Chapter 3. Using Pantry: practical examples

Table of Contents

3.1. Finding nutrient amounts
3.2. Keeping a food diary
3.3. Organizing your foods into files
3.3.1. A quick file
3.3.2. Organizing diary files

Now that you know all the basic Pantry options, you're ready to combine them and put them to use! This chapter will show you how.

3.1. Finding nutrient amounts

Often you will wish to know the nutrient makeup of a particular food. Suppose for example that you want to know how many calories are in a fresh apple. You figure that master already has such a food, but you don't know exactly what it would be. So first you search for apple to see what comes up.

Example 3.1. Searching for apples

$ pantry --ignore-case --name apple --print names master
Babyfood, cereal, oatmeal, with applesauce and bananas, junior
HEALTHY CHOICE Traditional Meat Loaf w/Brown Sauce, Mashed Potatoes, Green Beans and Apple Praline Crisp, frozen meal
Pie, apple, commercially prepared, enriched flour
Apples, dried, sulfured, stewed, without added sugar
Babyfood, dessert, fruit pudding, pineapple, strained
Cereals ready-to-eat, GENERAL MILLS, OATMEAL CRISP, APPLE CINNAMON
Cereals ready-to-eat, QUAKER, QUAKER APPLE ZAPS
VERYFINE APPLE QUENCHERS Apple Raspberry Cherry Juice Cocktail, ready-to-drink
Cereals, QUAKER, Instant Oatmeal, NUTRITION FOR WOMEN, Apple Spice, dry
English muffins, raisin-cinnamon (includes apple-cinnamon)
Babyfood, cereal, rice, with applesauce and bananas, strained
Babyfood, cereal, oatmeal, with applesauce and bananas, strained
Pineapple, raw, extra sweet variety
Cereals ready-to-eat, KELLOGG, KELLOGG'S APPLE CINNAMON SQUARES MINI-WHEATS
Custard-apple, (bullock's-heart), raw
[ trimmed to save space ]

It turns out that this search returns 163 results. There must be a way to narrow this down. Well, many foods will have the word "Apple" in their name, including many foods that are not even fruits (desserts, for example). A good way to narrow your results is to use the --group option:

Example 3.2. Searching for apples, with the --group option

$ pantry --ignore-case --name apple --group fruits --print names master
Custard-apple, (bullock's-heart), raw
Pineapple juice, frozen concentrate, unsweetened, undiluted
Apples, dried, sulfured, stewed, without added sugar
Apple juice, frozen concentrate, unsweetened, undiluted, with added ascorbic acid
Fruit salad, (peach and pear and apricot and pineapple and cherry), canned, light syrup, solids and liquids
Pineapple juice, canned, unsweetened, without added ascorbic acid
Apple juice, frozen concentrate, unsweetened, diluted with 3 volume water without added ascorbic acid
Fruit salad, (peach and pear and apricot and pineapple and cherry), canned, extra heavy syrup, solids and liquids
Pineapple, canned, water pack, solids and liquids
Pineapple, raw, traditional varieties
Apple juice, frozen concentrate, unsweetened, undiluted, without added ascorbic acid
Pineapple, canned, light syrup pack, solids and liquids
Pineapple juice, canned, unsweetened, with added ascorbic acid
Apples, dehydrated (low moisture), sulfured, uncooked
Pineapple, raw, extra sweet variety
[ trimmed to save space ]

That is still a lot more than we are looking for, including a bunch of things that merely have "Apple" in their name. What if we use a regular expression to limit the results only to foods whose name trait begins with apple?

Example 3.3. Searching for apples using a regular expression

$ pantry --ignore-case --name ^apple --group fruits --print names master
Apples, frozen, unsweetened, heated
Apple juice, frozen concentrate, unsweetened, undiluted, with added ascorbic acid
Apple juice, canned or bottled, unsweetened, with added ascorbic acid
Apple juice, frozen concentrate, unsweetened, undiluted, without added ascorbic acid
Apple juice, frozen concentrate, unsweetened, diluted with 3 volume water without added ascorbic acid
Apples, dehydrated (low moisture), sulfured, uncooked
Apples, raw, without skin, cooked, boiled
Applesauce, canned, sweetened, with salt
Apples, canned, sweetened, sliced, drained, unheated
Apples, dried, sulfured, stewed, with added sugar
Apples, raw, without skin, cooked, microwave
Applesauce, canned, sweetened, without salt
Applesauce, canned, unsweetened, with added ascorbic acid
Apples, frozen, unsweetened, unheated
Apples, dried, sulfured, uncooked
Apple juice, canned or bottled, unsweetened, without added ascorbic acid
Apples, raw, with skin
Apples, raw, without skin
Apples, dried, sulfured, stewed, without added sugar
Apples, canned, sweetened, sliced, drained, heated
Apple juice, frozen concentrate, unsweetened, diluted with 3 volume water, with added ascorbic acid
Applesauce, canned, unsweetened, without added ascorbic acid
Apples, dehydrated (low moisture), sulfured, stewed

That buffer is manageable enough to scan to see what we are looking for. Looks like Apples, raw, with skin is what we are looking for. We want to know how many calories are in an apple. To do that, first we need to see what units are available for Apples, raw, with skin:

Example 3.4. Available units for an apple

$ pantry --name "Apples, raw, with skin" --print names-units \
> master
Apples, raw, with skin
   cup, quartered or chopped
   large (3-1/4" dia) (approx 2 per lb)
   NLEA serving
   medium (2-3/4" dia) (approx 3 per lb)
   cup slices
   small (2-1/2" dia) (approx 4 per lb)

Notice how we combined the names and units reports rather than using just a units report. This is a good idea because otherwise, your report might actually contain results for more than one food, but you would not know this if you used only a units report.

Finally, we use the change options to take the apple from the master file, change it to the characteristics we're interested in, and print a report:

Example 3.5. How many calories are in an apple?

$ pantry --name "Apples, raw, with skin" --c-unit large \
> --c-qty 1 --print traits-nuts master
Apples, raw, with skin
Group: Fruits and Fruit Juices
Refuse: 8 percent Core and stem
1 large (3-1/4" dia) (approx 2 per lb) (212g)
Nutrient                  Amount         %G     %TOT  
-------------------------------------------------------
Calories                  110  kcal       6      100   
Total Fat                 0    g          1      100   
Saturated Fat             0    g          0      100   
Cholesterol               0    mg         0      0     
Sodium                    2    mg         0      100   
Total Carbohydrate        29   g          10     100   
Dietary Fiber             5    g          20     100   
Sugars                    22   g          NA     100   
Protein                   1    g          1      100   
Vitamin A                 114  IU         2      100   
Vitamin C                 10   mg         16     100   
Calcium                   13   mg         1      100   
Iron                      0    mg         1      100