I'm at McDonalds, right? And, because I'm bored and a little obsessive, I start looking at the nutrition info on the back of their tray liner. It's got all the minutae there for every item on the menu, but the thing I find fascinating is the legend/explanation of the graphic meters. It's a graphic with five scales that kinda resemble thermometers-- for calories, protein, carbohydrates, fat and sodium. This graphic meter appears on the packaging for many of their purchases.
Each scale is based on a 2,000 calorie-a-day diet, and the percentage of the daily allowance is printed on each item. They even mark off the first third of each meter for you (three meals a day, they presume), so you can see if you are "on target" for an individual meal.
It gets me thinking-- what if you had some kind of software or technology that you could enter calories, protein, carbs, fat and sodium on the fly (like maybe with a web-enabled cell phone?), and it kept a running total for the day, and displayed the results in a similar five level graphic?
My first inclination is to do it as a web site (so you could do it from your computer, or a cell phone, or whatever)-- but you could probably code it as some sort of Java-based application for a handheld and/or cell phone, I guess.
You'd need to gather initial data-- the person's name/user id (maybe an email address?), their time zone (so you'd know when to reset the calorie counter clock each day), and their daily caloric intake goal (usually defaults at 2000 calories, but that could vary from person to person). They'd need to be able to go back and modify time zone and daily calorie allowance at will, because lots of people travel between time zones, these days.
Then, you'd need an interface where people can enter the food item name, and the five stats for it (calories, protein, etc.) It'd have to be as fast and easy as possible, or else people won't bother to use it.
EXAMPLE DATA ENTRY:
Food Item:
Calories:
Protein:
Fat:
Carbs:
Sodium:
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