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HelpDiabetes - carb counter on your cellular phone

Disclaimer     GSM Phone requirements     Installation     How to use the application     Load your own nutrition table     Other food composition tables and other languages     Screenshots     FAQ     Contact    

 

HelpDiabetes is a carb counter application that runs on a cellular phone.

The application has built in the Food Composition Table from food-info.net from the Wageningen University in the Netherlands.

It’s also possible to make your own foodtable in Excel and transfer it to the GSM (not all phones will support this). The application also calculates the amounts of insuline needed for people with diabetes.

Other food composition tables and other languages are available.

The application is available for free.

Disclaimer

Please verify the food composition table and experiment with the application before you start using it. Note that this program is only a help. I’ve written it for myself because I want to be able to do precise calculations without having a PC next to me. This is also how you should use it. I do not take the responsibility for the consequences of misusing this application.

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GSM Phone System Requirements :

The phone must support Java MIDP 2.0 and CLDC 1.0. To transfer an own version of the foodtable from the application menu, support of JSR75 for unsigned Java midlets is necessary. A version for phones that don’t support JSR75 for unsigned midlets is available. There is an alternative for using your own foodtable in these versions, see faq2

If you don't know what version your phone supports, try first the version with JSR75. If you can't get this one installed and running, try the version without JSR75.


The application will not work on phones without keyboard (like Qtec,..), Palm, iPhone, ...

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Installation :

There are several possibilities

- use a cable (USB), InfraRed or Bluetooth connection to copy the application from your PC to your phone and install it. You can download the application here :

 

Phones that don’t support JSR75 for unsigned midlets :

- Use your phone’s WAP browser and go to http://users.skynet.be/GTbiker/HDEN/English2/HelpDiabetes.jar (phones not supporting JSR75 :http://users.skynet.be/GTbiker/HDBEN/English2/HelpDiabetes.jar. To avoid having to type the complete URL in your phone, you can also use an SMS Web application (if your operator offers this), copy the URL and send it as an SMS to yourself. Open the SMS and open the link.

- Download the application (Hyperlinks above) to your PC. Go to Phone Uploader In the section 'Upload Java midlets', enter the location of the application on your PC and then choose ’Upload Midlet’. You will see a 'jump code'. Use your phone’s WAP browser and go to http://rumkin.com/tools/sprint/jump.php, fill in the 'jump code' and choose 'Get File'.

- You can also download the application (version without JSR75) for free from Getjar or Phoload

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First use of the application

The first time you use the application, it will read the complete food composition table that is built in. This may take a minute.

Use the application :

The first screen displays the list of all food items, starting with the first in alphabetical order.

Search an item :

You can search an item by entering the starting characters of the item’s name, as you would type an SMS. You can scroll with game keys 'UP' and 'DOWN' .
Only characters a..z can be entered, but the application also recognizes variants for example é è ë are all found as 'e'.
To select a food item press the 'SELECT' key or choose option 'Choose'. Note : some food items may have special characters like 'Macaroni cheese - Tin'. All the letters can be entered in the search box, and also the spaces by clicking the game key 'RIGHT' . However '-' can’t be typed by pressing numeric keys. One possibility is to get 'Macaroni cheese – Tin' displayed as first item in the list, and pressing the game key 'RIGHT' . Letters can be removed from the search box by pressing keys 'C', 'BACK' of 'LEFT' (not all phones support the 'C' and 'BACK' key).

Count the amount of carbs and add to a list

After having selected a food item, you can choose the amount. The unit is shown and is always ‘gram’ for the standard fooddatabase. Example, suppose the selected food item is ‘Bread White’, press on numeric key ‘6’ and then ‘0’. The application will immediately count the amount of carbs (gram) for 60 grams of ‘Bread White’ and show the result. Also the amount of proteins, fat and kilocalories are calculated. For these elements, only the total amounts are shown, being the total for all the food items that have been selected by you and added to the list with your chosen amounts. If not all information can be shown on one screen, a scrollbar will appear on the right. Use keys 'UP' and 'DOWN' to scroll. Remark : Total amounts are shown rounded to the lower Integer value. The calculation keeps into account the correct figures.
It is also possible to enter digits after the decimal point (eg 0,5 piece of apple, assuming an apple would be there with unit ‘piece’ – which is not the case in the standard table). Choose 'RIGHT', and the cursor will move to the decimal part, choose ‘LEFT’ and the cursor moves back to the Integer part. Chosing 'LEFT' also removes already entered digits.
Once you’ve chosen the amount, you can add the food item to a list by choosing option ‘Add’.

Show total amount off kilocalories, fats, proteins and carbohydrates and calculate amounts of insuline needed.

From the first screen, using option ‘Show current total’ you can see the total amounts of carbohydrates, fats, porteins and kilocalories for the chosen food items and amounts in the list. Remark : whenever the source fooddatabase contains no value for proteins, fats or kilocalories for one of the items in the list of chosen items, then the totals are not calculated. The amount of insuline needed is also shown here, but only if you first set the amount of carbohydrates per unit if insuline (see Settings).

Show Current list of chosen food items

With this option you can view the list of food items selected so far with the amounts. It’s possible to modify one of the amounts : scroll ‘up’ or ‘down’ to scroll to the item you want to change, press ‘select’, now you can change the amount. Choose ‘Save’ to store the new amount or ‘back’ to cancel.

Empty List

With this option you remove the food items that you selected and have added to the list. You do this typically at start of a new meal.

Settings

- Set the amounts of required insuline : what you enter is the amount of grams of carbohydrates you can have per unit of insuline. This you can do for breakfast, dinner, supper.

Set the times you switch from breakfast to supper, supper to dinner. The application will use these times to use the correct value of amounts of carbohydates per unit insuline.

- font size

- Speed of Search : this is a setting which allows to take into account the different capacities of cellular phones. Nokia phones seem to work faster than Sony Ericsson. The standard value is 50. For Nokia phones you can set it to 1000. For Motorola phones even to 2000.

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Reload fooddatabase

You can make your own version of the food composition table on a PC using Excel. Use fooddatabase.xls and add your own items at the bottom on the first empty row. You can also modify existing lines. To remove an item just make the column A of that item empty. It will be removed automatically after running the macro.
There's no limitation to the characters used in the names of the fooditems, as long as the character belongs to the extended ASCII character set. Choose the unit which can be any free text and the standard amount. Example : unit can be "gram", standard amount can be "50". You then enter the amounts of carbohydrates, kilocalories, fats and proteins for 50 gram. Unit could also be "slice" with standard amount "1". Both field can also be ampty.
The amounts of kilocalories, fats and proteins is optional.
When the list is ready, press ctrl+h or click on 'Press here to prepare the worksheet for transfer to the GSM'. The Excel table will be saved and a second file will be generated named foodfile.csv and stored in c:\temp (c:\temp must exist on your PC !). Copy the file c:\temp\foodfile.csv to your cellular phone using USB/Bluetooth/Infrared. Then you can use the HelpDiabetes application on the phone to load foodfileuk.csv using ‘options’ ‘Reload’.
If this option is not available on your phone, then it means you're running the limited version of the application which is used for phones not supported JSR75 in unsigned midlets. In that case you can still install your own table as described here or you can try to install and run the version with JSR75.

Important :
- You should put excel macro security to low. In Excel chose ‘Tools’ – ‘Options’ – ‘Tab Security’ – ‘macro Security’ – ‘Low’)
- if you want to enter digits after the decimal point, use the decimal which you would normally use in Excel. The table attached uses ‘.’ as decimal point (example 2,5 is written in the table as 2.5). If you would normally use ‘.’ , use it here also.

 

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Other food composition tables and other languages

 

IMPORTANT : while copying databases from different sources, I alway used total amount of carbohydrates. Some sources differentiate between available carbohydrates and fibers.

Dutch

This is a table found on the Internet for example here : Snoopy's calorieëntabel

The Application is available here :

Phones that don’t support JSR75 for unsigned midlets :

The fooddatabase is available here : voedingsmiddelentabel.xls

English - Norway

The Norwegian Food Safety Authority, the Directorate of Health and Social Affairs and the Department of Nutrition at the University of Oslo have collaborated to publish the Norwegian Food Composition Table 2006 (MVT-06) : Food Composition Table

The application is available here :

Phones that don’t support JSR75 for unsigned midlets :

The fooddatabase is available here : fooddatabase-norway-en.xls

English - Australia - New Zealand

This table is produced by 'Food Standards Australia New Zealand' : http://www.foodstandards.gov.au

The table is quite big, depending on the phone you have the application might not work very fast.

The application is available here :

Phones that don’t support JSR75 for unsigned midlets :

The fooddatabase is available here : FSANZ.xls

English - Denmark

Source :

Møller, A., Saxholt, E., Christensen, A.T., Hartkopp, H.B., Hess Ygil, K.: Danish Food Composition Databank, revision 6.0. Food Informatics, Department of Nutrition, Danish Institute for Food and Veterinary Research. June 2005. Food Composition in Denmark

The application is available here :

Phones that don’t support JSR75 for unsigned midlets :

The fooddatabase is available here : fooddatabase-denmark-en.xls

Danish

Source :

Møller, A., Saxholt, E., Christensen, A.T., Hartkopp, H.B., Hess Ygil, K.: Danish Food Composition Databank, revision 6.0. Food Informatics, Department of Nutrition, Danish Institute for Food and Veterinary Research. June 2005. Fødevaredatabanken

The application is available here :

Phones that don’t support JSR75 for unsigned midlets :

The fooddatabase is available here : fooddatabase-denmark-danish.xls

Norwegian

The Norwegian Food Safety Authority, the Directorate of Health and Social Affairs and the Department of Nutrition at the University of Oslo have collaborated to publish the Norwegian Food Composition Table 2006 (MVT-06) : matvaretabellen - informasjon om naeringsstoffer i maten

The application is available here :

Phones that don’t support JSR75 for unsigned midlets :

The fooddatabase is available here : fooddatabase-norway-nor.xls

French - Canada

Source: Valeur nutritive de quelques aliments usuels, Health Canada, 1999 - Reproduced with the permission of the Minister of Public Works and Government Services Canada, 2008.

The application is available here :

Phones that don’t support JSR75 for unsigned midlets :

The fooddatabase is available here : fooddatabase-ca-f.xls

French - Switzerland

Source: Swiss Food Composition Database V2.0 - ETH Zurich & Federal Office of Public Health. Base de données suisse des valeurs nutritives

The application is available here :

Phones that don’t support JSR75 for unsigned midlets :

The fooddatabase is available here : fooddatabase-switzerland-fr.xls

Spanish

Source: Tabla de Composición de Alimentos de Uruguay

The application is available here :

Phones that don’t support JSR75 for unsigned midlets :

The fooddatabase is available here : foodtableUruguay.xls

 

Italien - Switzerland

Source: Swiss Food Composition Database V2.0 - ETH Zurich & Federal Office of Public Health. Banca dati svizzera dei valori nutritivi

The application is available here :

Phones that don’t support JSR75 for unsigned midlets :

The fooddatabase is available here : fooddatabase-switzerland-it.xls

 

German - Switzerland

Source: Swiss Food Composition Database V2.0 - ETH Zurich & Federal Office of Public Health. Schweizer Nährwertdatenbank

The application is available here :

Phones that don’t support JSR75 for unsigned midlets :

The fooddatabase is available here : fooddatabase-switzerland-ge.xls

 

Romanian

Source: Tabel cu continutul de calorii, proteine, glucide, lipide al alimentelor.

The application is available here :

Phones that don’t support JSR75 for unsigned midlets :

The fooddatabase is available here : fooddatabase-romania.xls

 

Czech

Source: rozumnehubniti.cz : Tabulky složení potravin

The application is available here :

Phones that don’t support JSR75 for unsigned midlets :

The fooddatabase is available here : fooddatabase-czech.xls

 


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Following screenshots illustrate the ease of using the application.

As soon as you entered a character, the application starts searching for the first line that starts with this character. The searching continues as you continue entering characters. It is also possible to perform a detailed search with the entered search string : the application will search all lines that contain the string.

 

After selecting an item, the application shows the amount of carbs per standard amount. You can now enter your amount that you want to eat and the application immediately calculates the amount of carbs.

The total shows the total amount of carbs, proteins, kilocalories and fat for all the food items you already selected.

You can add the item with your amount to a list of selected food items.

 

This screen shows the list of items you already selected. For each line you can select it and change the amount.

 

The application calculates the amount if insuline needed, based on your personal settings that contain typical amounts of carbohydartes you can take per unit of insuline, for breakfast, dinner and supper.

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Frequently Asked Questions

  1. I can install the application on my phone but after starting the phone gives an error message : "The Midlet suite Helpdiabetes can't be installed because it has no permission to use javax.microedition.io.connector.file.read"

  2. Can I load my own food table if my phone does not support JSR75 ?

  3. I don't know why but to type "l" you have to strike 3 time the key number 5. I am getting always j or k and never "l" ..strange...

  4. when I open the Excel fooddatabase and I click on the first line where it says "Click here to prepare the sheet for transfer to GSM" I receive an error: Run-time error '1004'. Method 'Save as' of object '_Workbook' failed.


  1. I can install the application on my phone but after start up the phone gives an error message : "The Midlet suite Helpdiabetes can't be installed because it has no permission to use javax.microedition.io.connector.file.read"
    2.
    The HelpDiabetes application is not signed. This means some devices will not allow the application to use a potentially dangerous function which is to read a file from the memory. This functionality is needed in order to load your own food tables.

    Phones on which this problem is reported : HTC TyTn II, LG

    The solution is to use the limited version which doesn't offer the functionality to load your own food tables, however for this also there is another solution.
    Download and install the limited version : http://users.skynet.be/GTbiker/HDBEN/English2/HelpDiabetes.jar. The limited version contains en English foodtable but you can replace it with any other table listed here using the method described in frequently asked question 2.


  2. Can I load my own food table if my phone does not support JSR75 ?
    3.
    Yes you can. Download the limited version : http://users.skynet.be/GTbiker/HDBEN/English2/HelpDiabetes.jar on your PC. The limited version contains en English foodtable but you can replace it with any other table listed here in the following way :

    Rename HelpDiabetes.jar to HelpDiabetes.zip
    Open HelpDiabetes.zip using winrar or 7zip. You can see in the package a directory called "foodfile". In this directory you see the file named "foodfile.csv". This file contains the food table and should be replaced by your own version. Your own version can be obtained first by opening any of the excel tables listed here , editing it if you wish, and pressing ctrl-h. Your own food table is now in c:\temp\foodfile.csv and should be put into the zip file replacing the original file. Then rename HelpDiabetes.zip back to HelpDiabetes.jar and install this application on your device.


  3. I don't know why but to type "l" you have to strike 3 time the key number 5. I am getting always j or k and never "l" ..strange...
    4.
    You need to decrease the setting 'Speed of Search'. You can do this in the application via 'Options' - 'Settings'. The minimum value is 1. The maximum value is 5000. Try to find the best value. The lower the value, the slower the searching, but the less risk of experiencing this problem. The higher the value, the faster the searching, but then you might experience the problem. It all depends on the capacity of your phone.

  4. when I open the Excel fooddatabase and I click on the first line where it says "Click here to prepare the sheet for transfer to GSM" I receive an error: Run-time error '1004'. Method 'Save as' of object '_Workbook' failed.
    5.
    You need to create directory c:\temp on your PC en try again. The excel macro first saves the workbook and then saves the foodtable as a csv file in c:\temp. If this subdirectory does not exist on you c-drive then you get this error message.


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Contact

If you need help, just let me know, my e-mail address is johan.degraeve@gmail.com

Johan Degraeve

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