NB20 Personal Ediition vs. the Top Professional Nutrition Software Packages
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Why buy NutriBase? The following chart compares a number of features of the NutriBase Personal Plus Edition with three of the top nutrition software products for dietitians and other nutrition healthcare professionals.

If your primary interest is in nutrition software for professional use, please visit our NutriBase Professional Edition Web Site.

Legend: Yes! No! Somewhat

Price, Support, and Licensing
Free of annual fees after purchase?
Free email and phone product support?
Free updates for the version purchased?
Price for a single-user edition of the software (plus annual fee for support and updates, when applicable).$100$800$699$685
Number of computers you can install the software to on a single user license.3311
Cost of annual renewal or annual subscription fee.freefree$200$300
Cost of phone support.freefree?$75/hr

General
Generate Publication Quality U.S. Nutrition Facts Labels (WMF, EMF, JPG, PDF) at no additional charge?
Generate Publication Quality Canadian Nutrition Facts Tables (WMF, EMF, JPG, PDF) in English, French, English/French or French/English at no additional charge?
Does the software let you synchronize your data (Food Logs, Recipes, client information, Meal Plans, etc.) on all your computers no matter where you are located so you are always using the latest data?
Does the software let you collaborate by sharing your real time data (Food Logs, Recipes, client information, Meal Plans, etc.) with two, ten, or hundreds of colleagues on computers located in the same city, state, country, or planet?
Does the company's web site provide an Update History page that indicates all changes and enhancements made to the software this century?
Does the company provide free updates via 24/7 Internet download links to registered users of the current versions of the product?

Nutrient Database
Number of unique brand names.35,000+35,000+??
Total number of brand name foods.540,000+540,000+??
Number of unique restaurants.790+790+??
Total number of restaurant menu items.159,000+159,000+??
Total number of UPC bar code nutrient data items.500,000+500,000+n/an/a
Number of nutrient factors tracked.100+180+16390+
Total number of food items in nutrient data.900,000+900,000+55,000+75,000+
Total number of family members or clients you can manage.10no limitno limitno limit
Total number of nutrient information books in print based on the nutrient information contained in the software.7700
Does the software use a research quality nutrient database that includes the USDA Nutrient Database for Standard Reference?
Does the software include data from the Canadian Nutrient Files?
Has the data from the nutrient database been published in millions of nutrient information books?
Does the software display color-coded background “Alerts” for Sodium, Saturated Fat, and Cholesterol values?
Ability to display the complete nutrient data for more than one food item at a time as a result of a search across the software's nutrient database?
A Nutrient Density View that allows you to compare - in a spreadsheet view - the nutrients from for all foods at a serving size defined as a specific calorie-level or gram-level of each food?
Ability to locate USDA food items by their Nutrient Databank numbers?
Is the displayed nutrient data keyed to indicate where the nutrient information came from?
Ability to conduct searches within your search results?
Can you conduct your food searches across any or all databases, including: USDA, Canadian, Brand, Personal Foods, Recipes, and Meals?
Ability to jump from a given word or phrase within your search results?
Ability to sort all the food items you are viewing live from high-to-low based their values for any nutrient by clicking the column header for that nutrient? (Then reversing the sort order by clicking the header again?)
Does the software flag nutrient totals that include values from food items with missing values for any nutrient values in reports?
Ability to define which nutrients get displayed as a result of searches in the nutrient database? (For example, can you display only the saturated fat, sodium and cholesterol values for all the foods located by a search of the nutrient database?)
Ability to search on either food names or brand names?
Search screen that permits you to search by food name, brand name, Recipe (by ingredient or by name), or Meal (by ingredient or by name)?
Ability to add an unlimited number of foods to the program?
Ability to view live nutrient data (alphabetically, by food name) in a tabular, spreadsheet format of columns and rows?
Ability to re-sequence the columns of live nutrient data by dragging-and-dropping their column headers and have the software remember the new sequence for you? (This allows you to compare the nutrient values, on-screen, for several similar foods at once.)
Ability to resize column-widths of live nutrient data by dragging the right edge of column headers left or right in the nutrient database? (This allows you to display more columns of live data on the screen at once.)
View data for any food item located in the spreadsheet view of the live nutrient data in a single-screen view by double-clicking on it?
Ability to display categories of foods (such as: "cereals, ready-to-eat" or "diabetes/glucose intolerance") and their associated nutrients (alphabetically, by food names) in a tabular, spreadsheet format?
Ability to highlight all occurrences of a given word or phrase within your search results?
Include Food Exchanges?
Does the database provide commercial ingredients in the database? (These are the ingredients - sometimes difficult to pronounce - that appear on the ingredient listings of many commercial foods.)
Can you produce a Nutrient Density Index (NDI) Report. (The “NDI” is an estimate of the mean value per calorie for the sum of the total amount of each of up to 25 nutrient factors.)

Internet-Related Features
Ability to synchronize your data (Recipes, Food Logs, Meal Plans, etc.) via the Internet to assure you always have the same data on all your computers no matter where they are located?
Ability to fully customize a Recipe or Meal in your software and save it as a web page that looks like any web page on the Internet that you want it to?
Ability to create a database on your servers to capture information surfers place by filling out a web-based questionnaire on your web site?
Ability to generate custom, multi-page Assessment Reports (containing 180+ facts the software "knows" about that client) for surfers who have completed your web-based questionnaire?
Ability to have the nutrition software log-on clients from a web-based database that is fed by a web-based questionnaire you've placed there?
Ability to deliver custom, multi-page Assessment Reports for surfers in Rich Text Format (compatible with word processors and suitable for printing), text format (for inclusion in email messages), or in HTML format (to post as a page on your web site)?
Ability to log-on clients from a web-based questionnaire installed on your site?
Ability to export your client list for use with your email client (like Outlook Express) for mass mailings? (This is useful for sending your clients newsletters or special promotions.)
Ability to instantly and automatically generate custom, multi-page Assessment Reports for surfers who've completed your web-based questionnaire?

Ranking (Sort) Capabilities
Rank (sort) food items from high-to-low or low-to-high based on Percent Calories from Protein, Percent Calories from Carbohydrates, Percent Calories from Fat, Calories from Protein, Calories from Carbohydrates or Calories from Fat?
Rank (sort) foods from high-to-low or low-to-high based on their values for any selected nutrient?
Ability to view your Recipes, Meals, and personal food items, then rank them on-screen from high-to-low or low-to-high based the values for any nutrient by clicking their column headers while you are viewing them in the spreadsheet view?
Global ranking capability across all nutrient databases, Recipes, personal food items, etc?

Query (Boolean AND Search) Capabilities
Conduct queries (Boolean AND Searches) on the nutrient data for one ("1") specific food, brand name, and/or serving size by specifying upper or lower limits for as up to ten ("10") nutrient components?
Conduct queries (Boolean AND Searches) on the nutrient data for multiple foods, brands, and/or serving sizes by specifying upper or lower limits for as few or as many nutrient components as desired?
Ability to query the nutrient database to show you all the menu items from, say, Burger King, McDonald’s, and Wendy’s with at no more than, say, 8 grams of saturated fat, sorted from low-to-high based on their values for saturated fat?

Food Log Management
Will the software tell you the Next Best Food To Eat - the "NBFTE" - based on what you've eaten so far compared to your daily nutrition goals?
Ability to assign a food item to a particular Meal or snack while adjusting its serving sizes?
A mode for researchers with the ability to record an intake "blind" to an ID number and without the need to first obtain profile information such as age, gender, weight, height, etc?
Support for tracking and graphing diabetic factors correlated with Meals and snacks from within the Food Log function?
View analyses of a Food Log day's individual Meals or snacks (both numerically and graphically) by simply clicking their tabs?
Ability to copy a Food Log (or selected Meals and/or snacks from a day's intake) from any client to any another client (or clients) on any day (or days) you specify?
Ability to create a food list that will be auto-recorded to a client's Food Log each time you open a new day's Food Log for that client?
Ability to copy intake food items (and portion sizes) into an editable shopping list?
Calendar that can be set up to award "thumbs up" (or "thumbs down") icons when clients meet (or don't meet) daily nutrition goals?
Analyze intake relative to customized client goals?
Automatically display Total Calories and the PCF (Protein-Carbohydrate-Fat) Ratio (or CPF Ratio) for all intakes?
Set alarms to trigger when clients exceed any nutrient limit(s) you program for them?
Ability to track mood for graphing and tracking purposes while record Food Logs?
Ability to track "steps per day" in the Food Log (pedometer tracking)?
Ability to produce a "My Plate" report in the Food Log?
Client calendar that awards clients a "happy face" on days when they meet their personal nutritional and/or exercise goals? (And "unhappy faces" on the days they don't.)

Recipe Management
Generate customized Recipe reports that look precisely the way you want, then publish them in word processor format? (This allows you to publish a word processor formatted cookbook from the software.)
Ability to create Recipes by defining serving sizes of ingredients in calories? (This gives you the ability to create, say, 200 calorie "snack packs" from cereals, nuts, etc.)
Do you have a streamlined Food Cost Database that allows you to quickly and conveniently edit existing food costs, add new ones, and/or delete existing records? (This allows the software to tell you what it costs you for a single servings of any Recipes, Meals, and Meal Plans.)
Ability to organize Recipes into a tabbed notebook with the ability to add, delete, and/or rename Recipe tabs?
Tabbed notebook for Recipes with the ability to drag and drop Recipes between tabs?
Ability to organize tabbed notebooks of Recipes into Recipe Folders? This allows you to organize your Recipes by type (i.e., low-fat, low-sodium, vegetarian, weight-loss, etc.)
Ability to view your Recipes, along with their nutrient values in a spreadsheet view, then rank (sort) them from high-to-low based on any nutrient by clicking the column header? (Then reversing the sort by clicking the header again?)
Ability to move Recipes from Recipe Folder to Recipe Folder?
Ability to select and copy Recipe food items (and portion sizes) into an editable shopping list?
Are Recipes compatible, exportable, and transportable across other editions of their software?
Stamp Recipes with your byline (authorship, credentials, copyright, company, phone, etc.) before distributing them?
Ability to format cooking instructions by setting fonts and point sizes, inserting bullets, italicizing, boldfacing, underlining, and aligning your text?
Automatically display Total Calories and the PCF (Protein-Carbohydrate-Fat) Ratio (or CPF Ratio) for all Recipes?
Record Recipes-within-Recipes? (That is, use a Recipe as an ingredient in another Recipe?)
Ability to record a Recipe as either a Recipe (one entry) or as a list of ingredients (multiple entries)?
Change the number of servings per Recipe?
Ability to view nutrient information for a Recipe as a percentage of Daily Values?
Customize your Recipes to make them look any way you want, then publish them in a web page format that perfectly matches the look and feel of your Web Site?
Recipe scaling (changing the amount of each ingredient in a Recipe to make a different total amount)?

Reporting Features
Track diabetic factors including rolling average Blood Glucose (BG), high BG value, low BG value % of values within range of 70 to 140, carbohydrates, PCF Ratio, and exercise?
Ability to generate a Nutrient Density Index Report?
Ability to generate custom, multi-page Initial Assessment Reports in ready-to-post Web Page format for clients?
Auto-Insert custom text or graphical bitmap report headers featuring your logo, name, address, phone, etc.) at the top of every report?
Save Recipes, Meal Plans, and other documents or reports as Web Pages (HTML Format)? (This facilitates the addition of Recipe reports and other reports to an existing Web Site.)
Ability to generate custom, multi-page Initial Assessment Reports in ready-to-post Web Page format for clients?
Save Recipes, Meal Plans, and other reports in Rich Text Format (RTF)? This lets you open your report with your favorite word processor with all formatting retained (font sizes, tab stops, centering, bolding, etc.).
Ability to capture your company name (or your own name) as a macro for automatic insertion into your Assessment Reports?
Ability to generate custom template-driven Assessment Reports that allow you to create highly customized multi-page reports for each of your clients?

Analysis Capabilities
Export reports in Excel format, CSV format, and word processor formats?
Nutrient Food Log analysis that lets you select the client (or clients), the dates (cherry pick or select a range), the Meals and/or snacks, the nutrients, the factors (percentages, totals, averages, etc.) and personal information
Recipe analysis that lets you select the nutrients you wish to analyze and offer the option to include complete nutrient information for every ingredient in the Recipe, if desired.
Capable of handling nutrient intake Group Studies involving large numbers (tens to even thousands) of individuals?
Ability to compile data for studies by sharing the data (Food Logs, Recipes, etc.) with personnel situated in remote locations around the state, country, or world?
Support for highly configurable Formatted Reports?
Meal Plan analysis that lets you select the days of the Meal Plan, the Meals and/or snacks, the nutrients, and the factors (percentages, totals, averages, etc.). Generate a checklist format summary organized by Meals for clients to carry with them. Record the Meal Plan as the client's intake, then edit it for changes from the hard copy summary?
An advanced Under/Over capability that lets you automatically insert "Under" or "Over" comments (that you create and/or edit) into your intake analysis report when a client is under or over any goal for any nutrient.

Fitness Management
Ability to calculate exercise calorie expenditures that takes the client's body weight into consideration?
Track and graph body fat content as well as body weight?
Set exercise calorie expenditure goals (with calculations based on your client's current body weight) and track them?
Create, edit, save and retrieve workouts for use with clients?
User customizable Gym Log for tracking anything you want about your workouts?
Ability to calculate exercise calorie expenditures that take the client's age and gender into consideration?
Full support for Target Heart Rate Training with the ability to customize up to five Training Heart Rate Zones (by letting you define Zone Names, set min and max zone ranges, and the primary benefits)?
Ability to calculate exercise calorie expenditures that take the client's resting pulse and exercise intensity (as measured by heart rate or by perceived intensity ratings)?
Ability to move exercises and activities from list to list (to prevent having to scroll through dozens or even hundreds of activities you rarely perform to find the few that you actually perform)?
Ability to record the calories and other information provided by monitored exercise machines (like programmable treadmills or heart rate monitors) and enter this directly into the software for calculations?
Ability to produce a client-specific Expenditures Report listing how the exercise calories a client would burn with calculations based on the client's age, gender, body weight and exercise intensity (as measured by in-zone heart rate) in performing any of a variety of exercises for 30 minutes?
Ability to track your 24-hour activity and exercise calories separately from your daily food intake so that you can generate a direct comparison of calories burned to calories taken in?

Integrated Backup and Restore
Integrated backup and restore program to make it easy to move your data back and forth between computers?
Ability to backup and restore your information to and from your flash drive and any other removable media?
Will the software email your backup to another user (or to yourself)?

Information Tracking Features
Record your medication type, brand and dosage with your Meals? (This allows you to "dial in" the optimal dosages for these meals - it also allows you to build a library of Meals with Meds for future use.)
Track and graph diabetic factors correlated with Meals and snacks?
Track and graph Body Fat Percentages as well as Body Weight for all clients?
Track and report on body chemistry (triglycerides, uric acid, etc.) and personal information (doctor, pharmacist, etc.)?
Establish weight goals based on percentage body fat content, then track the progress for all clients?
Track and report on anything you want to track (with date and optional time stamping)?
Track and report on measurements (waist, pant size, etc.) and miscellaneous items (ovulation, cigarettes, etc.)?

Miscellaneous Features
Ability to synchronize your data (Recipes, Food Logs, Meal Plans, etc.) across all your computers no matter where they are located?
Support for tracking and graphing diabetic factors correlated with Meals and snacks?
Support for password protection to keep unwanted personnel from snooping into confidential information?
Support for a user-customizable Quick Access ToolBar?
An integrated Work Planner that allows you to schedule and your work schedule day-by-day?
A Client Home Screen that gives you a summary of how any client is doing?
Ability to select which formulas are used to calculate calories requirements, calorie expenditures, max heart rates, training zones, etc?
Ability to selectively reset all formulas used in the software to original defaults? (This will save you in the event you make a error while modifying a formula.)
Ability to convert the serving size of any new food item you enter into the database so that you can use it in your most common serving size?
Support for indirect calorimeters?
Automatic support for using the Mifflin St. Jeor method for calculating calorie needs?
Automatic support for using EER (Estimated Energy Requirements) to calculate calorie needs?
Support for using the Harris Benedict formula for calculating calorie needs?
Ability to customize the formulas used in the calorie calculation methods (like Harris Benedict and Mifflin St. Jeor)?
Support for indirect calorimeters?
Ability to modify the selected formula (by changing the formula's variables) to modify the way the software calculates calories requirements, calorie expenditures, max heart rate, training zones, etc?
Ability to tell the software to automatically select the appropriate nutrient goals based on age and gender as desired?
Ability to tell the software to automatically select 1/3 or 2/3 DRI?
Ability to edit your auto-selected DRI's (to include the nutrient goals that have not yet been established for DRI's)?
Ability to select frequently used food items from the nutrient database and organize them as personal food items in a tabbed notebook for quick access for use in your Recipes, intakes, and Meal Plans?
Ability to organize your personal food items by adding tabs, renaming tabs, and deleting tabs?
Ability to add your personal food items to a tabbed notebook, then organize them by dragging and dropping these items from tab-to-tab?
Ability to create U.S. Nutrition Facts Labels and Canadian Nutrition Facts Tables from within the software?
see footnote

see footnote
In addition to the basic nutrition label data, can you add data for Polyunsaturated Fat, Monounsaturated Fat, Potassium, Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Calcium, Iron, Vitamin D, Vitamin E, Vitamin K, Thiamin, Riboflavin, Niacin, Vitamin B6, Folate, Vitamin B12, Biotin, Pantothenic Acid, Phosphorus, Iodine, Magnesium, Zinc, Selenium, Copper, Manganese, Chromium, Chloride, and/or Molybdenum?
see footnote

see footnote
Ability to save Nutrition Facts Labels as JPG (Web-friendly format) or as a BMP (document-friendly) format?
Generate customized Personal Food Item reports that look precisely the way you want, then publish them in word processor or Web Page format?
Ability to organize tabbed notebooks for frequently eaten foods into Personal Food Item Folders? This gives you the ability to organize your Meals by type (i.e., supplements, frequently eaten foods, Recipe ingredients, etc.)
Ability to export your client's email information into a format suitable for email programs (like MS Outlook) for mass mailings (like email newsletters) to your clients?
Ability to move personal food items not only from tab-to-tab but also from PFI Folder to PFI Folder?
Ability to add food items to the program by entering the Percent Daily Values (as provided on Nutrition Facts Labels)?
Nutritional data published in world's most popular series of nutritional information books?
Ability to format your client notes by setting fonts and point sizes, inserting bullets, italicizing, boldfacing, underlining, and aligning your text?
Glossary of foods, healthy food substitution lists, dieting tips, toll-free numbers for food makers?

System Requirements:

1) Single-user versions of NutriBase require a PC running Windows Vista, Windows 7, or Windows 8.x, or Windows 10.x. 2 Gbytes of RAM or more are recommended.

2) A minimum screen resolution of 1024 x 768 pixels is required, but higher resolutions are better.

3) No Mac versions are available, but you can run NutriBase (and other Windows programs) on a Mac if you are running Windows (XP or higher) on your Mac. We recommend you download an evaluation copy and to verify that it will run on your Mac.

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