer runs well under Windows 3.0 as a non-Windows Application. In fact, running under Windows is an excellent way to use BDA because of Windows' memory managing capabilities. If your computer has extended memory (XMS), Windows can use it to simulate expanded memory (EMS). Confused? Don't worry. Just use your Windows PIF Editor (in the Accessories Window) to create a PIF file according to the following instructions. Enter Windows' PIF Editor and fill out the Dialog Box. These entries are recommended: Program Filename: Better3.exe Window Title: The Better Diet Analyzer Optional Parameters: ? (Windows will prompt you for a meal file to load with the program. If you don't want to be prompted, leave this blank.) Start-up Directory: Path where the program is stored. KB Required: use Windows' default KB Desired: 640 On the PIF Editor's first screen, check these boxes: Close Window on Exit Full Screen Background Now, go to the next screen by selecting the "Advanced" box. Fill in these values: Background Priority: 50 Foreground Priority: 100 Check the "Detect Idle Time" box. Under Memory Options fill in: EMS Memory: KB Required: 0 EMS KB Limit: 1024 Since BDA doesn't use any XMS memory, it doesn't matter what values are under those boxes. Leave them alone. At the bottom of the PIF screen you can optionally select a hot-key combination to switch to BDA from other applications. Better Diet Analyzer User Manual Syntonic Software Copyright 1990, 1991 by John H. Byrd Page 15 ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Once you've completed the Advanced Screen, select OK. Then choose File/Save, name the PIF Better3.PIF, and you're done. Windows will add a DOS icon to the non-Windows Application Window in the Program Manager. Better Diet Analyzer User Manual Syntonic Software Copyright 1990, 1991 by John H. Byrd Page 16 ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Using The Better Diet Analyzer ENTERING MEALS The Better Diet Analyzer is so easy to use it almost runs itself. If you've used any other computer programs, you already know enough to instinctively use The Better Diet Analyzer's basic functions. To load the program, just type "better3" at the DOS prompt. Standard key conventions are used as much as possible throughout the program. To activate the pull-down menus, press the <F10> key. Once the menus are active, you can use either the cursor keys to move the highlight cursor, or you can use any of the highlighted "hot keys." For instance, to open the Print menu, you could type <F10, P>. You could also press <F10> and the right cursor key twice to highlight "Print" on the menu bar, then press <Enter). An optional method of access the pull-down menus is to use the <Alt> key in combination with the highlighted hot key letter INSTEAD of pressing <F10>. In other words, to open the Print menu, you'd type <Alt+P>. The <ESC> key will back you out of almost any operation. To end the program, use the "File" pull-down menu and select "Quit." These key combinations would work fine: <F10, F, Q> or <Alt+F, Q>. But, actually, the quickest way to quit would be to type <Alt+X>. (See "Using Shortcuts," page 42.) To begin totaling the nutritional analysis of any list of foods, first be sure you're in the Meal Screen. If you're not sure, look at the top of the big box that takes up most of the screen. It should say "MEALS." If it says anything else, jump to the Meal Screen by typing <Alt+M>. As long as you're in the Meal Screen, you can just type the name of any food. The Better Diet Analyzer will automatically pop up in input box and begin recording what you're typing. If you'd like to see the input box before you begin typing, press the <Insert> key, but that isn't necessary. Once you've entered a food name, press <Enter>. If you've entered something fairly specific (say, fried chicken breast), The Better Diet Analyzer will display a pick list of all matching entries in its database. If more than one item is listed, you can scroll through the list using the cursor keys and Page Up and Page Down keys. Select the highlighted food by pressing <Enter>. Then type the number of portions, and your entry is added to the current list. If you typed something fairly general (say, chicken) The Better Diet Analyzer will tell you how many matches it found and pop up another input box where you can type additional key words. At this point you can add up to three more key words. BDA will make a new search and display its matches. Or, you can skip the additional key words and press <Enter> or <Esc>. In that case, BDA will show you everything it found on its first pass. Better Diet Analyzer User Manual Syntonic Software Copyright 1990, 1991 by John H. Byrd Page 17 ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── These searches are where The Better Diet Analyzer really shines. You can enter your key words in any order you want, you can ignore specifying categories, you can use brand names or you can use generic descriptions. And the results are nearly immediate: A search of the whole 1,400-item database, even using multiple key words, takes only a few hundredths of a second. The biggest delay comes from writing the entries on the screen. (When BDA runs on a floppy-disk machine, its search can be significantly slower, but we're still talking in the neighborhood of 2 seconds or so.) A running total of calories, protein grams, percentage of calories from protein, carbohydrate grams, percentage of calories from carbs, fat grams, percentage of calories from fat, alcohol grams, percentage of calories from alcohol, sodium milligrams and cholesterol milligrams is kept in RAM. Not all these components can be displayed at once, though, because there just isn't enough room on the screen. You can choose from three display formats, each of which includes the food name, portion numbers and calories. In addition you can choose: 1) percentage of calories from each of the macro nutrients (protein, carbohydrates, fat and alcohol), 2) the gram total of each of the macro nutrients or 3) fat grams, fat percentage, sodium and cholesterol. The default display is percentage of calories from each of the macro nutrients. <F5> toggles back and forth between gram and percentage display for the macro nutrients. <Alt+F5> toggles back and forth between the macro nutrients and the fat-sodium-cholesterol display. Now, here's an example for entering food you've eaten. For lunch you ate a bologna and cheese sandwich and an apple. With lunch you drank a cup of skim milk. Type "bologna." You'll see the following pick list: ┌───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ beef bologna 89 1 slice -- 1 ounce │ │ turkey bologna 70 1 slice -- Butterball │ │ turkey bologna 57 1 slice -- USDA average │ └───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ The left entry is the food name. The middle is the number of calories in each portion. At the right is a comment field, which will always contain the measurement of the portion and usually will include a short description. While The Better Diet Analyzer maintains data on calories, protein, carbohydrates, fat, alcohol, sodium and cholesterol for all its database, only the calorie listing is displayed when you are offered a list of foods to choose from. (To learn how to view the complete listing for any food without entering it into a food list, see "Customizing the food database" on page 30.) The highlight will already be on beef bologna. Let's assume that's what you had, so press <Enter>. Now, type "1" because you had 1 slice. Again press <Enter> and beef bologna is entered into your list of foods. Better Diet Analyzer User Manual Syntonic Software Copyright 1990, 1991 by John H. Byrd Page 18 ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── The bologna was on whole wheat, so type "whole wheat bread." The Better Diet Analyzer displays this pick list: ┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ pita bread, whole wheat 80 1/2 round bread, Mediterranean │ │ whole wheat bread 60 1 slice -- Pepperidge Farm │ │ whole wheat bread 67 1 slice -- USDA average │ └────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ Move the highlight to select "USDA average" and press <Enter>. You had two slices, so type "2" and again press <Enter>. Now, type "cheese." The Better Diet Analyzer will tell you it has 83 cheese entries and ask for additional key words. If you like, press <Enter> or <ESC> and you can scroll through all the listings to find the cheese you ate. But there's an easier way. Your sandwich was bologna and Swiss cheese, so type "Swiss" and press <Enter>. You'll see this pick list: ┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ BK Mushroom Swiss Cheeseburger 473 1 cheeseburger │ │ Swiss cheese 107 1 ounce │ │ Swiss cheese slices 130 1 1/4 oz. 7 1/2 by 4 inch │ │ slice │ └────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ (BK stands for Burger King, but that's another topic.) You had a slice of Swiss cheese that was about half the size of the one listed. So select the third entry and press <Enter>. Now you can type either "1/2" or ".5" and The Better Diet Analyzer will accept your entry. On your sandwich was a tablespoon of mayonnaise. Type "mayonnaise." You'll see ┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ mayonnaise 1577 1 cup │ │ mayonnaise 99 1 tablespoon │ │ Wendy's mayonnaise 90 1 tablespoon │ └────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ Select the second entry and type "1". Now, add your apple and the skim milk. CORRECTING ENTRIES Suppose you make a mistake in entering a food item in the Meal List, or you want to delete an item? If you made a mistake, or you want to change either an item's name or the portion amount, you'll have to delete it and then re-enter the new information. Select "Screen/Highlight" <F10, S, H> or <Alt+S, H> or press <F3>. Use the cursor keys to select an item, then use <Delete> to eliminate it. Press <ESC> to exit from highlight mode. If you want to delete a group of food items, hold down one of the two shift keys while using the numerical keypad cursor keys. Be sure <Num Lock> is OFF. The Better Diet Analyzer will highlight all records selected. An alternative way to highlight a group, if you want to leave <Num Lock> ON, Better Diet Analyzer User Manual Syntonic Software Copyright 1990, 1991 by John H. Byrd Page 19 ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── is to place the cursor bar on the first record, press <F6>, then move the bar. If you're changing an item, once you've deleted it, re-enter the new information. When you've finished entering a list of meals, you'll see nutritional estimates for the foods you've eaten, plus a total at the bottom of the screen. Initially, The Better Diet Analyzer's report will be in the default format displaying calories and the percentage of calories from protein, carbohydrates, fat and alcohol. Food Calories Protein Carbs Fat Alcohol ╔══ MEALS ════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗ ║ 1.0 beef bologna 89 15 % 3 % 82 % 0 % ║ ║ 2.0 whole wheat bread 134 14 % 77 % 9 % 0 % ║ ║ 0.5 swiss cheese slices 65 35 % 2 % 63 % 0 % ║ ║ 1.0 mayonnaise 99 1 % 2 % 98 % 0 % ║ ║ 1.0 skim milk 86 40 % 56 % 4 % 0 % ║ ║ 1.0 apple, medium 80 1 % 90 % 8 % 0 % ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ╚═════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝ Total: 553 16 % 43 % 41 % 0 % Lunch was approximately 553 calories; 16 percent of your calories were from protein, 43 percent were from carbohydrates, 41 percent were from fat and none were from alcohol. Press <F5> to view the gram totals: 22 total grams of protein, 61 grams of carbohydrate and 25 grams of fat. Press <Alt+F5> and you'll see that you also consumed 910 milligrams of sodium and at least 43 milligrams of cholesterol. Note that the cholesterol figure includes an asterisk. That's because it was computed using incomplete data. In The Better Diet Analyzer's cholesterol column opposite the whole wheat bread entry you'll see an "NA." That means that data on the cholesterol content of whole wheat bread was "not available." Unfortunately, cholesterol information is not as readily available as other data for many food items. Some food processors and manufacturers simply do not provide it. Hopefully, this will improve as consumers become more cholesterol-conscious and begin demanding better information. In this example, you can be reasonably confident in the cholesterol total because bread is made mostly from vegetable products, which contain no cholesterol. Better Diet Analyzer User Manual Syntonic Software Copyright 1990, 1991 by John H. Byrd Page 20 ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Cholesterol is present only in animal products such as meat, eggs, cheese, milk, lard, etc. It is entirely possible that the bread contained milk, eggs or lard, though in small amounts. After reviewing your lunch, you'll see that more than 40 percent of your calories came from fat, even though you included two very low-fat items -- the apple and the skim milk. Forty percent is typical of an American diet, but the American Heart Association recommends that no more than 30 percent of your calories come from fat. Some medical researchers recommend that the total should be even lower. (See "Appendix B: Nutritional guidelines," page 46.) If you are concerned about cholesterol, heart disease and dietary fat, you should talk with your doctor, and preferably have your blood tested for serum cholesterol level. That takes care of lunch, but what about breakfast, supper and snacks? You can enter listings for as many meals as you like, and The Better Diet Analyzer will maintain a running total of the day's food intake. KEEPING DAILY LISTS Keeping track of your calorie and food consumption on an item-by-item basis is helpful. But to really get control of your diet, you need to track your consumption over several days, or even weeks. The Better Diet Analyzer can help you do that. You can keep all your records in a file by saving your information to disk. Use the pull-down menu and select "File/Save," <F10, F, S>, or <Alt+F, S> or press <F2>. The Better Diet Analyzer will prompt you for a file name. Use any name within the DOS restrictions. If you don't specify an extension, The Better Diet Analyzer will append an extension of "DAT". (See more on using files, including working with subdirectories and floppy disks in "SAVING AND RETRIEVING FILES," page 25.) You can now reload your file in future sessions of The Better Diet Analyzer by using the pull-down menu and selecting "File/Load" <F10, F, L>, or <Alt+F, L>. Or you may press <Alt+L>. Whenever you load a file, if you don't specify an extension, The Better Diet Analyzer will assume the default extension of "DAT". You can also auto-load a file with the program by typing its name on the DOS command line when you launch The Better Diet Analyzer. For instance, typing "better3 mydiet" launches the program, and automatically loads the file MYDIET.DAT. Each time you save your information, The Better Diet Analyzer creates or updates a Day Record that summarizes all the foods listed on the Meal Screen. This is important, because this is how you'll keep track of several days' worth of meals. A common mistake of new users is to assume they need to make a new file for each day's meals. That's not necessary, and it's not particularly efficient, either. Keep all your meals in one file. The Better Diet Analyzer keeps track of the date, and assigns each meal to the correct date. It has room for 180 days worth of Meals, or about six months. Better Diet Analyzer User Manual Syntonic Software Copyright 1990, 1991 by John H. Byrd Page 21 ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Day Records and Meal Records are kept in separate lists. To see your Day Records, use the pull-down menu and select "Screen/Day List", <F10, S, D>, or <Alt+S, D>. Or press <Alt+D>. The Better Diet Analyzer lists the number of Days you've specified and then averages them into a summary at the bottom of the screen. The current day's food totals are excluded from the summary average because the chances are you're still adding items to that day's record. You can change the number of Day Records displayed on the screen and included in the average at the bottom of the screen. Select Options/Day List from the pull-down menus <F10, O, L>, or <Alt+O, L> and enter the number of days you want displayed. The default option is 7 days. To include all Day Records in the list, enter a large number, like 300. While you're looking at the Day Screen you can add your weight. If you type numbers, The Better Diet Analyzer will pop up another input box and record your weight, just as it did with food entries while you were looking at the Meal Screen. Or, you can press the <Insert> key to post the box before you begin typing. The current day's weight will be calculated in the average at the bottom of the screen. To return to the Meal Screen at any time, use the pull-down menu and select "Screen/Today's Meals", <F10, S, M>, or <Alt+S, M> or press <Alt+M>. To use our earlier example, suppose that you ate the bologna and cheese sandwich, apple and milk on July 11. Once you had saved the file <F2>, you could see the Day Record by jumping to the Day Screen <Alt+D>, <F10, S, D> or <Alt+S, D>. There, you'd see this display: ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ Date Calories Protein Carbs Fat Alcohol Weight │ ├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤ │ 7-11-91 Th 553 16 % 43 % 41 % 0 % │ └─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ Let's say you weighed 152.5 pounds. While in the Day Screen, type in 152.5. (BDA accepts weight entries of up to 2 decimal places, but it displays them rounded to one decimal place.) Now you'll see this: ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ Date Calories Protein Carbs Fat Alcohol Weight │ ├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤ │ 7-11-91 Th 553 16 % 43 % 41 % 0 % 152.5 │ └─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ Better Diet Analyzer User Manual Syntonic Software Copyright 1990, 1991 by John H. Byrd Page 22 ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── On July 11, you also ate a number of other foods, and you entered those as well. By the time you finished, you had a list of 16 foods on the Meal Screen: Food Calories Protein Carbs Fat Alcohol ╔══ MEALS ════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗ ║ 1.0 beef bologna 89 15 % 3 % 82 % 0 % ║ ║ 2.0 whole wheat bread 134 14 % 77 % 9 % 0 % ║ ║ 0.5 swiss cheese slices 65 35 % 2 % 63 % 0 % ║ ║ 1.0 mayonnaise 99 1 % 2 % 98 % 0 % ║ ║ 1.0 skim milk 86 40 % 56 % 4 % 0 % ║ ║ 1.0 apple, medium 80 1 % 90 % 8 % 0 % ║ ║ 1.0 hot dog, beef 184 13 % 3 % 84 % 0 % ║ ║ 1.0 hot dog bun 119 11 % 72 % 17 % 0 % ║ ║ 0.3 sauerkraut, canned 11 19 % 73 % 9 % 0 % ║ ║ 1.0 yellow mustard 4 21 % 32 % 47 % 0 % ║ ║ 1.0 ketchup 16 7 % 88 % 5 % 0 % ║ ║ 1.0 Ruffles Light Potato 134 3 % 54 % 43 % 0 % ║ ║ 1.0 Plain M&Ms Chocolate 240 5 % 56 % 38 % 0 % ║ ║ 2.0 beer 302 3 % 36 % 0 % 61 % ║ ║ 1.0 McDonald's apple pie 260 3 % 46 % 51 % 0 % ║ ║ 1.0 McDonald's strawberr 380 11 % 66 % 24 % 0 % ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ╚═════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝ Total: 2,203 9 % 47 % 36 % 8 % By flipping to the Day Screen, you see this Day Record: ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ Date Calories Protein Carbs Fat Alcohol Weight │ ├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤ │ 7-11-91 Th 2,203 9 % 47 % 36 % 8 % 152.5 │ └─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ Let's say you made your final entry after eating dinner on the evening of July 11. The next day, after breakfast, you launch The Better Diet Analyzer to record what you've eaten so far. As soon as your file is loaded, you'll see a blank Meal Screen. That's because it reflects the current day, and you haven't entered any meals yet. If you jump to the Day Screen, you'll see the same Day Record as the day before: ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ Date Calories Protein Carbs Fat Alcohol Weight │ ├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤ │ 7-11-91 Th 2,203 9 % 47 % 36 % 8 % 152.5 │ └─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ Better Diet Analyzer User Manual Syntonic Software Copyright 1990, 1991 by John H. Byrd Page 23 ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Now, flip back to the Meal Screen and enter your breakfast: ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ Food Calories Protein Carbs Fat Alcohol │ ├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤ │ 1.0 McDonalds' Egg McMuf 290 25 % 39 % 35 % 0 % │ │ 0.8 reconstituted orange 92 5 % 93 % 1 % 0 % │ │ 1.0 coffee, from instant 2 0 % 0 % 0 % 0 % │ │ 1.0 half and half 20 8 % 12 % 79 % 0 % │ │ 1.0 sugar 15 0 % 100 % 0 % 0 % │ │ │ ├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤ │ Total 419 19 % 52 % 28 % 0 % │ └─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ After you've saved the file at least once, a new Day Record is added to the list. On the Day Screen, you'll now see: ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ Date Calories Protein Carbs Fat Alcohol Weight │ ├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤ │ 7-11-91 Th 2,203 9 % 47 % 36 % 8 % 152.5 │ │ 7-12-91 Fr 419 19 % 52 % 28 % 0 % │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ ├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤ │ Average 2,203 9 % 47 % 36 % 8 % 152.5 │ └─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ A point worth noting is that you can't enter the day's weight until after a Day Record has been created and added to the list on the Day Screen. So, if you weigh first thing in the morning and then rush off to your computer to record your weight in The Better Diet Analyzer before you've even eaten breakfast -- well, just save an empty Meal Screen first. When you jump to the Day Screen, the last record in the list will be zeros: ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ Date Calories Protein Carbs Fat Alcohol Weight │ ├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤ │ 7-11-91 Th 2,203 9 % 47 % 36 % 8 % 152.5 │ │ 7-12-91 Fr 0 0 % 0 % 0 % 0 % │ └─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ You can now enter your weight, and update the meals later. (Of course, if you're fasting, and don't enter any meals, then BDA will continue to carry the Day Record as a bunch of zeroes.) If this seems like an awkward way to get your weight into the database ahead of your food, then maybe you should eat breakfast first. Personally, I find that my PC works better when my stomach isn't empty. Better Diet Analyzer User Manual Syntonic Software Copyright 1990, 1991 by John H. Byrd Page 24 ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── If you want to see the individual foods that you ate on any given day, highlight that date's Day Record. Choose "Screen/Highlight", <F10, S, H>, or <Alt+S, H>, or press <F3>. When you've highlighted a chosen date, press <Enter> and that day's meals will be loaded into memory and displayed. To return to the current day's meals, press <F9> and type "Today". See more about changing the program's operating date under "Changing The Date," page 25. To return to the Meal Screen at any time, use the pull-down menu and select "Screen/Today's Meals", <F10, S, M>, or <Alt+S, M> or press <Alt+M>. Occasionally the last record on the Day Screen will be blinking or flashing. This simply means that entries have been made to your diary since the last time the file was saved. The flashing Day Record warns you that the Day Record does not necessarily reflect all entries on the Meal Screen. Press <F2> to save and the Day Record will be recalculated and brought up to date. WEEKLY SUMMARIES If you're interested in long-term dieting, The Better Diet Analyzer can keep weekly summaries for you (or 10-day summaries or monthly summaries or whatever period you choose). Suppose you have a list of seven daily summaries that you'd like to convert into a weekly summary. First, be sure you're in the Day Screen. "DAYS" will be displayed at the top of the list box. All you need to do is highlight the Day Records you want to include in the "week" and press the <Insert> key. To highlight a list of Day Records, use the pull-down menu and select "Screen/Highlight", <F10, S, H>, or <Alt+S, H>. Or press the <F3> key. Using the cursor keys will move the highlight bar over individual Day Records. To highlight a group of Day Records, first be sure that the <Num Lock> key is OFF. Now, hold down one of the Shift keys and use the cursor keys on the numerical keypad to move the highlight bar. The highlight bar should expand to include more than one line of Day Records. If the bar doesn't expand, be sure you're using the numerical keypad cursor keys. You may use an alternative method of highlighting a group of records. When the highlight bar is on the first record, press <F6>. This will anchor the highlight bar on this record. Now when you move the bar with the cursor keys, it will include this first record plus the records above or below it, depending on which cursor keys you press. Whichever method you use, you can "unselect" a group by pressing <ESC>. Once you've selected a group, press <Insert> and The Better Diet Analyzer will create a weekly summary. After the summary is created, BDA will ask if you'd like to delete the daily summaries from your Day List. Answer yes or no by pressing "Y" or "N." I recommend that you answer no, since you can always limit the number of records displayed in the Day List, and they won't get in your way. Once you've answered, The Better Diet Better Diet Analyzer User Manual Syntonic Software Copyright 1990, 1991 by John H. Byrd Page 25 ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Analyzer will display the Week Screen, with the new Week Record. Next to the date will be the number of Day Records summarized in the Week Record. To view your weekly summaries from almost anywhere else in the program, use the pull-down menu and select "Screen/Week List", <F10, S, W>, or <Alt+S, W> or press <Alt+W>. You can return to the Meal or Day Screens by using the pull-down menu or pressing <Alt+M> for Meals or <Alt+D> for Days. CHANGING THE DATE You've learned to keep an ongoing list of food consumption and store lists in daily summaries. What do you do if you want to add items to yesterday's list or change an item? Suppose today is Thursday and you never finished making Wednesday's list? Or, you've come back from vacation with a written list of everything you ate while you were away. (OK, I KNOW you'll NEVER do this, but let's just assume that maybe you did). Can you go back to last week and enter a whole week's worth of new data, right in the middle of everything else? Of course you can. Change the date. Select "Options/Change Date", <F10, O, D>, or <Alt+O, D> or press <F9>. The Better Diet Analyzer will prompt you for the date. Use one of these formats: MM-DD-YY or MM/DD/YY. If the month or day value is less than 10, you can use only one digit. You may also enter only the month and day -- BDA will assume the current year. For instance, if the date is June 1, you can type 6-1 or 06/01/91. Press Enter and The Better Diet Analyzer will change its internal clock and display the selected date's Meal List. You may then make any additions or changes you wish. If you're entering several days of data, as you complete each day's meals save the file <F2> and enter the next date you want to use. To return to the current date, again select "Change Date" and type"today" at the date prompt. It is important to set your computer's DOS clock correctly when running The Better Diet Analyzer. If the program detects what it considers an invalid date (any year before 1989) when it begins running, it will prompt you for the correct date before continuing. Earlier versions of The Better Diet Analyzer kept only seven days of complete Meal Records at a time, and so were limited in the date function. Beginning with Version 3.0, there are virtually no limitations on the date function. And you can keep all the data you enter until the file gets full with 180 days' worth. SAVING AND RETRIEVING FILES As you build a personal food diary, you'll need to save it to disk periodically. You can save your files to disk by selecting "File/Save" in the pull-down menu, <F10, F, S> or <Alt+F, S> or by pressing <F2>. If the file has been previously saved, or was loaded from disk, The Better Diet Better Diet Analyzer User Manual Syntonic Software Copyright 1990, 1991 by John H. Byrd Page 26 ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Analyzer will overwrite it with your changes. If the file hasn't been previously created, the program will prompt you for a name. Name it anything within the DOS conventions. For instance, the name can have no more than 8 characters, and a space is not allowed. Using an extension (the 3 characters after a period) is optional. If you don't use a filename extension, The Better Diet Analyzer will automatically add the default extension of ".DAT". It's a good idea to let the program append this default extension because ".DAT" files are the only ones visible to BDA's directory function. You can also change the name of an existing file that you are editing. Select "File/Save as," <F10, F, A> or <Alt+F, A> or press <Alt+F2>. The Better Diet Analyzer will prompt you for a new name. You can see a directory of all The Better Diet Analyzer's data files in the designated file directory by selecting "File/Directory," <F10, F, D> or <Alt+F, D>. The program will display all files ending with the extension ".DAT." Pressing <Enter> will load and display the highlighted file. If you haven't designated a specific file directory or subdirectory, The Better Diet Analyzer will use the current directory. Selecting and changing the directory or subdirectory for your files will be covered below. ╔════════════════════╗ ║ BUCK.DAT ║ ║ BILL.DAT ║ ║ JOE.DAT ║ ║ HUNTER.DAT ║ ║ CATHY.DAT ║ ║ MIKE.DAT ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ║ ╚════════════════════╝ You can also load a file directly by selecting "File/Load," <F10, F, L> or <Alt+F, L> or by pr ssing <Alt+L>. If any files exist in the current directory with the ".DAT" extension, they will be displayed in the directory list. You can use the cursor arrow keys to highlight a file and load it by striking <Enter>. Or, if you type a file name, The Better Diet Analyzer will begin recording your keystrokes in a file-input prompt. This can be useful if the file you want exists in another subdirectory. In that case, be sure to enter the full path name, such as "c:\mydiet\file.dat." (The ".dat" extension is optional.) You can also auto-load a file with the program by typing its name on the DOS command line when you launch The Better Diet Analyzer. For instance, typing "better3 mydiet" launches the program, and automatically loads the file MYDIET.DAT. It's a good idea to set up The Better Diet Analyzer in its own subdirectory and keep your data files there. That way, the files you want will always be in the current directory. You can, however, designate Better Diet Analyzer User Manual Syntonic Software Copyright 1990, 1991 by John H. Byrd Page 27 ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── another subdirectory as your primary data directory. Select "File/File options" <F10, F, F> or <Alt+F, F> and type a valid full path. If you do designate a data path using File Options, be sure to save that configuration by selecting Options/Save Options <F10, O, S> or <Alt+O, S>. Otherwise, that data path will be good for only your current session with The Better Diet Analyzer. PRINTING YOUR FILES If you want or need a hard copy of what you've eaten, it's very easy to print your data from The Better Diet Analyzer in a variety of formats. You can print data directly from the program onto a printer, or you can print it to an ASCII file for further formatting. The program offers three screen display formats for the nutrients you're tracking, mostly because not all the information will fit on one computer screen. Printing is a bit different. All nutrient information for each food item wil fit on one line, if you print the information sideways on you printer. To do so, you will need a printer that has graphics printing capability. (Most dot matrix and laser printers will do nicely. Daisy-wheel printers won't do at all.) You'll also need a sideways printing utility, which is not included with The Better Diet Analyzer. There are a number of sideways printing utilities available, both commercially and through Shareware. If you use a Shareware program, please register it. If you can't print the data sideways, or don't want to, you can also print it in a narrow format. You can choose between one of two formats: Calories-fat-sodium-cholesterol or Calories-protein-carbohydrates-fat- alcohol. If you choose the Calories-protein-carbohydrates-fat-alcohol format, The Better Diet Analyzer will use two lines to print each entry. The number of grams for each nutrient will be on the first line, and the percentage of calories from each nutrient will be on the line under it. Here's how to print your data using any of the formats: PRINTING SIDEWAYS First, print the data to an ASCII file, then invoke your sideways printing utility to print the ASCII file. This involves an extra couple of steps in outputting your data, but it's worth it because it gives you a complete, convenient hardcopy record of all your data. Better Diet Analyzer User Manual Syntonic Software Copyright 1990, 1991 by John H. Byrd Page 28 ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Select the Print Options menu <F10, P, O> or <Alt+P, O>. The menu looks something like this: ┌────────────────────────────────────┐ │ Show List │ │ (x) Screen (x) Meals │ │ ( ) Combined ( ) Days │ │ ( ) Weeks │ │ ( ) All │ │ │ │ Format │ │ ( ) Wide │ │ (x) Narrow │ │ │ │ Destination │ │ (x) Printer │ │ ( ) File ( ) Append File │ │ │ │ Disk File name │ │ │ └────────────────────────────────────┘ You can navigate around this menu by using the cursor keys, Tab and Shift+Tab (Tab moves the cursor forward, Shift+Tab moves it backward) or the highlighted hot keys. Most of the options in the box work as toggles. When it's highlighted, pressing <Enter> or <Spacebar> selects it if it isn't selected, and unselects it if it is selected. If an option is part of a pair or a group, then only one option can be selected. Selecting one automatically unselects the other(s). Also, the "Combined" option mandates the "Wide" option. If you select "Combined" then "Wide" is automatically selected and can't be changed unless "Combined" is changed. So, select "Combined" <C, Spacebar>, "Wide" is automatically selected. Select "File" <F, Spacebar>. Move to the "Disk File name" area, either by using the cursor keys or pressing <D>. Type in a file name. The default print file extension is ".PRN" which BDA will automatically add if you omit it. Press <ESC> to exit the Print Options menu. If you want, you can save these options by pressing <S>. Now, press <P>, and your current data file will be printed to the disk file you named. If the file already exists and you did not select "Append file" in the Print Options menu, The Better Diet Analyzer will ask if you want to append the information to the end of the existing file, or overwrite it. Once the file has finished printing, select "File/Operating System" <F10, F, O> or <Alt+F, 0>. This will return you to the DOS command line where you can invoke your sideways printing utility, using the disk file name you entered on the Options Menu. Your utility will handle the printing. To return to The Better Diet Analyzer, type "Exit" on the DOS command line. Better Diet Analyzer User Manual Syntonic Software Copyright 1990, 1991 by John H. Byrd Page 29 ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── In order to free up enough RAM to run a sideways printing utility, The Better Diet Analyzer will try to swap itself either to expanded memory or to a disk file. It will look first for expanded memory, which provides the fastest swap time. You'll need at least 500K of expanded memory that meets the LIM 3.2 or 4.0 EMS standard. If that isn't available, The Better Diet Analyzer will check for 500K of free disk space and swap to that, if possible. If you don't have the disk space either, you won't be able to access the DOS command line from within the program. You'll need to exit The Better Diet Analyzer, run the sideways utility, and restart BDA. PRINTING STANDARD FORMAT If you don't want to or can't print sideways, you can print in the "Screen" format or use wide paper in a wide-carriage printer. Printing in the "Screen" format means The Better Diet Analyzer will use the format currently displayed on the screen -- Protein-carbohydrates-fat-alcohol or Fat-sodium-cholesterol. If you select Protein-carbohydrate-fat-alcohol, then it will print both the number of grams and the percentage of calories from each nutrient. On the Print/Options menu select "Screen/Narrow/Printer." Exit the options menu by pressing <ESC>. Save the options, if you want, by pressing <S>, and print the data by pressing <P>. (Be sure your printer is turned on and has paper.) That's all there is to it. OTHER PRINT OPTIONS In addition to choosing whether or not to print sideways, you can also choose how much of your data to print. Under "List" you can choose "Meals," "Days," "Weeks," or "All." Choosing "Meals" will print only the meals for the current date set in the program. If you want to print all your Meal Lists, but no Day or Week list, then you can select each day's date and print the Meal Lists individually. Choosing "Days" prints the Day List, and choosing "Weeks" prints the Week List. Choosing "All" prints the current date's Meal List, the Day List and the Week List. This covers the basics of printing. You can use the options in the Options Menu to configure The Better Diet Analyzer to print its data in almost any format you want. For instance, you could select "Append file" and regularly print your Meal Lists to a running ASCII file. You could then import that file to a spreadsheet or word processor for additional formatting and printing, or you could just print it straight out. Or, there's no reason you have to print anything. The Better Diet Analyzer will keep up to 180 complete Meal Lists in one file, and that's enough to cover up to six months of analysis or more. Better Diet Analyzer User Manual Syntonic Software Copyright 1990, 1991 by John H. Byrd Page 30 ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Customizing the food database ADDING AND EDITING One of the options that makes The Better Diet Analyzer especially useful to anyone using it is the user-friendly Database Editor. Using the editor you can modify the database of more than 1,400 foods to fit your custom needs. Using nutritional information from product labels, food vendors or nutrition books, you can add as many foods as you're likely to need to the database. If you want, you can easily delete foods from the database, and even restore the deleted foods later. You may also use the Database Editor to browse through the database -- it displays all nutritional information about any given food on one screen. To open the Editor select Screen/Edit database, <F10, S, E> or <Alt+S, E> or press <F4>. The Better Diet Analyzer will display the first item in the database, and a menu of hot-key commands -- "A=Add, PgDn/N=Next, PgUp/P=Previous, F=Find, E=Edit, ESC=Quit." These keys should be self- explanatory, but we'll briefly describe them here. ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ Food rutabaga │ │ Comments 1 cup, boiled │ │ Calories 60 │ │ Protein 1.5 │ │ Carbohydrates 13.9 │ │ Fat 0.2 │ │ Alcohol 0.0 │ │ Percentages 9.5 87.7 2.8 0.0 │ │ Sodium 7 │ │ Cholesterol 0 │ │ Source USDA │ │ File Pos 0 │ │ Created by Syntonic │ └──────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ ┌───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ A=Add record PgDn/N=Next PgUp/P=Previous F=Find E=Edit ESC=Quit │ └───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ "Next" and "Previous" allow you to step through food records one at a time. To find an item quickly, press <F> for Find, then enter the food name. The Find utility uses the very same search routines that you learned for entering meals. Just as in entering meals lists, you can use key words in any order to find items in the Database Editor. When you've selected a food, The Better Diet Analyzer will load it into the editor. Press <E> to edit an existing food record. If the record was supplied with The Better Diet Analyzer, the editor won't allow you to edit it. However, you can delete it, and add another record its place with the same name. If you have previously added a food record yourself, then you can edit it as many times as you want. The reason for this distinction is to protect the integrity of The Better Diet Analyzer's primary database. Since the program is Shareware and can be Better Diet Analyzer User Manual Syntonic Software Copyright 1990, 1991 by John H. Byrd Page 31 ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── distributed by one user sharing with another, it's important that the original records not be edited. When you "delete" one of the original food records, it stays in the file but becomes invisible during the program's search routines. The deleted records are easily restored (See "Deleting Food Records," page 33 and "Restoring deleted food records," page 34). The original database records are identified by the line "Created by Syntonic" on the bottom line of the database editor. Records that you add to the database are identified by the line "Created by User." You can add a food to the database by pressing <A>. The Better Diet Analyzer Database Editor will clear its window to be ready for edits. When the editor is in the edit mode, its box borders will be drawn in a different color (on EGA/VGA color monitors) and the word "Edit" will appear at the upper left. Also, at the bottom of the editor box will be the words: "ESC=Exit w/o saving F2=Save changes." You need to save your changes only once per record. Make all the changes necessary, then press <F2>. Once you press <F2>, the editor leaves its edit mode, and to make additional changes you'll need to press <E> and enter the edit mode again. Once you've made all your edits to an individual record, press <F2> to save, or <ESC> to exit without saving. Then you can add another record, search for and edit another record or exit the editor. When you exit the Database Editor by pressing <ESC>, all changes are saved to disk and The Better Diet Analyzer updates its search table, which may take anywhere from less than a second to several seconds, depending on the speed of your hardware. When you add or edit foods in the database, you should follow a few guidelines. The first four words in the "Food" field (the first line of the editor) will be used as search key words. Also, almost all words in the "Comments" field (second line) will be used. Certain words, such as "and, package, ounce, lb., etc.) aren't used as search keys. So any word you might use to find your record should be included either in the first four words of the first line, or on the second line. More than four words can be used on the first line -- but only the first four will go into the search table. The "Food" field will hold up to 40 characters, and the "Comment" field will hold up to 30 characters. The other fields in the Database Editor are: o CALORIES. Enter the number of calories in whole numbers. o PROTEIN. Enter the number of protein grams to the nearest 1/10 (one decimal place). o CARBOHYDRATES. Enter the number of carbohydrate grams to the nearest 1/10. o FAT. Enter the number of fat grams to the nearest 1/10. o ALCOHOL. Enter the number of alcohol grams to the nearest 1/10. Better Diet Analyzer User Manual Syntonic Software Copyright 1990, 1991 by John H. Byrd Page 32 ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── o PERCENTAGES. This is a calculated field, whose values will be displayed after you save <F2> the database entry. You cannot access this field directly. o SODIUM. Enter the number of sodium milligrams in whole numbers. If the number is not available, enter "N.A.", "na" or "NA." o CHOLESTEROL. Enter the number of cholesterol milligrams in whole numbers. If the number is not available, enter "N.A.", "na" or "NA." o SOURCE. Enter up to 10 characters describing the source of nutritional data, such as "USDA" or "Mfr." o FILE POS. A calculated field that you cannot access. o CREATED BY:. A calculated field that you cannot access. In each of the fields that accept numerical values (calories, protein, etc.) only the numeric characters (0 through 9) and a decimal point will be accepted. You may type "650 calories" or "9.7 grams," and the alphabetical characters will simply be ignored. USING THE RECIPE BUILDER The Recipe Builder screen in The Better Diet Analyzer allows you to quickly and easily analyze the nutritional content of your favorite recipes and add them permanently to the database. To enter the Recipe Builder, use the pull-down menus and select Screen/Recipe Builder <F10, S, R> or <Alt+S, R>. Or use the hot keys, <Alt+R>. BDA will instantly switch to recipe mode and display an empty Recipe Builder Screen. This screen looks very similar to the Meal, Day and Week screens. In the upper left it displays "RECIPE BUILDER" and in the upper right it displays "ESC=Exit Recipe Builder F2=Save Recipe". Enter the recipe ingredients just as you would a meal in the Meal Screen. If you make a mistake after an entry is recorded, highlight the entry using <F3>, then delete it <Delete> and re-enter it. When you've added all the ingredients, save them by pressing <F2>. The Recipe Builder will pop up a dialog box asking "How many portions will this make?" Enter the number of portions (not portion sizes) and press <ENTER>. The Recipe Builder will enter your recipe into the Database Editor and calculate all nutritional values for you. The Editor will pop up with your data in it, but the Food Name and Comments fields left blank. Give your recipe a name you'll remember (see "HINTS ON ENTERING DATA," page 35). Put the portion size in the comments field and press <F2> again to save the recipe in the database. You can exit the Database Editor by pressing <ESC>. If you want to add another recipe before leaving the Recipe Builder, clear the screen by typing <Alt+R>. In fact, you can clear the Recipe Builder screen at any time by typing <Alt+R>. Better Diet Analyzer User Manual Syntonic Software Copyright 1990, 1991 by John H. Byrd Page 33 ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Press <ESC> or <Alt+X> to exit the Recipe Builder and return to the Meal or Day screens. DELETING FOOD RECORDS You can delete records from the database, either individually or in groups. First, enter the Database Editor using the <F4> key. To delete an individual food record, enter it into the edit window by using the Find function <F>. When you press the <Delete> key, the record will be deleted. You can delete a whole group at once, as long as the group has at least one key word in common. A perfect example is deleting a particular brand name. For instance, Lance crackers are included in the database because they are manufactured in Charlotte (just like The Better Diet Analyzer), and they are available throughout the Southeast. But they may not be available in your area. To delete all Lance products, (or any other group), display a list of them all by using the Find function and typing "Lance." When the list is displayed, highlight all names in the list by holding down one of the Shift keys and moving the highlight bar with the cursor keys. Or, use the <F6> key and the cursor keys. Now, when you press <Delete>, all highlighted foods will be deleted. You could also use this method to delete other groups, not necessarily brand names. For instance, you could enter "frozen dinner" and BDA would display all foods in the database with those words -- at least 30-something records. Highlight them all using the <Shift> (or <F6>) and cursor keys, then press <Delete>, and they're gone. If the record you selected to delete is a User Record (you, or someone else added it to the program), then it will be deleted permanently from the database. If the record was a Syntonic Record, it will only remain deleted until you or someone else restores it. When you delete one of the original foods from the database, the record remains intact in the FOOD.MDF file. But BDA acts as if it's not there because it can't see it in its lookup table. The program also puts a reference to all deleted records in the file FOOD.RSC. If for any reason you need to reconstruct the lookup table by using the utility TABLES.EXE, BDA will look in FOOD.RSC to see which foods to leave out of the table. Assuming FOOD.RSC is present on the disk, TABLES will display the message "Using resource file" while it is running. USING MAKERSC.EXE And this brings up the question, what if FOOD.RSC isn't present on the disk? Or it's been changed in some way. Then you'll just have to put it back. Do this by running MAKERSC.EXE. Just type "makersc" at the DOS command line. The utility will remake the resource file, but it won't remember any deletions you made. (They were in the missing FOOD.RSC file, remember?) All this does is create a separate index of all database records where BDA can pigeon-hole any deletions you make. Better Diet Analyzer User Manual Syntonic Software Copyright 1990, 1991 by John H. Byrd Page 34 ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Normally, you won't need to worry about MAKERSC.EXE. It's just there in case FOOD.RSC turns up missing. (It happens.) RESTORING DELETED FOOD RECORDS To restore all deletions, run TABLES.EXE with the Restore switch enabled by typing "tables /r" at the DOS command line. The Better Diet Analyzer will reconstruct the lookup table with all references intact. Should you copy and share The Better Diet Analyzer, you must restore the deletions before doing so. USING TABLES.EXE The Better Diet Analyzer uses a lookup table for its database searches. If at any time this table becomes corrupted, The Better Diet Analyzer will be unable to search its database. You should suspect table corruption if The Better Diet Analyzer fails to find food items you know are in the database. If that happens, run the utility program TABLES.EXE by typing TABLES while in the directory that contains the file FOOD.MDF. TABLES will reconstruct all key words and tables. When you launch TABLES.EXE you should see something like this: ┌───────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ Tables Version 1.0 Copyright (c) 1991 by John H. Byrd │ └───────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ ╒══════════════════════════════════════════╕ │ │ │ Making tables . . . │ │ Using resource file │ │ Number of records: 1410 │ │ Number read: 110 │ │ Number inactive: 2 │ │ Keywords: 265 │ │ XRefs: 517 │ ├──────────────────────────────────────────┤ │ │ ╘══════════════════════════════════════════╛ The second line will read "Using resource file" if the file FOOD.RSC is present. If the file is not present, or you set the Restore switch by typing /r at the DOS prompt, the line will read "Not using resource file." The third line will show the total number of food records included in the database (including deleted ones). The fourth line ("Number read") shows TABLES' progress as it works through the database. This number should increase rapidly, several numbers per second. The fifth line ("Number inactive") shows the number of records that have been permanently deactivated. When you delete a record that was Better Diet Analyzer User Manual Syntonic Software Copyright 1990, 1991 by John H. Byrd Page 35 ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── entered by a User, as opposed to a record supplied with the program, then it is permanently deactivated rather than recorded in FOOD.RSC. These records cannot be restored. The sixth and seventh lines show the progress in building the keywords and cross-references in the lookup table. When TABLES.EXE completes the last record, it will report: Tables are completed Saving table files . . . When the files are saved, TABLES will report Press a key to continue ... Press any key and the screen will clear. The lookup table has been fully reconstructed. HINTS ON ENTERING DATA The Better Diet Analyzer is designed to be as user-friendly as possible. You don't need to worry about food categories or the order in which you enter names. Simply enter the name you think the food will be recognized by, for instance, "fried chicken breast." But "chicken breast, fried" or even "fried breast" will work just as well. You could even enter "fried" individually, "chicken" or "breast" and receive a list of items from which to choose. Generally, The Better Diet Analyzer will recognize almost any food description, but a few tips may help you construct your queries more effectively. The Better Diet Analyzer recognizes up to four words in your query, and ignores any others beyond that. In other words, "fried chicken breast, KFC crispy" would mean the same thing to The Better Diet Analyzer as "fried chicken breast, KFC." (If you're looking for Kentucky Fried Chicken Extra Crispy, be sure to use the right key words, for instance: "KFC breast crispy.") It doesn't matter what order you enter the words. Also, The Better Diet Analyzer is case-insensitive -- you don't need to worry about whether the words are capitalized or not. You don't need to enter four words. One or two words will usually do. If The Better Diet Analyzer can't find a match for your query it will display the message: "Food not found." In this case, try the query using a different description. It usually helps to be less specific. If you had entered "Campbell's chicken noodle" as your query and The Better Diet Analyzer couldn't find what you wanted, then try "soup." Remember, if your query fails, try a more general approach. Better Diet Analyzer User Manual Syntonic Software Copyright 1990, 1991 by John H. Byrd Page 36 ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── While The Better Diet Analyzer doesn't care about capitalization, it does care about spelling, up to a point. At least the first five letters -- if there are that many -- must be spelled correctly in each word. The Better Diet Analyzer's food descriptions and portion descriptions are designed to be as helpful as possible. Whenever possible, I've used volume, rather than weight measures, because it is easier for most people to judge a 1-cup portion as opposed to, say, a 4-ounce portion. Whenever using brand names, I've tried to include the measure for the total package. For instance, most canned goods are listed with the total for the can -- it's much easier for most people to estimate whether they've eaten 1/3 of a can of something rather than a half cup. Even microwave popcorn is listed for the whole bag (which is usually around 8 cups!) rather than by the cup. Some manufacturers are inconsistent in their listing of portion sizes. For instance, a portion of one product may be described as "1 ounce" or "1/12 cake," while the portion size of another, similar product is described as "1 1/4 ounce" or "1/14 cake." Whenever possible in cases like this, Syntonic has tried to translate the manufacturer's listed portion size and nutritional contents to those that are consistent across product lines. An exception to the volume versus weight policy is meat. Almost all information on meat is provided by the ounce or the gram. I've tried to consistently use 4 ounce portions. It may help to purchase an inexpensive kitchen scale as an aid in estimating meat portions. Another point is worth noting: fluid ounces and weight ounces are not equivalent. To help avoid confusion, I've used the term "fluid ounces" when appropriate in portion descriptions. Better Diet Analyzer User Manual Syntonic Software Copyright 1990, 1991 by John H. Byrd Page 37 ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Accessories and features USING THE BETTER DIET ANALYZER'S CALCULATOR A handy, pop-up calculator is included in The Better Diet Analyzer for your convenience. The calculator is modeled on standard pocket models and operates in a similar fashion. Activate the calculator by choosing "Screen/Calculator" from the pull- down menu, <F10, S, U> or <Alt+S, U>, or press <Alt+C>. Use the numeral keys at the top of the keyboard, or press <Num Lock> and use the cursor keypad keys. To return to your program, press <ESC>. The calculator's last balance will remain displayed in the upper right corner of the screen. Any time you return to the calculator, either through the pull-down menu or by pressing <Alt+C>, the balance will be re-entered into the calculator. To clear the calculator at any time, press <C>. You can see a summary of the calculator's commands and keys (+, -, *, /, =, Clear) by pressing <F10> while the calculator is active. Or, access the on-line Help <F1> or <Alt+H>. If the calculator is active, the context- sensitive Help File will load the pertinent calculator help screen. If the calculator is not active, you can access the calculator help screen through the Help Index <Alt+F1>. USING HELP If at anytime you need a reminder to help navigate the program, you can access the built-in Help File by pressing <F1> or <Alt+H>. The Better Diet Analyzer will pop up a context-sensitive help screen with the information you're likely to need. You can also see an index of Help topics by pressing <Alt+F1>. Then, just use the cursor arrow keys to highlight the topic you want and press <Enter>. The Better Diet Analyzer has context-sensitive help on-line at all times. To receive help instantly, press <F1> or <Alt+H>. A context- sensitive help screen will pop up, offering help on what to do in the current area of the program. To see an index of help topics, press <Alt+F1>. Highlight the topic you want and press <Enter>. The help screens are contained in a file named BETTER.HLP. If this file is not present in the same subdirectory as the program, then The Better Diet Analyzer will simply ignore any requests for help. If you ever try to access Help and nothing happens, check to be sure BETTER.HLP is in the right subdirectory. SCREEN COLORS The Better Diet Analyzer runs well on both color and monochrome monitors. The program's default color set was designed for an attractive display on most EGA or VGA color monitors. If the program detects a monochrome monitor it will switch to a default monochrome display set that uses reverse video and underlining to distinguish screen elements. Better Diet Analyzer User Manual Syntonic Software Copyright 1990, 1991 by John H. Byrd Page 38 ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── If you don't like the default colors, or they aren't suitable for your monitor, you can change them. Select Options/Change Colors <F10, O, C> or <Alt+O, C>. The Better Diet Analyzer will pop up a color menu that looks something like this: ┌─────────────────────────┐ │ Background │ │ Shadows │ │ Lists │ │ Scroll Bar │ │ Database Editor │ │ Titles │ │ Pull-down/Pop-up menus │ │ Hot Letter │ │ Menu Highlight │ │ Messages │ └─────────────────────────┘ You can select the screen element either by moving the scroll bar with the cursor keys or by pressing the highlighted hot key. Here's a description of each menu line: BACKGROUND: The screen color at the top of the screen and around the edges of the main list boxes. This is the area where the date, file name and each list total is displayed. Changing this color changes both the background and foreground (character colors) as selected on the color selection menu. SHADOWS: The translucent drop shadows below and to the right of pop-up boxes and screens. LISTS: The Meal List, Day List, Week List, Recipe Builder and Pick List colors. Choosing this selects both the background and the foreground. SCROLL BAR: The scroll bar used when selecting items on any of the list screens (Meal, Day, Week, Recipe Builder, Pick List), NOT the menu scroll bars. DATABASE EDITOR: The background and foreground for all entries in the main foods database. TITLES: The bar across the top of each list screen, describing each column listing (Calories, Protein, etc.). PULL-DOWN/POP-UP MENUS: The main text and background of all the menus, as well as the Help Screen and calculator. HOT LETTER: The highlighted letter on all the menus that denotes a hot key. MENU HIGHLIGHT: The moving scroll bar on each menu that is operated by the cursor keys. Better Diet Analyzer User Manual Syntonic Software Copyright 1990, 1991 by John H. Byrd Page 39 ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── MESSAGES: The foreground and background of all message screens, but not the Help Screen. Once a screen element is selected, a color selection menu will pop up. If the screen element isn't already visible, The Better Diet Analyzer will make it visible. Select a color by using the cursor keys. Press <Enter> and the color will be instantly updated and visible on-screen. To exit "Change Color," press <ESC> until all menus have left the screen. If you changed any colors, The Better Diet Analyzer will prompt you to save the changes. Answer yes or no by pressing <Y> or <N>. If you elect to save the changes they will be saved in the file BETTER.CFG. Better Diet Analyzer User Manual Syntonic Software Copyright 1990, 1991 by John H. Byrd Page 40 ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Common Problems No matter how extensive the documentation, you can't cover everything, or explain it adequately, or put it where a user will find it. If you have a problem, we want to solve it. Please call or write. Meanwhile, here are the solutions to a number of problems we've heard about: Problem The program won't load. Solution Check to be sure that these files are in the same subdirectory as the BETTER3.EXE program file: FOOD.MDF, FOOD.MDK, FOOD.MDX. The program will not run if it cannot find these files. If the files are available and the program still won't load, check that adequate RAM is available. The Better Diet Analyzer needs 160K bytes free (in addition to the amount of RAM used by DOS, which can range from 50K to 100K, depending on the version of DOS). Remove any TSR (Terminate and Stay Resident) programs, if any, and try running The Better Diet Analyzer again. Problem You have each day's meals in a different file and you can't load more than one day's meals at a time. Solution Put all your meals in ONE file. The Better Diet Analyzer is designed to keep track of multiple days at a time and will keep them all in one file. Each time you save your data file, BDA will automatically create or update a daily record that encapsulates all the meals entered under the date displayed at the top left of the screen. These Day Records are kept in the Day List, which is displayed on the Day Screen. Problem Nothing happens, or you get an unexpected response when you try to enter a meal. At any rate, the regular Meal Screen input box doesn't appear as it should when you begin typing. Solution Be sure you're in the Meal Screen or the Recipe Builder. The Better Diet Analyzer won't accept meal input except in the Meal Screen or the Recipe Builder. To switch to the Meal Screen, press <Alt-M>. Press <Alt+R> to switch to the Recipe Builder. Problem The Better Diet Analyzer returns an unexpected food from its database. In other words, you enter "fried chicken" and BDA responds with data on zucchini. Better Diet Analyzer User Manual Syntonic Software Copyright 1990, 1991 by John H. Byrd Page 41 ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Solution Your index table has become corrupted, either by inadvertently overwriting the index files or by trying to add data to the database when there is insufficient RAM for the program to operate efficiently. The table can be reformed by running the stand-alone utility program TABLES.EXE, supplied with The Better Diet Analyzer. Exit The Better Diet Analyzer and type "Tables" at the DOS prompt. Reconstruction is automatic, taking from several seconds to several minutes, depending on your hardware. Problem: You can't access Help. Solution: Make sure the file BETTER.HLP is in the same subdirectory as the BETTER3.EXE program file. If the help file is not available, The Better Diet Analyzer will simply ignore any keystrokes requesting help. Another, less common problem, can be caused by insufficient free RAM. If not enough memory is available, BDA will also ignore help keystrokes. If you have loaded an unusually large meal data file, this problem may be corrected by loading The Better Diet Analyzer without the file. Problem The highlighter won't work properly when you're trying to select a group of Day Records for inclusion in a Week Record. Solution Use the numerical keypad cursor keys with <Num Lock> OFF. If the highlighter still doesn't work properly, or you don't want to turn <Num Lock> OFF, position the highlight on the first record of the group and press <F6>. Now move the highlight bar to the last record and press <Enter>. Better Diet Analyzer User Manual Syntonic Software Copyright 1990, 1991 by John H. Byrd Page 42 ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Using Shortcuts We've covered the basics of using The Better Diet Analyzer to track your daily food consumption and build Day Lists and Week Lists. The pull- down menus make it easy to get almost anywhere. As you gain experience and confidence, you'll probably find it quicker to use the hot key combinations. They're all listed beside each menu operation, so you'll soon see them often enough to learn the ones you use. For reference, all the hot-key combinations are listed below. THE BETTER DIET ANALYZER FAST-KEY SUMMARY The following keys are assigned these functions: F1 Activate the context-sensitive Help Screen F2 Save file (user file or database file) F3 Activate the highlighter F4 Activate the Database Editor F5 Toggle between grams and percentage-of-calories display F6 Extend highlighter (select group of records) F9 Change the date F10 Activate the pull-down menus F10 Display calculator commands (while calculator is active) Alt+F1 Access the Help Index Alt+F2 Save a user file under a new name (Save as) Alt+F5 Toggle between the protein-carbs-fat display and the fat-sodium- cholesterol display Alt+C Pop up and activate the calculator Alt+D See the Day Screen Alt+L Load a user file Alt+M See the MealScreen Alt+R Load the Recipe Builder Alt+W See the Week Screen Alt+X Quit The Better Diet Analyzer Delete Delete highlighted records (Meals, Days and Weeks screens) Delete Delete food record (database editor) Insert Activate Input boxes Insert Create a Week Record Better Diet Analyzer User Manual Syntonic Software Copyright 1990, 1991 by John H. Byrd Page 43 ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Appendix A: Data format PORTIONS Foods in The Better Diet Analyzer's database are listed in standardized portion sizes whenever possible. For fluid measures, the portion sizes are 1 teaspoon, 1 tablespoon, 1/2 cup (or 4 fluid ounces) and 1 cup (or 8 fluid ounces). Non-processed meats are generally listed in 4 ounce (or 1/4 pound) portions. The exception is poultry, which is generally listed by the piece (drumstick, thigh, etc.). The poultry piece sizes are averages recommended by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Some nutrition sources use 3-ounce and 100-gram (or 3.5-ounce) portions for meats. I've found that 4 ounces more closely resembles the actual portion sizes that real people eat, and is easier to calculate besides. (If you buy a pound of meat, you can get 4 4-ounce portions. How many 100-gram portions can you get from a pound?) On the subject of portion sizes, I've noticed that some processors will use what I consider odd measures -- 1/15th of a cake, or 3 fluid ounces. I especially dislike these measures when the caloric total is less than 100. I sometimes suspect that the portion size was chosen simply to get the calorie total down into two digits. Don't get me wrong -- I'm all for smaller portion sizes, particularly if you're trying to reduce calories or fat. Eating less is always a recommended way to go. But to make it easier to compare foods, and to learn more easily about the relative merits of various foods, I think it's best to stick to standard measures. So, whenever I've come across a nonstandard measure I've adjusted the processor's data to reflect the standard measures I've tried to use throughout The Better Diet Analyzer's database. CALCULATING PERCENTAGES Almost anyone who's made a serious study of their eating habits has learned to do a thumbnail calculation of fat in the diet. The commonly used rule is that one gram of fat equals 9 calories. So, to determine percentage of fat in the diet, multiply the number of fat grams by 9, and divide that by the total number of calories consumed. For instance, assume you ate 2,000 calories during the day and calculated that you consumed 60 grams of fat. The percentage of calories from fat in your diet that day would be 27 percent. In other words, 540 of the calories you ate came from fat (9 calories per gram X 60 grams), which is 27 percent of 2,000 (540 / 2,000 = 0.27). The important thing to remember about this rule of thumb is that it is only a rule of thumb. It's imprecise. That becomes apparent whenever you try to track more than the fat calories in your diet. Just as the rule of thumb says a fat gram equals 9 calories, so it says that protein and carbohydrate grams each equal 4 calories. Alcohol grams equal 7 calories. Better Diet Analyzer User Manual Syntonic Software Copyright 1990, 1991 by John H. Byrd Page 44 ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── But if you total up the fat, protein, carbohydrate and alcohol grams in any given food and multiply them by their respective multipliers, you'll find that they rarely total a related calorie content, but they frequently come close. Why is that? The energy value of the fat, protein or carbohydrate varies from food to food, depending mostly on how your body digests and metabolizes the food. The energy values we use today were first established in 1900 by W.O. Atwater, a researcher at the Agricultural Research Station in Storrs, Connecticut. Atwater measured the energy contents of many different foods using a device called a bomb calorimeter. A bomb calorimeter measures the heat energy released from a food during combustion. Atwater also measured the energy content of the feces of human subjects who had eaten a known diet to determine how many calories passed through the body unused. Atwater's studies have since been repeated and refined, so that nutritionists today have a good understanding of the calorie content of various foods. From these studies we've drawn the 9-calories-from-a-gram- of-fat rule. As long as you're talking about relatively high concentrations of fat -- such as in meat, milk, and other animal products -- the 9 grams rule holds up extremely well. Atwater's tables assign 9.5 calories per gram of fat to most raw animal fats, and 9.02 calories to the amount humans can derive from that gram. But there is actually less energy in a gram of vegetable fat. For instance a highly concentrated vegetable fat like margarine has 9.3 raw calories, but only 8.8 calories per gram are absorbed during digestion. In less concentrated form, for instance, whole wheat flour, only 8.4 calories per gram are available during digestion. Similar variances hold for carbohydrates and protein. A gram of protein from a highly concentrated source like meat supplies 4.3 calories to the body. But beans supply only 3.5 calories per gram of protein, and a poorly-digested vegetable product like wheat bran supplies only 1.8 calories per gram of protein. A gram of the carbohydrate in wheat supplies a hair less than 4 calories, while a gram of the carbohydrate in most meats supplies just under 3.9 calories. Overall, the 9-4-4 rule of thumb holds up surprisingly well when applied generally over the wide variety of foods present in an average diet. One reason for this is that some discrepancies cancel each other out. But the biggest reason is that the largest sources of each of the major components in our diet -- animal fat, animal protein and grain carbohydrate -- come the closest to actually matching the respective 9, 4 and 4 calories per gram. In fact, if you total the number of grams of fat, protein and carbohydrate reported by The Better Diet Analyzer during a whole day and multiply them by their respective multipliers, you'll find in most cases Better Diet Analyzer User Manual Syntonic Software Copyright 1990, 1991 by John H. Byrd Page 45 ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── that the total comes within 5 percent of the number of calories reported in the calorie column. Not a big difference, but it can be annoying when you're tabulating totals in a program like The Better Diet Analyzer. It can lead to a list of foods, calories and percentages that never total up to 100 percent. The protein, carbohydrate, fat and alcohol components comprise 97 percent of the calories in Food A, but 103% of the calories in Food B. Where do the mystery 3 percent of calories in Food A come from? And do those extra 3 percent in Food B REALLY count? Well, we know that 100 percent of the calories in any food HAVE TO come from protein, carbohydrates, fat or alcohol, or some combination of them all. So we start from the assumption that every food has 100 percent of its calories present and accounted for -- and no more -- and work backward from there. We could take Atwater's charts and build a lookup table that would assign more precise caloric values to each food. But, how do you get the precise data for, say, Morton's Frozen Beef Pot Pie? And, assuming you could, the program would be so big and slow it probably wouldn't run on any computer you or I could buy. Fortunately, a rather simple solution works surprisingly well. BDA deals with the problem by calculating percentage-of-calorie totals using the popular 9-4-4 rule of thumb to reach a "virtual" total calorie figure. For instance, to calculate the percentage of calories from protein, carbohydrates and fat in four ounces of lean sirloin steak, BDA uses the total amount of each component, as listed by the USDA: 34.4 grams of protein, 0 grams of carbohydrates and 10.3 grams of fat. Multiplying these totals by 4, 4 and 9 respectively, BDA tabulates a virtual total of 230.3 calories. This is quite close to the actual 240 calories reported by the USDA for the steak's energy content -- it's about 4 percent off, in fact. BDA reports the 240 calories as the steak's caloric value, but uses the virtual total of 230.3 to calculate the percent of each macro nutrient. Over a large body of data, errors this small tend to cancel themselves. For instance, the average variance between the two calorie totals for all the 1,400 items in BDA's standard database is only 0.06 percent, or less than 1 calorie in 1,000. Nonetheless, the percentage of calorie figures reported by The Better Diet Analyzer are only approximations, and should be regarded as such. Better Diet Analyzer User Manual Syntonic Software Copyright 1990, 1991 by John H. Byrd Page 46 ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Appendix B: Nutritional guidelines CORONARY HEART DISEASE Once you have an adequate picture of your diet, you can decide if you should change it. Chances are, you'll decide you do need a change. Otherwise, you wouldn't be using a program like The Better Diet Analyzer. Most people will decide to reduce calories. After all, in an affluent society it's far too easy to get all the food you want. If you've decided to modify your diet because of your weight, you have a lot of company. An estimated 34 million Americans, or 26 percent of the adult population, are overweight, as measured by standardized weight tables. While reducing calories will certainly lead to weight loss (assuming activity levels and calorie-expenditures aren't also reduced), you can make further adjustments in your diet to reflect current knowledge about diet and health. And who knows, altering the composition of macro-nutrients (protein, carbohydrates and fats) in your diet may actually make it easier for you to lose weight. It's been known for some time that increased levels of cholesterol in the blood are associated with atherosclerosis and heart disease. Long-term studies, such as the Framingham Heart Study in the United States and the Helsinki Heart Study in Finland have established that diets high in fats, and in particular, saturated fats, are associated with elevated blood cholesterol. Further studies and trials around the world have provided substantial evidence that lowering the total fat and saturated fat in the diet will lead to lower cholesterol levels and significantly lowered risks of heart disease. How do you know if your cholesterol level is too high? And how will you know when it's low enough? You can learn your blood cholesterol level by having it tested by a competent laboratory. It's best that you also have the results interpreted by your medical doctor. As will be clear in moment, a good assessment of your personal risk of heart disease may well depend on more than knowing just one number. Don't assume that just because your cholesterol tests "below 200" that you're free and clear. You probably already have had your cholesterol tested. In 1988 the National Cholesterol Education Program Expert Panel on Detection, Evaluation and Treatment of High Blood Cholesterol in Adults recommended that all Americans over age 20 have their serum cholesterol measured at least every five years. Now, more Americans than ever before know their serum cholesterol levels. Screening programs have been conducted in work places, supermarkets and shopping malls. As a result of the latest longitudinal studies on cholesterol levels and heart disease risks, the National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP) concluded that a total cholesterol level of 200 mg per deciliter of body mass posed an "average" risk for heart disease for Americans. This means that if your total serum cholesterol level is 200, then you have an average risk of developing heart disease -- assuming no other risk factors. Better Diet Analyzer User Manual Syntonic Software Copyright 1990, 1991 by John H. Byrd Page 47 ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Serum cholesterol is only one of several risk factors that make an individual more or less prone to developing heart disease. Medical authorities divide the major risk factors into those that aren't modifiable, and those over which you have at least partial control. Those which you can't control are advanced age, the male sex and a family history of heart disease (a definite heart attack or sudden death in a parent or sibling before the age of 55). The risk factors than be modified, or at least influenced in some way, are cigarette smoking, high blood pressure, elevated cholesterol, diabetes and overweight (30 percent or more over the ideal weight). Some authorities also include high stress levels or a stress-prone personality type among the modifiable risk factors. Non-modifiable Modifiable Advanced age Cigarette smoking Male sex High blood pressure Family history of High cholesterol heart disease Diabetes Overweight The NCEP characterized total serum cholesterol levels below 200 as "desirable." Heart disease risk continues to drop, however, as cholesterol levels drop well below 200. The Multiple Risk Factor Intervention Trial found evidence of changes in the risk of premature death even as cholesterol levels were brought down to 160 mg. per deciliter. A number of studies indicate that, at the higher cholesterol levels, there is a 2 percent reduction in premature death from heart disease for each 1 percent reduction in cholesterol level. Total serum cholesterol level is not the only measure of heart-disease risk found in a blood test. Also very important is the composition of the cholesterol in the blood. Particularly dangerous are high levels of low- density lipoprotein (LDL), popularly called the "bad cholesterol." Elevated levels of high-density lipoprotein (HDL) or the "good cholesterol" have been associated with a protective effect on the arteries and reduced coronary risk. The NCEP recommended treatment with diet and/or drugs for individuals with LDL levels above 160 mg/dL and no heart disease and fewer than 2 other risk factors, or an LDL level above 130 mg and with heart disease or 2 or more other risk factors. (Note that these numbers are for the level of LDL cholesterol in the blood, NOT for the total serum cholesterol reading.) Guidelines of the National Cholesterol Education Program: Category Total cholesterol level Desirable ............less than 200 Borderline ...........200 to 239 High .................above 240 Better Diet Analyzer User Manual Syntonic Software Copyright 1990, 1991 by John H. Byrd Page 48 ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── A DIET TO REDUCE YOUR HEART ATTACK RISK It is not a large step from the recognition that diet plays a major role in heart disease risk to developing guidelines for a diet that reduces an individual's risk. A number of dietary guidelines have been published, which fall into three basic categories: 1) Dietary goals for the general population; 2) accepted medical dietary treatments for specific disorders and 3) experimental diets. The first category, dietary goals for the general population, is the one we'll deal with here. Many similar recommendations have been made by accepted authorities for improving the American diet. These recommendations reflect a somewhat moderate view toward dietary change: They usually require only a moderate modification of an individual's present diet and so are fairly likely to be followed. Basically, most dietary recommendations urge Americans and other industrialized consumers to reduce the fat, cholesterol and protein in their diets and to increase the complex carbohydrates. Some of the first broad dietary recommendations for Americans were contained in the Dietary Goals for the United States, published in 1977 following research under the direction of the U.S. Senate's Select Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs. The goals recommend a diet whose calories are 12 percent protein, 58 percent carbohydrates and 30 percent fat. The goals also recommended that cholesterol consumption should be reduced to an average of 300 mg a day. At the time of the recommendation (1977), the typical American diet was 12 percent protein, 46 percent carbohydrate and 42 percent fat, and included 450 mg of cholesterol. ┌────────────┐ ┌────────────┐ │ Protein │ │ Protein │ │ 12 % │ │ 12 % │ ├────────────┤ ├────────────┤ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ Fat │ │ │ │ 30 % │ │ Fat │ │ │ │ 42 % │ ├────────────┤ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ ├────────────┤ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │Carbohydrate│ │Carbohydrate│ │ │ │ │ │ 46 % │ │ 58 % │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ └────────────┘ └────────────┘ American Diet Dietary Goals for the U.S. Better Diet Analyzer User Manual Syntonic Software Copyright 1990, 1991 by John H. Byrd Page 49 ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── To break the Dietary Goals down even further, of the 30 percent of your calories from fat, no more than 10 percent should come from saturated fat, 10 percent should come from polyunsaturated fats and 10 percent from mono-unsaturated fats. Saturated fats are generally animal fats, vegetable fats that have been processed so they are solid or semi-solid at room temperature, and so- called tropical oils, such as coconut oil and palm oil. Mono-unsaturated fats are found in some vegetable oils, such as olive oil. And polyunsaturated oils are mostly vegetable oils that are liquid at room temperature. As for the carbohydrates, the goals recommend that only 10 percent should come from processed sugars, while 48 percent should come from complex carbohydrates and "naturally occurring" sugars. It's worth noting that the major shift that the Goals urge in the American diet (indeed, in the industrialized world diet in general) is from fat to carbohydrates. Notice that the protein allotment doesn't change from what Americans are already consuming. There are several reasons for the emphasis on carbohydrates. First, protein is a relatively expensive food, compared to complex carbohydrates -- steak, or even chicken, cost more than bread. Second, your body only needs so much protein for rebuilding and repairing muscle tissue and carrying on normal body functions. Studies have placed this need for adults at 0.8 grams per kilogram (2.2 pounds) of body weight for adults, or about 3.6 grams per 10 pounds. Growing children and athletes in training need somewhat more. Carbohydrates are your body's primary source of glycogen and glucose, two sources of fuel for your muscles and central nervous system. Complex carbohydrates (in other words, non-sugars) come from any variety of fruits and vegetables and so provide important minerals and vitamins needed in the diet. Finally, carbohydrates provide the most bulk of all the food groups, and they are the only group that provides any significant dietary fiber. If you eat only as much protein as you need, as little fat as is reasonably possible, and the remainder of your calories as carbohydrates, you have a good chance of providing your body with the fuel, fiber and nutrients you need during the day. The Dietary Goals' 30-percent fat restriction has become the more or less official dietary standard of the medical establishment. Very similar guidelines have been adopted by the American Heart Association, the American Diabetes Association, the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, the National Cancer Institute, the National Academy of Sciences and the National Cholesterol Education Program Expert Panel. Better Diet Analyzer User Manual Syntonic Software Copyright 1990, 1991 by John H. Byrd Page 50 ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── It should be noted that the NCEP went a step further for individuals with serum cholesterol levels above 200 mg/dl. The panel recommended even more restriction, with saturated fats comprising no more than 7 percent of calories and cholesterol consumption reduced to 200 mg a day. Interestingly, the panel suggested that TOTAL fat calories could remain at 30 percent since "very low fat intakes have low satiety value and often are not well accepted." But it added that a reduction to "near 20 percent will facilitate weight reduction and a decrease in saturated fatty acid intake for some patients." The Better Diet Analyzer can be useful in determining how closely your diet approximates these recommendations. While the current version of the program does not analyze for saturated or unsaturated fats, or complex or simple carbohydrates, it will give you a quick and easy calculation of total fats and total carbohydrates. The 30 percent fat rule is fast becoming a sort of gold standard in dietary guidelines. But it's not the last word. More radical approaches urge even greater reductions in fat consumption. For instance, the well-known Pritikin Longevity Centers, founded by the late Nathan Pritikin, advocate a 10-percent-fat diet and no more than 100 mg per day of cholesterol. The Pritikin diet differs from the Dietary Goals recommendations primarily in a more stringent restriction of fat. Pritikin recommended about the same amount in protein consumption (10 to 15 percent versus the Dietary Goals' 12 percent), with the vast majority of calories (75 to 80 percent) coming from carbohydrates. The ultra-low-fat torch has largely been passed since Pritikin's death to Dean Ornish, a cardiologist at the University of California School of Medicine in San Francisco. In 1990, Ornish made the first published report of actual reversal of coronary artery blockages based on LIFESTYLE CHANGES ALONE. Ornish used a vegetarian diet that was very similar to the Pritikin recommendations: 10 percent fat; 15 to 20 percent protein; and 70 to 75 percent carbohydrate. Because the diet was mostly vegetarian (egg whites and non-fat skim milk or yogurt were allowed), cholesterol intake was a mere 5 mg a day. Better Diet Analyzer User Manual Syntonic Software Copyright 1990, 1991 by John H. Byrd Page 51 ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── ┌────────────┐ ┌────────────┐ │ Protein │ │ Protein │ │10 % - 15 % │ │15 % - 20 % │ ├────────────┤ │ │ │ Fat - 10 % │ ├────────────┤ ├────────────┤ │ Fat - 10 % │ │ │ ├────────────┤ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │Carbohydrate│ │Carbohydrate│ │75 % - 80 % │ │70 % - 75 % │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ └────────────┘ └────────────┘ Pritikin Diet Ornish Diet The subjects in the Ornish program followed this diet for one year. They also adopted other lifestyle changes, such as smoking cessation, moderate aerobic exercise and stress management training. On average, the patients reported 91 percent less frequent angina pain, 42 percent shorter episodes of angina and 28 percent less severe angina. Angiograms of their coronary blockages at the beginning and end of the one-year study showed significant regression that was unexpectedly most pronounced in the worst blockages. Meanwhile, a control group of heart patients worsened during the year. This occurred even though these patients had followed the standard medical dietary guidelines by limiting their fat consumption to no more than 30 percent of calories. "This finding," Ornish wrote, "suggests that conventional recommendations for patients with coronary heart disease (such as a 30 percent fat diet) are not sufficient to bring about regression in many patients." But, he also acknowledges, that the severe limitations of a 10 percent fat diet are hard to maintain. "The point of our study was to determine what is true, not what is practicable," he added. THE SPORTS PERFORMANCE DIET The evidence suggests that eliminating as much fat as you can from your diet will improve your odds in a battle against coronary heart disease. But it's also clear that just avoiding fat can be difficult over the long term. Better Diet Analyzer User Manual Syntonic Software Copyright 1990, 1991 by John H. Byrd Page 52 ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── If denying yourself something you like makes dieting unbearable for you, then accentuate the positive. Instead of emphasizing the fat that you're ELIMINATING, think of the carbohydrates you want to EAT. Substantial research shows that a high level of carbohydrate consumption will improve your athletic performance, particularly in aerobic endurance sports, such as running, bicycling or swimming. (This research applies to non-diabetics and athletes in good health. If you are diabetic, then you must follow your personal physician's advice concerning diet.) An extra payoff from increasing carbohydrate consumption (assuming you do not increase your total calories) is that you will almost certainly reduce your fat consumption drastically. (The opposite is also true: If you concentrate on limiting your fat consumption, you'll almost certainly find that the carbohydrate content of your diet goes up.) Energy for endurance events comes from a mixture of stored fat and muscle glycogen. The more intense the exercise, the greater the reliance on glycogen. Since you already have many tens of times of stored fat calories than you will ever need in any single event, you don't need any additional fat to improve your performance. Exercise at relatively low intensities (below 65 percent of your maximum ability to use oxygen), such as brisk walking, is fueled almost entirely by fat. Above 65 percent of maximum oxygen uptake, and you're increasingly burning glycogen. Want a good way to judge which fuel you're running on? W. Mike Sherman, an exercise physiologist at Ohio State University, offers this rule of thumb: If you run at a level where conversation is "slightly labored," you're running at 70 percent of your oxygen capacity. In other words, you're burning a mix of fat and glycogen. Increase your pace by 1.5 to 2 miles per hour and you're running at 85 percent of oxygen capacity. Your exercise pulse at this level should be between 70 percent and 90 percent of maximum. Stay at this pace for one hour and you'll come close to exhausting your muscle glycogen stores. This brings us to the question: How do you increase your glycogen stores? Since glycogen is made almost entirely from carbohydrates, the answer is to eat more carbohydrates. But, how much more? And are complex starches (pasta, rice, bread) better than simple sugars (sugar, soft drinks and athletic drinks)? CARBOHYDRATE LOADING The connection between carbohydrate consumption and endurance even performance was first established by Swedish researchers in the 1960s. The Swedes developed a regimen of intense exercise coupled with a low- carbohydrate diet to drain the muscles and liver of glycogen stores. They followed this course with rest and a high carbohydrate diet. Muscle glycogen levels roughly doubled. Better Diet Analyzer User Manual Syntonic Software Copyright 1990, 1991 by John H. Byrd Page 53 ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Since the 1960s, American researchers have modified the Swedish "carbohydrate loading" diet. In particular, the Swedish glycogen "depletion" regimen of a low-carbohydrate diet for several days has been shown to be unnecessary. Sherman at Ohio State University has shown results similar to the Swedish results by using a high carbohydrate diet coupled with several days of reduced exercise intensity just prior to competition. Many endurance athletes recognize the value of carbohydrate loading prior to competition. But other research shows that a high carbohydrate diet is also essential during normal training. David L. Costill, an exercise physiologist at Ball State University, has shown that athletes eating inadequate amounts of carbohydrates will suffer progressively lower muscle glycogen levels during training. He subjected runners to daily 10 mile runs over three days on a 50-percent carbohydrate diet. Their muscle glycogen levels fell sharply over the period, and some runners could not complete the run on the third day. The same runners fed a 70-percent carbohydrate diet were able to perform adequately on all three days, and muscle biopsies showed that their glycogen levels recovered almost fully between runs. Many endurance athletes are familiar with carbohydrate loading and the value of a high-carbohydrate diet in general. But, as Costill found in his studies, athletes generally will not eat enough carbohydrates unless following a specific regimen. How do you know if you're eating enough carbohydrates, or even if the foods you're eating actually contain carbohydrate concentrations? Some athletes think potato chips are high- carbohydrate foods, when in fact they are really high-fat foods. The Better Diet Analyzer makes it easy because you can quickly and easily identify how much carbohydrate you are eating, and which foods are supplying carbohydrates. Costill and other researchers have found that a diet similar to that recommended by the Dietary Goals (60 percent of the calories from carbohydrates) is adequate to maintain glycogen stores during training for most events lasting 90 minutes or less. This amounts to about 400 grams a day of carbohydrates (assuming the athletes eat about 2,800 calories a day.) For carbohydrate loading and especially intense endurance training, experts recommend increasing carbohydrates to 70 percent of total calories, up to 600 grams a day. Better Diet Analyzer User Manual Syntonic Software Copyright 1990, 1991 by John H. Byrd Page 54 ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── ┌────────────┐ ┌────────────┐ │ Protein │ │ Protein │ │ 20 % │ │ 15 % │ │ │ ├────────────┤ ├────────────┤ │ Fat │ │ Fat │ │ 15 % │ │ 20 % │ ├────────────┤ │ │ │ │ ├────────────┤ │ │ │ │ │ │ │Carbohydrate│ │Carbohydrate│ │ 60 % │ │ 70 % │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ └────────────┘ └────────────┘ Normal training diet Carbohydrate loading diet In other research, Costill found that athletes could use either simple or complex carbohydrates to rebuild their glycogen stores over night. Simple carbohydrates include the sugars: sucrose, glucose and fructose. Complex carbohydrates include starches: pasta, bread, rice, potatoes, grains, etc. After 24 hours, the level of muscle glycogen was basically the same, whether sugars or starches were eaten. After 48 hours, however, a diet of complex carbohydrates resulted in larger glycogen stores. A number of athletic drinks are marketed to help athletes increase their carbohydrate intake. Costill's research also shows that these drinks, or other efforts to load the body with sugars or other carbohydrates IMMEDIATELY BEFORE exercise or competition is highly counter-productive. Subjects fed glucose 30 to 60 minutes before exercise actually used up their glycogen stores more rapidly and fatigued earlier. The lesson seems to be: Do your carbo loading several days before the event, and replace the lost energy afterwards by keeping your carbohydrate consumption high. The subject of carbohydrate loading and the athletic diet is a fascinating subject and more involved than can be covered here. If you're interested in learning more about how your body uses fat and glycogen during exercise, I recommend Ellen Coleman's "Eating for Endurance." Whether or not you are an athlete in training, athletic research may have implications for your general energy level. If fewer than 58 to 60 percent of your daily calories are coming from carbohydrates, you may be at risk for low glycogen stores and feelings of chronic fatigue. Altering the composition of your diet may not only reduce your risk of heart disease, it may give you more energy! Better Diet Analyzer User Manual Syntonic Software Copyright 1990, 1991 by John H. Byrd Page 55 ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── REFERENCES Coleman, Ellen: Eating for Endurance. Palo Alto, CA, Bull Publishing Co., 1988. Costill, David L.: Carbohydrate nutrition before, during, and after exercise. Federation Proceedings 1985; 44:364-368. Expert Panel: Report of the National Cholesterol Education Program Expert Panel on Detection, Evaluation, and Treatment of High Blood Cholesterol in Adults. Archives of Internal Medicine 1988; 148:36-69. Garrison, Robert H. Jr. and Somer, Elizabeth. The Nutrition Desk Reference. New Canaan, Conn., Keats Publishing Inc., 1990. Karlsson, Jan and Saltin, Bengt: Diet, Muscle glycogen and endurance performance. Journal of Applied Physiology 1971; 31(2):203-206. Ornish, Dean et al: Can lifestyle changes reverse coronary heart disease? The Lifestyle Heart Trial. Lancet 1990; 336:129-133. Pritikin, Robert. The New Pritikin Program. New York, Simon and Schuster, 1990. Sherman, W. Mike: Carbohydrate, Muscle Glycogen, and Improved Performance. Physician and Sportsmedicine 1987; 15:157-164. Stamler J, Wentworth D, Neaton J.D.: Is the relationship between serum cholesterol and risk of premature death from coronary heart disease continuous and graded? Findings in 356,222 primary screenees of the Multiple Risk Factor Intervention Trial. JAMA 1986; 256:2823-2828. Wyngaarden, James B. and Smith, Lloyd H. Jr, ed. Cecil Textbook of Medicine. Philadelphia, W.B. Saunders Co., 1988. Better Diet Analyzer User Manual Syntonic Software Copyright 1990, 1991 by John H. Byrd Page 56 ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── INDEX alcohol, 10,13,17,19,27,29,30,31,44,45 calories from, 43 American diet, 20, 48,49 American Heart Association, 20,49 ASSOCIATION OF SHAREWARE PROFESSIONALS (ASP), 6-7 atherosclerosis, 46 backup copies, 10,11 Better Diet Analyzer copying and distributing, 5 earlier verions, 10,11,13 license, 5 registering, 5-6 BETTER.HLP, 11-12,37,41 BETTER3.EXE, 11,14,40,41 calculator, 10,37 calories, 8,10,12,17,19-20,27,29,30,31,32,43-54 carbohydrate loading, 52-54 carbohydrates, 10,12,13,17,19,27,29,30,31,43,44-46,48-54 added to Version 3.0, 12,13 calories from, 43 consuming prior to exercise, 54 dietary recommendations, 48-54 cholesterol dietary, 10,12,17,19-20,27,29,30,32,48,49-50 HDL, 47 LDL, 47 serum, 4,46-47,50 Coleman, Ellen, 54,55 CompuServe, 5,6,7 CONVERT.EXE, 11,12,13 converting old records, 12-13 corrections, making, 18 Costill, David L., 53,54,55 Daily lists, 10,20,24,25,40 Database Editor, 10,13,30-33,38,42 date changing, 24-25 format, 25 Day Record, 20,21-24,25,40,41 flashing, 24 number displayed, 21 Day Screen, 10,21,22,23,24,25,33,40,42 Dietary Goals for the U.S., 48-49,50,53 DOS, 8, 14,16,20,25,26,33,34,40,41 DOS, access command line, 28-29 entering a food, 16 expanded memory (EMS), 8,29 extended memory (XMS), 8 Better Diet Analyzer User Manual Syntonic Software Copyright 1990, 1991 by John H. Byrd Page 57 ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── fast keys, 42 fat, 8,10,12,17,19,20,27,29,30,31,43-45,46,48,52,54 calories from, 43 mono-unsaturated, 49 polyunsaturated, 49 saturated, 46,49-50 File Options, 12,26-27 files auto-loading from command lin, 20,26 BDA program, 11,12 data, 20,23,24,25 directory, 26 loading, 20,25-26 naming and renaming, 26 saving, 20,25-26 finding foods, 30 floppy disk users, 11 food database, 30 adding records, 31-32 deleting records, 10,30-31,33 format, 30,31 key words, 13,16-17,18,30,31,33,34,35 portions, 8,10,17,18,32,36,43 restoring deletions, 34 FOOD.RSC, 11,12,33-35 heart disease, 20,46-48,51,54 Help, 11,37,38,41,42 highlighting, 16,17,18,24,32,33,37,41,42 hot keys, 42 installation, 10-12 keyboard, 8-9,37,42 MAKERSC.EXE, 11,12,33-34 meals and Meal Records, 10,16,19-25,29,40,42 deleting, 18-19 entering, 16 Meal Screen, 10,16,20,21,22,23,24,40 Microsoft Windows, 8,14-15 National Cholesterol Education Program Expert Panel, 46,47,49,50,55 Num Lock key, 18,24,37,41 Ornish, Dean, 50,51,55 percentages, 8,30,32,43-45 printing 27-29 Pritikin Diet, 50,51 Pritikin, Nathan, 50 Better Diet Analyzer User Manual Syntonic Software Copyright 1990, 1991 by John H. Byrd Page 58 ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── protein, 10,12,13,17,19,27,29,30,31,32,46,48 calories from, 43-45 dietary needs, 49 dietary recommendations, 48,49,50,51,54 pull-down menus, 16,20,21,24,25,28,29,30,32,37,38,42 Recipe Builder, 8,10,32-33,40,42 risk factors, heart disease, 46-47 screen colors, changing, 37-39 screen formats, 10,12,,17,19 Shareware, 4,5,6,27,30 Sherman, W. Mike, 52,53 shortcuts, 42 sodium, 10,12,17,30,32 displaying food content, 17,19 printing food content, 27 system requirements, 8 TABLES.EXE, 11,12,14,33,34-35,41 TSR (Terminate and Stay Resident) programs, 40 user support, 6 viewing food from other dates, 24 Week Screen, 10,25,42 weekly summaries, 24-25 weight, 21,23,46