Analysis of dietary data; an interactive computer method for storage and retrieval.

The authors briefly review some problems encountered in collecting and interpreting dietary data and in analyzing them by hand and by computer methods. The use of computers, meant to speed processing, has often delayed processing or merely replaced computation time with coding time. The authors describe a simplified nutrient data base and an interactive retrieval method, Quick Input of Food, which has been developed for direct use by nutritionists with their clients.