Where our numbers come from

The short version

Ask Nutmeg is a small food site, not a lab or a clinic. Some of our numbers are counted carefully from government data, and some are estimates. This page says which is which.

Tool by tool

• 7-Day Iron Meal Plan. Our most careful numbers. Iron per serving is counted one ingredient at a time from USDA FoodData Central, the US government's food database. The iron tips and daily amounts come from the NIH Office of Dietary Supplements. Costs use US average grocery prices from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, plus store-brand guesses where they have none. Cooking times are careful estimates.
• World Dishes. Calories, protein and the other numbers are approximate, per serving of the recipe as written. They change with portion size, brands and how you cook.
• Explore ("How I feel", "A nutrient", "A food I love"). The food lists are a starting map of foods widely known as good sources, from kitchens around the world. They don't show amounts. The links between a feeling and a nutrient are common ones, not a diagnosis: tiredness, for example, has many causes.
• Meal Log. An AI (Anthropic's Claude) estimates the nutrition from your photo. It's a guess from a picture, so sauces, oils and portion sizes can throw it off. Each result shows how sure the estimate is.
• ⭐ Cook with Nutmeg. Answers are written by AI in Nutmeg's voice. Times and amounts are estimates, and AI can be wrong, so use your judgement and follow safe cooking temperatures.

Who checks it

No registered dietitian has reviewed Ask Nutmeg yet. When one does, we'll say so on this page. Until then, please treat everything here as general information and ask a doctor or registered dietitian about your own needs.

Spotted a mistake? Tell us at hello@asknutmeg.com and we'll fix it.