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If you are a professional in the food, nutrition, health, or fitness industries, you probably already know that there are only a few reasonable options when it comes to nutrition and fitness software for high-end use. Unless you have a very specialized application, you're probably looking for a general-purpose program that can handle a wide variety of dietary and fitness needs. We think the valid contenders for this market are The Food Processor from Esha Research, Nutritionist Pro from Axxya Systems, and NutriBase from CyberSoft, Inc. The first two packages are the offerings of two companies that have long specialized in providing nutrition and fitness software to the professional community. It may be fair to say that these products were "developed by dietitians, for dietitians." NutriBase is different... it was developed by computer scientists, with dietitians, for dietitians. We think you'll see a world of difference.
Here are a few reasons for selecting NutriBase: 1. You can install and use NutriBase on more than one computer (Windows PC or Mac running Windows) without paying for additional copies. The End User Licenses of both the Food Processor and Nutritionist clearly state that you cannot install and use their software on more than one computer. If money were no object, you could purchase two copies of these products and install the software on two computers, but then you'd still have a major problem: you'd have no convenient way to move the data from one computer to the other. The NutriBase End User License allows you to install NutriBase to up to three computers - say, your home computer, work computer, and laptop - so long as you are the only user. 2. NutriBase makes it easy and convenient to move your work (client information, recipes, meals, meal plans, etc.) from computer-to-computer. With just a few mouse-clicks, you can move your NutriBase information back and forth between your desktop and your notebook PC or between your work and home PC's conveniently, quickly, and safely. Easily transfer all of your NutriBase data (client records, recipes, Meal Plans, intakes, personal information, client notes, shopping lists - everything) between two computers. To backup your data to a floppy (or any other media), click the Backup option on the Tool Bar and select the backup drive. To restore your data to your desktop or notebook PC, just click the Restore option. That's all there is to it. When Food Processor or Nutritionist Pro tell you that they support this too, they mean that you can follow a step-by-step procedure that entails copying specific files from specific folders, moving them to the second computer, then copying these files to specific folders in a specific way... not something you should try if inexperienced, tired, or in any kind of hurry. 3. The Customizable Client Intake Module lets you do more work in less time. NutriBase lets you click a button to create a CD for your clients. They can take the CD home, install the Client Intake Module, and record their own intakes. A click of a button sends their results to you instantly for in-depth analysis and your recommendations. Instead of spending an hour or two recording intakes, you spend a minute or two preparing your client report. And you can post this software to your web site for your customers to download. There are no royalties or limits to the number of clients you support this way. You can customize your Client Intake Module to include your own caption, return email address, and even your own custom splash screen (using your face, your company logo, or any other image you want to display for a few seconds as the software loads). Because you can do the intake analysis so much quicker, you can charge less for this important service. And if you can charge less, institutions - like health clubs and weight-loss centers - can afford to have you do more work. They win. You win. We win. 4. Only NutriBase provides the power and flexibly of highly customizable Flexible Format Reports. NutriBase Flexible Format Reports are unsurpassed in their ability to create a professional report the way you want it to look. These reports let you select a wide variety of parameters such as which nutrients to include, your byline, contact information, and your comments and recommendations. You control whether you include a chart, a Nutrition Facts Label, or photograph. You can any of hundreds of icons, logos, and images to customize the appearance of your report. You can even create your own artwork or logo for your reports. You control colors for shading, pie chart wedges, totals, etc. You decide whether to include dividers, borders, drop shadows, etc. And you can save these formatted reports as PDF files to post on your web site or to send to your clients as email attachments.... when they print your report, it will look exactly like the report you could print for them. No other nutrition software application comes close. 5. NutriBase also generates wide variety of word processor and web page reports for your clients. Most of these reports are created by simply selecting the report you want and clicking a button to produce it. These reports make quick, value-added handouts for your client. Or save them in a number of popular formats for delivery via email attachments or as web page displays or downloads. NutriBase will automatically insert your custom company header for you, if desired. This header can be text (name, address, phone, fax, email, etc.) or graphical (your company logo plus name, address, phone, fax, email, etc.). Insert graphs, charts, and images into your reports. If you prefer to use the word processor you are already using, NutriBase lets you save the file in Rich Text Format (RTF) and open it with MS Word or any other modern word processor. 6. NutriBase supports Nutrition Facts Label generation at no additional charge. The NutriBase Professional and higher editions let you generate your standard Nutrition Facts Label format. This is the format used on over 99% of all food packages. Print these labels or save them in BMP (document-friendly) format, JPG (web page-friendly) format, PDF format, and Windows MetaFile format or Enhanced Metafile format (for publication quality, resolution-independent applications). Automatically merge your ingredients into the label in descending order by gram weight. Competing software produces provide professional label generating capability with the purchase of additional software. Esha - the makers of Food Processor software - recommend you purchase their Genesis R&D software to create Nutrition Facts Labels... this product starts at $4,999.00. Nutritionist Pro requires the additional purchase of their Nutritionist Pro Labeling software for $595 additional (discount available if you purchase both components). 7. Only NutriBase supports the Nutrient Density View. The Nutrient Density View lets you display the nutrient values for say, 100 kcal "servings" of all fresh fruit in a spreadsheet view. This gives you an "apples-to-apples" comparison for all nutrients for hundreds or even thousands of fruits at once. This way, you compare the nutrient content of 100 calories of watermelon to 100 calories of strawberry rather than comparing one watermelon to one strawberry. The Nutrient Density View lets you easily see which foods provide the most nutrition per calorie. But that's not all. You can click the column header while viewing your data to rank all foods based on that the nutrient values in that column. Click again to reverse the sort sequence. 8. Only NutriBase provides a Quick Access Tool Bar. NutriBase allows you to configure shortcuts to your most used features. Customize NutriBase for the way you like to work. Remove the icons you rarely use (you can still access all NutriBase functions via the Tabs across the top of the window). 9. Only NutriBase supports customizable "under/over comments". With NutriBase, you can insert comments (that you can create and/or edit) into your intake reports when your client is under or over your goal for any nutrient. These comments appear when you analyze your intakes. Typically, "under" comments suggest good sources of the nutrient you are deficient in and "over" comments provide safe upper limit information. You can control when these comments appear and what they say. No other competitor permits this. 10. Only NutriBase provides the ability to track food intakes and calorie expenditures separately. Most nutrition and fitness software packages allow you to record a client's daily calorie intake and expenditures by asking you to estimate the client's "Activity Level." Based on your estimates of the client's activity level, the software estimates calorie expenditures for that client. NutriBase supports this method, as does its competitors. But NutriBase provides another way of recording your client's daily nutrition and fitness. It's called the 24-hour Activity Intake. When you select this option, NutriBase asks you to record a 24-hour activity intake for the client. Since NutriBase also tracks your client's food intake, you have two important numbers at the end of the day: the number of calories burned and the number of calories taken in. By comparing these two numbers, you come up with a deficit or a surplus of calories for that day. And from this information, NutriBase will forecast near-future body weights based on today's behavior. 11. Quality of the Nutritional Information. Both of our competitors have used full-page, four-color advertisements to let you know that they provide the world's most comprehensive and highest quality nutrient database. Here are five things to consider: 12. Only NutriBase has sold over three million nutritional information books. The NutriBase Series of books is based on the NutriBase nutrient database and are published by Avery, a member of Penguin Putnam, Inc. They are the most comprehensive nutrient information books on the market today. As the top-selling series of nutritional information books in the world, NutriBase data has earned a high degree of validation for its nutrient database. 13. NutriBase provides nutrient data for more than 1200 different brand name foods and restaurant menu items. This is more than twice the number of unique brand names tracked in competing software products. With a wider variety of brand names, you will find a wider variety of food items. 14. NutriBase gives you tremendous control over your nutrient data. Astonishing as it may seem, competing products only let users view the nutrient data from their nutrient database for one food item at a time. Looking at nutrient data for one food item at a time is like trying to see what's in a gigantic database by peering through a tiny pinhole. Yet this is exactly how you are forced to view the nutrient data in products like Nutritionist Pro and the Food Processor. NutriBase gives you the ability to view nutrient data in a spreadsheet view to see the data for many food items at the same time. (The "spreadsheet view" is a tabular format of columns and rows.) You can drag-and-drop column headers to resequence the columns. Drag the right edge of any column header to resize the column width (NutriBase remembers the new settings for you). Double-click any food item to see all the nutrient data for that one item in a single-screen view. Mark a block of data on the screen and save it to a file or print it. These features are not found in any other nutrition software package at any price. 15. NutriBase facilitates the creation of recipes. A "recipe" is a combination of food items and other recipes. For instance, a recipe could consist of water, seasonings, meat, vegetables and another recipe (like your "Low Sodium, Low-Fat Soup Stock"). You can add recipes as a recipe (one entry) or as a listing of the added recipe's ingredients. You can scale your recipes to feed more (say, 500 people) or fewer people. You can Recipes serve as building blocks for Meals. By the way, NutriBase includes over 400 ready-to-use recipes for a variety of special needs, including Vegan, vegetarian, diabetic, healthy heart, hypertension, balanced weight loss, low carb weight loss, 40-30-30 weight loss, pre-competition body building, body building maintenance, and high-protein body building. And once you create your recipe, a single button takes you to the Nutrition Facts Labeling component. 16. Only NutriBase lets you publish your recipes, formatted exactly as desired, in a custom word processor format directly from NutriBase. You can actually publish your cookbook from NutriBase. You can edit a "template file" that looks like you want your finished recipe layout to look. (For instance, if you boldface and center your recipe name in say a 36 pt. font in your template file, that's the way all your recipe reports will look from then on.) You can select which nutrients to include and put them anywhere you want. From then on, all your recipes will be formatted like your custom template file. You can generate all your custom recipes and save them in word processor format... you can use NutriBase to publish your recipes into a camera-ready cookbook. No other product on the market can do this for you. 17. Only NutriBase lets you publish your recipes, formatted exactly as desired, in a custom web page format directly from NutriBase. You can edit a "template file" that looks exactly like you want your finished recipe web page to look except that it uses placeholders in place of actual values. From then on, all your recipes will be formatted like your template file. You can generate all your recipes in this custom web page format and save them in HTML format. You can customize it by using your navigation bars, you can refer to any images you have on your server, you can control every aspect of the format - it will look exactly like other pages on your web site... Use NutriBase to make it almost effortless to host a "Recipe of the Day" web site. No other product can do this for you. 18. NutriBase facilitates the creation of Meals. A meal is a combination of food items and recipes. For instance, a Meal could consist of a beverage, a vegetable, a fruit, and a recipe (like "Chicken Fajita Pocket Pita Sandwich"). Organize similar Meals at different calorie levels into a Meal Folder. (Meal Folders can organize meals into categories like "Weigh-Loss Meals," Heart Recovery Meals," "Body Building Meals," Vegetarian Meals," etc.) Meals serve as the building blocks for Meal Plans. Once you have a suitable number of Meals created, you can mix and match them to create Meal Plans ("Cycle Menus"). 19. The NutriBase Meal Plan capability saves time and money. A Meal Plan is a collection of up to 168 meals and snacks (six meals a day for 4 weeks). Use Meal Plans to serve a large number of clients with a wide variety of needs. Create Meal Plans that suit a particular need, then use them - with slight modifications to serve a broad range of clients. For instance, you could create a set of several basic Meal Plans (weight-loss, body-building, low sodium, diabetic, etc.). Print them out with a one-page listing for each day of the plan. (This serves as a convenient "road map" that your client can carry with her throughout the day.) This Meal Plan Summary lists all the foods your client should eat, along with the portion sizes. All foods are organized by meals and snacks... in checklist format. If you prefer, you can export a four-week Meal Plan to a single compact file, then provide them to your clients who are using a low-end edition of NutriBase. Record Meal Plans as intakes for your clients (just select the Meal Plan you are prescribing, select the client, and select the starting date - NutriBase fills in the complete intake for that client for the next 4 weeks). You can provide them monthly Meal Plans on a USB Drive or as an Internet download to use in their self-monitored regimen (that you custom-designed for them). Take the results (which they have monitored in the Meal Plan Summary printout) and use the input to customize their next month's Meal Plan. Take an existing Meal Plan and edit it. Copy portions of one Meal Plan to a day (or days) of the same or different Meal Plan. Export the Meal Plan to a compact file. Share them or trade them with colleagues. Modify them to suit you needs. 20. Export recipes, Meals, and Meal Plans to a compact file that you can share with users of any edition of NutriBase. Every recipe contains all the Personal Food Items (PFI's - food items the user added to their database) and any recipes-within-a-recipe that they used. All Meals contain all PFI's and recipes used in them. And all Meal Plans contain all the PFI, recipes, recipes-within-recipes, and Meals used in the Meal Plan. All these components will appear in their proper locations in the recipient's copy of NutriBase when they import your recipe, Meal, or Meal Plan. 21. You can organize your recipes, Personal Food Items, Meals, and Clients into tabbed notebooks. Add, delete, and rename tabs. Move items from tab-to-tab. Each tabbed notebook resides in a "folder." You can create up to 26 Recipe Folders, 26 PFI Folders, 26 Meal Folders, and 26 Client Folders. You can move items not only from tab-to-tab, but from folder-to-folder. Use NutriBase tabbed notebooks and folders to organize your information your way. And if you'd like to automatically email your PFI's to CyberSoft for consideration for addition to future updates to our nutrient database, you can do so with the click of a button. 22. NutriBase facilitates deep nutrient analysis for intakes, recipes, Meals, and Meal Plans. The NutriBase Analyze Program automatically generates professional, pre-formatted reports as word processor documents, spreadsheet files or as fully formatted Web pages. 23. Only NutriBase lets you produce highly customized Initial Assessment Reports containing up to 177 items that NutriBase "knows" about your client. Each of these items is represented in your template file as a macro (a placeholder for the information that will be inserted into the Assessment Report). You can use these 177 macros anywhere and as often as you wish throughout your report (for instance, you can refer to the client by salutation and last name 50 times throughout the report if you wish). Once you set up your template files, it's a matter of a few clicks to produce a highly customized multi-page Initial Assessment Report for your clients. These highly customized Initial Assessment Reports look like you gave up your evening to produce them, but it actually only takes a click on the client's name and a click on the Report Button. In fact, you can use the batch processing feature to automatically generate hundreds of custom word processor or web page Assessment Reports in a matter of just a few seconds. Assessment Reports are very popular in health clubs and weight loss clinics. 24. Only NutriBase (Professional SE edition) will let you post a questionnaire on your web site, then let you collect client contact information and the information NutriBase needs to log any surfers who complete the form on as a client. The form enforces the completion of mandatory fields then places the data into a flat file database on your server. The Professional SE version will read this information and can log on 100 new clients in just a few seconds. (Normally, it takes one to two minutes to log on a client.) Once these users are logged on, you can generate highly customized Initial Assessment Reports which you can save as text and include in the body of an email message. If you prefer, you can save the report in Rich Text Format (RTF) and print a professional report out and mail it to them. And finally, you can save the report as a web page (HTML) and post it on your web site. 25. Only NutriBase provides an integrated Work Planner that allows you to schedule and your work schedule day by day. This not only helps you structure your workload, it also provides a record of your client consultations. 26. NutriBase provides the most powerful and flexible database Ranking capability. A ranking is a method of sorting your data from high-to-low (or from low-to-high) based on its values for any nutrient or variable. Select a nutrient or variable. Select whether you wish to sort the food items from high-to-low or from high-to-low based on their value for the selected nutrient or variable. Click the OK Button to display search results to the screen and note that the first nutrient column is the one you selected to rank. NutriBase lets you rank any food category, any combination of food categories, or the entire database. You can also sort columns of data on-screen. Click the column header for the nutrient you want to sort... NutriBase ranks all the foods in your list from high-to-low based on the food's values for that nutrient. Click the header again to reverse the sequence. 27. Only NutriBase provides full support for Target Heart Rate Training. Calculate exercise calorie expenditures for your clients based on in-zone training time (as well as gender, age, and body weight) Heart rate is the best indicator of exertion - NutriBase let's you use it in your calculations. 28. NutriBase provides support for indirect calorimeters. If you use a MedGem portable indirect calorimeter or similar device for obtaining your resting metabolic rate, you can enter RMR directly into NutriBase. NutriBase also accepts calorie expenditure inputs from programmable workout equipment. This feature lets you take the calories (and other information) provided by monitored exercise machines (like programmable treadmills or heart rate monitors) and enter in the results. Now, if your treadmill changes inclination and/or speed over the duration of the exercise, you can still enter a good estimate of calories burned. NutriBase lets you calculate calories expenditure calculations using the Harris-Benedict formula, the Mifflin St. Jeor formula, or the AEA charts for children under 18. You can modify these formulas as required. 29. Query the database. The NutriBase Query function lets you locate the food items that meet your exacting criteria. You may specify the upper (or lower limits) for as many (or as few) nutrients as you wish. The NutriBase query locates all the foods that meet all your criteria. For instance, you can locate all the foods that have at least 2 grams of Protein, no more than 360 mg of Sodium, no more than 30% of its calories from Fat, no more than 2 grams of Saturated Fat, at least 10 IU's of Vitamin E, and so on. You can specify as many or as few nutrients as you wish. You can even specify every nutrient in the database if you wish. When you've defined all your search criteria, click the Search Button and NutriBase will display all the food items that meet your criteria. "Mine" your nutrient data for the foods that fit perfectly into the recipes and Meal Plans you create and recommend for your clients. 30. NutriBase displays the total calories and the "PCFA Ratio" for every recipe, intake, and Meal Plan. A "PCFA ratio" (Protein-Carbohydrate-Fat-Alcohol Ratio) of 15-55-30-0 means that 15% of calories from the recipe, intake, or Meal Plan comes from Protein, 55% from Carbohydrates, and 30% from Fat. If you know the calorie level and the PCFA ratio for a diet, you probably already know the two most important things about that diet. If you prefer, you can tell NutriBase to display the CPFA Ratio instead (just click this option in the User Preferences section). 31. Only NutriBase lets you track nutrients that it doesn't already track. NutriBase Professional and higher editions track over 180 nutrients. But you can add up to 20 additional nutrients that aren't already tracked in the software. If you have the data, NutriBase can track it for you. 32. Share recipes, Meals, and Meal Plans via USB Drive, on a DS, as an email attachment, or as an Internet download/upload. NutriBase lets you export and import recipes and meal plans. All exported recipes and Meal Plans are compatible across all editions of NutriBase. This means you can create a Meal Plan or recipe in any edition of NutriBase and share it with users of the other editions of NutriBase (and vice versa). Each version of NutriBase will show you the nutrients featured in that edition. 33. NutriBase provides detailed nutrient information for enteral and parenteral products. These "medical nutritionals" are the tube feed and nutritional injection products used in hospitals and other care facilities. This information helps you compare the various mainstream products and educate the personnel (both physicians and patients) involved in their use. It also simplifies the integration of these medical nutritionals into your Meal Plans for clients with special needs. We've included the product lines from all the major providers of these products, including B. Braun/McGaw, Mead Johnson Nutritionals, Nestlé Clinical Nutrition, Novartis (Sandoz), R&D Laboratories and Ross. NutriBase includes information for medical nutritionals for Carbohydrate and Protein Supplements, Critical Care/Healing Support, Diabetes/Glucose Intolerance, Elemental Diet, Gastro-Intestinal Support, Hepatic Support, Intact Protein Diet, Vitamin and Mineral Supplements, Parenteral Products (Nutrient Injections), Pediatric, Pulmonary Support, and Renal Support. 34. NutriBase provides two special food categories: "Vitamin and Mineral Supplements" and "Sports and Diet Nutritionals." The first category provides detailed information for the major off-the-shelf vitamin and mineral supplements. The Sports and Diet Nutritionals category includes nutrient data for 600+ food items that include exercise recovery drinks, power bars, body building shakes and formulas, and liquid meals. 35. NutriBase supports single-click Web Page generation. If you publish information related to your practice (or would like to) on the Web, you'll appreciate the ease with which you can convert any report or analysis (such as a recipe) into a Web Page. To save any document as a Web Page, just use the "Save As" function and specify "HTML" (Web Page) format. The Professional SE edition will even help you capture client information off of your web site. You can save any NutriBase report as a text file, a word processor file, or as a web page. 36. Only NutriBase lets you analyze groups of clients as well as individual clients. This is useful for conducting studies with a number of individuals for any time span. A "client group" is a group of clients that you create by clicking on the names of the individuals, then saving the list under a group name. This capability eliminates the tedious and time-consuming transferring of data from word processor formatted reports into the often more useful report format of the PC spreadsheet. The spreadsheet or database format is suitable for distribution worldwide with your colleagues. 37. Save inputting time by auto-recording a pre-determined list of foods that you want to automatically record each time you record any food item for a client. This way, each time you record an intake for a new day for a particular client, NutriBase will automatically record the foods you specified for that client. You can define an auto-record list for every client if you wish. 38. Only NutriBase lets you export your mailing list (or portion of your mailing list) into a format suitable for Outlook Express or other email clients. With NutriBase, you don't need to maintain a separate database to send your clients a monthly newsletter (or any other mailing). When you are adding client information (name, sex, age, height, weight, body fat content, etc.), you can click the Contact Info Button and add the client's address, phone number, email, fax, etc. (If you use the Professional SE Edition, this is done for you automatically.) If you wish to do a monthly mailing to your entire client list or if you want to write and mail a special offer to certain clients in your list, you can select the data and names then export them to a file suitable for use with a database for printing mailing labels. If you prefer to use email, simply export your client list (or any portion of your client list into a format suitable for Outlook Express. To help you determine which newsletter to send, organize your clients into a Client Folder by type of client (e.g., Obese Clients, Body Building Clients, Clients from Mountainside Gym, etc.). 39. NutriBase is a solid value. Even if you disregard the superiority of NutriBase, you'll see that NutriBase is still the best value in nutrition software. With NutriBase, there are no on-going annual fees for continued product support. The makers of competing products charge hundreds of dollars per year for product support. CyberSoft provides toll-free technical support for NutriBase that never expires. NutriBase also provides downloads for 40. NutriBase provides the nutrition software industry's best product support. Consider: 41. Discounts for users of competitive software. If you already use a competitive high-end product, you may qualify for our special competitive upgrade pricing on the NutriBase Professional edition. When you've invested so much in a far less capable product, it can hurt to switch... but our competitive upgrade pricing can help.
42. You can purchase NutriBase Professional in three monthly no-interest payments. To do this, just select this option on the NutriBase Order Form.
43. For a limited time, your purchase includes a set of Sequoia Digital Body Fat Calipers and an OrbiTape Loop-Style Body Tape Measure at no additional charge. Our competitors don't have the ability to track, calculate, or track body fat content over time so there's no sense in using body fat measurements with them... which is a shame because most experts consider body fat measurements to be a more accurate indicator of ideal weight than any body weight charts.
44. Today's Dietitian Magazine says: ""NutriBase is a dream come true... The program is detail oriented and offers almost unlimited capacity for customization... other programs can't compare... it does just about everything a dietitian could want.""
45. Jordan Gold's ninth and latest book, "Get Fit with Technology: How to Lose Weight Using Your PC," provides information regarding over 30 nutrition software products. This book, says "NutriBase is much more powerful than competing products, with more reports, options, and bells and whistles than its competition... NutriBase is nutrition software on steroids."
We could go on, but we think we've made our point. :-) |