June 20, 2014

What’s For Dinner

Christopher Klein

Recommending dinners to fit your nutritional goals

Calorie Counting

Would like to recommended a dinner to meet calorie goals

Food Calories Carbs Fat Protein Sugar Fiber

Breakfast Oatmeal 100 19 2 4 0 3Milk (1%) 110 13 3 9 12 0

! Banana 110 29 0 1 15 3Lunch PB&J 300 44 14 12 16 4

Diet Cola 0 0 0 0 0 0Brownie 410 56 19 0 43 2

“Free Donut” 350 35 19 4 14 2Sum 1380 196 57 30 100 14Goal 2500 305 80 120 90 45

Dinner Target 1120 109 23 90 -10 31

Calorie Counting

✤ Problem solution is naively simple!

✤ Filling a knapsack!

✤ Naive solution leads to awkward dinners!

✤ Haddock and pancakes with marshmallows!

✤ Solution: learn natural dinner compositions from data

Data Sources and Methods

✤ USDA (10 yrs of survey data)!

✤ 31,261 recorded dinners!

✤ USDA Food and Nutrient DB for Dietary Studies!

✤ 9,537 food listings!

✤ Feed dinner descriptions into word2vec to discover pairings and clusters (cuisine types)

Breakfast for Dinner

Italian + Salad

SeafoodAsian

Mexican

American Southern

Classic American

Dessert + Liquor

Insights

✤ Americans really love potatoes (french fries), soda, and cheese with dinner (to detrimental health)!

✤ Average American dinner is high in fat, low in carbs!

✤ Italian + Salad and American Southern cuisines provide the most balanced dinners!

✤ Kidney beans pair with every cuisine except Asian!

✤ Asian and Mexican cuisine is very cliquish

Christopher Klein