Why Macros Aren't Enough
The fitness industry has trained us to think in terms of protein, carbs, and fat. Hit your macros, hit your goals. But this oversimplification misses critical information about food quality, nutrient interactions, and long-term health markers.
Two meals with identical macro profiles can have wildly different effects on your body. A 40g protein serving from salmon delivers omega-3 fatty acids, vitamin D, selenium, and astaxanthin. The same 40g from a processed protein bar delivers... 40g of protein. Your macro tracker says they're equivalent. Your body disagrees.
Micronutrient deficiencies are shockingly common even among fitness-conscious people. Magnesium, zinc, vitamin K2, and specific B vitamins are frequently under-consumed, and their absence affects everything from sleep quality to muscle recovery to hormone production. You can't fix what you can't see.
What the 110+ Nutrients Include
Our nutrient profile spans the full spectrum of what food science can measure. Beyond the standard macros and common micronutrients, we track:
**Amino acids** — all 20, including the 9 essential amino acids. This matters because leucine drives muscle protein synthesis, tryptophan affects serotonin production, and glycine supports collagen and sleep quality. Knowing your amino acid intake reveals whether your protein sources are actually complete.
**Fatty acid subtypes** — not just "fat" but EPA, DHA, ALA, oleic acid, linoleic acid, and their ratios. Your omega-6 to omega-3 ratio affects systemic inflammation. Saturated fat subtypes (lauric, myristic, palmitic, stearic) have different metabolic effects that get lost when you just track "saturated fat" as one number.
**Carotenoids and phytosterols** — beta-carotene, lycopene, lutein, zeaxanthin, beta-sitosterol, campesterol, and stigmasterol. These compounds have documented effects on eye health, cardiovascular markers, and antioxidant status.
**Food quality scores** — we calculate glycemic index, glycemic load, PRAL (potential renal acid load), fullness factor, nutrient density score, and omega ratio from the raw nutrient data. These scores are computed, not sourced from third-party APIs, so they're consistent and transparent.
Data Sources: USDA + Open Food Facts
Our food database combines two authoritative sources. The USDA FoodData Central database provides laboratory-analyzed nutrient profiles for thousands of whole foods and common products — this is the gold standard for nutrient accuracy. Open Food Facts contributes crowdsourced product data for packaged foods, giving us coverage across over two million items.
When both sources have data for the same food, we prefer USDA values for nutrient accuracy and supplement with Open Food Facts for product-specific information like barcodes and brand data. Every food item in our database goes through validation to ensure the nutrient profile is internally consistent — calorie counts match the macro breakdown, micronutrient totals fall within expected ranges.
We chose these sources deliberately because they're both free and open. No licensing fees means no incentive to lock you into a proprietary database. Your nutrition data should be transparent and verifiable.
The Multiplier Pattern
Every food in NutriJourney stores its nutrient profile on a per-ounce basis. When you log a serving, we multiply the base data by your quantity to calculate totals across all 110+ nutrients simultaneously. This mirrors the spreadsheet methodology that serious nutrition trackers have used for years — per-ounce base data times a multiplier equals your total intake.
The multiplier pattern has several advantages. It makes portion adjustments instant — change your chicken breast from 6 oz to 8 oz and every nutrient recalculates. It makes recipe building straightforward — each ingredient contributes its per-ounce profile scaled by quantity. And it keeps the math transparent. You can always trace any number back to its source.
This approach also powers our true cost engine. When you build a recipe, we calculate not just the nutritional cost but the actual dollar cost per serving, per macro, and per calorie. Knowing that your homemade meal costs $2.30 per 40g protein serving versus $4.80 at the restaurant next door — that's intelligence you can act on.