Program Guide for Zolosoft Nutrition Software
Nutrition Access Professional allows you to record all the
foods that you have eaten for specific meals and then will
report on the nutritional value of each of these meals. This
nutrition software program also allows you to report on a
series of meals, which can be selected either by meal numbers,
or by date, or a series of dates. In this way the nutritional
value of the food you have eaten can be displayed over any time
period you choose.
Quick Overview
The program opens with the Food List display. This part of
the nutrition software program allows you to select and view
the nutritional content of over 5,000 foods. You can use the
scroll bar, or the Page Up and Page down buttons to search
through the food list. You can also enter a search term in the
box to the left of the blue Search button and then click the
Search button to select all foods that have the search term in
their description. The nutritional data displayed for
each item is calculated on a portion of 100 grams of the item.
This makes comparisons with other items easy.
Click View on the menu and select Meal Records
to view complete meals that have been created. The program
provides a sample meal, recorded as meal number 1, so that you
can immediately see how the information is displayed. In the
Meal Record window there are 4 buttons similar to the buttons
on a video tape player and they are marked as follows:
|<< < > >>|. They allow you to advance
through the various items in the meal to display the
nutritional value of each item or to adjust the portion size.
Click the button marked > to move to the next item in the
meal and notice that the window is quickly updated to display
the information on this item. The button marked < will move
to the previous item. The button marked >>| will move to
the last item in the meal, and the button marked |<< will
move to the first item in the meal.
Selecting View on the main menu allows you to
toggle between the three main screens of the program,
Meal Records, Food List, and Reports. For screen shots of these views
click on the links above.
To create or edit meal records click on Step 1 on the
menu at the top of the screen. This menu option allows you to
select an existing meal or create a new meal.

If the program is being run for the first time the sample
meal is already displayed so proceed to the next step by
clicking Step 2 on the menu bar. Step 2 allows
you to add another item to the meal or delete an item. By
clicking on Add an item to the meal the Food List window
will open. An orange button labeled Add this item to
meal will now be active. Any item in this database can be
added to the meal. As you click on an item in the list box, its
nutritional value will be displayed. To add the item to the
meal click on the orange button that says Add this item to
meal.
After an item has been added to the meal it is time to
adjust its portion size to the amount actually consumed. Click
Step 3 on the menu bar and select Adjust portion
size. A form will be displayed which will allow you to
enter the amount of the item that was actually eaten. It will
allow you to enter the amount by weight or whatever household
measures are typically used for that particular food item.
After entering the information in the box, click the
Submit button. The nutrition software program will
recalculate the nutritional values for this portion size,
display the new values, and record the information in the meal
record.
By repeating steps 2 and 3 several times you can record all
items eaten in a meal in their correct portion sizes. By going
back to Step 1 and creating another meal, the entire
process can be repeated until all the meals in a day or a week
have been recorded. Each meal will be given a meal number as it
is created.
By clicking View in the menu at the top of the screen
and selecting Report, you can generate a report
summarizing the nutritional value of the meals that have been
entered. You are given the option of selecting a report for one
meal, a series of meals, or all the meals for a given date, or
a series of dates. The nutrition software program will
calculate the total nutritional value for the meals you have
selected and display a report. Option buttons allow you to
Save or Print the report. Reports that have been
saved can be viewed by clicking the File menu at the top
of the screen, and selecting Open.
Step by Step Instructions
Many program functions have been grouped under the menu
selections Step 1, Step 2, and Step 3,
because generally they will be used in that order. This helps
make the nutrition software program easy to use. Other menu
selections include File, Report, and Help.
Many of the sub choices under the menu selections are also
provided as buttons just below the menu bar for faster
access.
Step 1. To begin using Nutrition Access Professional
click on Step 1. You are presented with the choices of
Add a new meal or Select an existing meal. If you
select Add a new meal a window will open which allows
you to enter the name and date of the meal. The next available
meal number will automatically be used. In the name box enter a
name for the meal, for example "Lunch" or "Snack number 2". In
the date box enter the date in a standard format such as
03/23/2004 or Mar 23, 2004. The program will convert the latter
example to 03/23/04. Then click the OK button. The
program will return to the main screen and automatically select
the Step 2 option Add an item to the meal because
there are no items yet recorded for the meal. The procedure for
adding items to the meal is described below under the heading
Step 2.
The other option under Step 1 is Select an
existing meal. When this option is selected a window will
open which will list all the meals that you have created. The
meals are displayed in a database format where the familiar
video recorder style buttons |<< < > >>|
allow you to cycle through the meals by meal number. The name
and date of each meal is displayed in boxes. If you have
recorded a large number of meals, it is helpful to use the
>>| button, which jumps to the last meal number, or the
<<| button, which jumps to the first meal number. When
the meal you want to work with is displayed, click the
OK button. You will then be returned to the main screen
and that meal will be displayed. You can now modify items in
the meal by clicking Step 2.

Step 2. The Step 2 menu gives you the options
Add an item to the meal or Remove an item from the
meal. When you select Add an item to the meal, the
Food List reference database is displayed in order for you to
select an item to add to the meal. As you click on any item in
the list box, its nutritional value will be displayed in the
item view window to the right. At this point all values are
based on 100 grams of the item. You can browse through the
items in the database and see their nutritional values by
single clicking any item displayed in the list box. The list
box displays items in alphabetical order. To advance through
the items in the database you can use the scroll bars on the
list box or click on the Page Up and Page Down
buttons displayed on the screen. The Page Up and Page Down
buttons on your computer keyboard can also be used for even
faster scrolling through the items. Also the first letter or
first several letters of an item such as "Spinach" can be typed
on the keyboard and the list box will fast forward to display
items beginning with those letters. There is a timer function
built into the program so that the letters must be typed fairly
quickly for this feature to work. Then after a few seconds any
new letter typed will reset the search function to items that
begin with that letter.
You can also enter a search term in the box to the left of
the blue Search button and then click the Search
button to select all foods that have the search term in their
description. A search may result in over one hundred items or
may result in just a few items. To refill the Food List with
all 5,800 food items, click the blue Reset button.
When you find the item you wish to add to the meal, click on
the orange button labeled Add this item to meal. For
example, if "Spinach, cooked, boiled, drained, without salt" is
being displayed and you click the orange button, it will be
added to the meal. You will notice that the item view window
displays the nutritional information on 100 grams of spinach.
So if you ate one quarter of a cup of cooked spinach you need
to adjust the portion size. Now is the time to do that. Click
on Step 3, and select Adjust portion size. The
procedure for adjusting portion size is described below under
the heading Step 3. You can continue to add items to the
current meal by selecting Add an item to the meal again,
until all the items you want to record have been added.
The second option under Step 2 is Remove an item
from the meal. When this option is selected, the item that
is currently being displayed will be removed from the meal. It
is important to note that this does not delete the item from
the reference database, it only deletes it from the currently
selected meal. So the item can be selected again from the
reference database and added to a different meal.
Step 3. The Step 3 menu displays only one
option, Adjust portion size. Clicking that option will
open a window that will allow you to select a portion size for
the item currently displayed. To continue the example from Step
2, where spinach was selected, you are given the choice of
entering the amount of spinach you ate in grams or in cups.
Click on the round radio buttons to the left of these choices
to indicate your preference. After clicking on the button for
entering "1 cup portions" you can enter the amount in the box
to the right. Whole numbers or decimals can be entered. In
other words 0.25 is a valid entry and indicates 1/4 of a cup.
Then click the Submit button. You will notice that the
item view window now displays "Quantity: 0.25, Unit: 1 cup,
Total weight: 45 grams" indicating that the nutritional values
displayed now represent those found in 1/4 cup of spinach.
Directly below is a partial screen shot of the Reports
view. For a full screen shot click here.

Reports. Once all the items for a meal have been
entered you can view a report for the meal. Reports can be
generated for one meal or several meals at once. The report
menu offers four choices. The first choice is Report for a
specific meal number. Clicking on this choice will display
a dialog box where you can enter the meal number for which you
want a report. Then click OK. A report will be generated
that will add together the nutritional values for all the items
in that meal number. At the top of the report will be the meal
number, date of the meal, and number of items in the meal. Then
the totals for calories and nutrients will be listed. If the
check box was selected for calculating the Percent Daily
Values, they will also be displayed. Percent Daily Values are
guidelines developed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration
and are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. If your calorie needs
are higher or lower, the daily values for carbohydrates,
protein, fat, and fiber would be proportionally higher or lower
also. Daily values for vitamins, minerals, and cholesterol
would remain the same. Note that the FDA has not set daily
values for monounsaturated fats or polyunsaturated fats. Their
guidelines are intended to focus on total fat and saturated
fat.
After several meals have been entered reports can be
produced that cover all the meals in a day or over several
days. The second option under the report menu is Report for
a range of meal numbers. This option will allow you to
enter the meal numbers for the first and last meal in a series.
A report will be produced that totals all the nutrient values
in all of the meals included. The Percent Daily Values are the
easiest to interpret when examining a report for a single meal
or the meals included in one day, so this should be kept in
mind when entering a range of meal numbers.
The third option under the report menu is Report for a
specific date. Under this option you enter the date for
which you want a report and the nutrition software program will
select all meals that have that date for their meal date. This
is the date you entered in the date box when you created the
meal.
The fourth option under the report menu is Report for a
range of dates. Under this option you enter the first and
last date for which you want a report and the program will
select all meals during the time period included within those
dates. This option is useful for calculating total calories and
nutrients consumed in a week.
Option buttons allow you to Save or Print the
report. Reports that have been saved can be viewed by clicking
the File menu at the top of the screen, and selecting
Open. Since the reports are saved as standard text files
they can also be opened in any text editor or word processor.
The Print button will send the report to your printer in
a standard two page format. If you would like to format the
information in other ways, you can save the report as a text
file and then open it in your favorite word processing program
for custom formatting.
File. Clicking on the File menu at the top of
the screen will offer you the choice of opening a previously
saved report or exiting the program. Note that the meals you
create while using this nutrition software program are
automatically saved and will be available for selection the
next time the program is run. They will remain in the database
until you specifically delete all the items in a meal.
Database Information
The nutritional data used in Nutrition Access Professional
comes from the USDA Nutrient Database for Standard Reference,
Release Number 14, and is compiled from published and
unpublished sources. When nutritional data is displayed for an
individual item, in some cases the amount of a nutrient such as
zinc will be listed as zero and in some cases the field will be
blank. There is a difference in these displays. If the amount
of a nutrient in an item is listed as zero, it means the item
was tested for that nutrient and no significant amount was
present in 100 grams of the item. If, on the other hand, there
is simply a blank space after the nutrient then it means that a
test for that nutrient was not conducted for that particular
item. Most of the records for natural foods have complete
results for each of 27 nutrients at this time, where as many
brand name packaged items have not been tested for all 27
nutrients.
The information contained and provided by this nutrition
software program is believed to be accurate but is not
guaranteed to be totally free of errors. The user assumes
responsibility for the use of the information, using his or her
judgment.

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