nndb-import

Using this data

If a flat file of food and ingredients with the most common nutrients is all you want, we've made that available at data.world

If you want a denormalized, integrated MongoDB database of the USDA's National Nutrient database, then please see below.

Using this code

Import USDA National Nutrient Database ASCII files in to a MongoDB collection.

We developed this small python against SR27. Those data files are available from the download link at http://www.ars.usda.gov/Services/docs.htm?docid=8964

Some of the bulk operations we use weren't available until PyMongo version 3.0. Ubuntu packages a different version. As a result, we have supplied a setup.sh script for setting up a virtualenv, and a run.sh to use it. If you're already familiar with using virtualenv's then you can do it all yourself:

$ cd nndb-import
$ virtualenv venv
$ . venv/bin/activate
$ pip install -r requirements.txt
$ ./nndb_import.py

./nndb_import.py requires a specified directory containing the ASCII files linked above. Run ./nndb_import.py --help for details.

Optimization

There is a small attempt at a GA optimization approach for recommended nutritional intake based on an attempt at a fitness function tailored to my goals. It's there for historical purposes.

I won't keep you in suspense. The best recommendations generated were either nonsensical (3 pounds of celery seed?!) or a version of Michael Pollan's advice:

Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.

Note

This is a Python 3 app - we're not supporting Python 2.7