Micronutrients are the vitamins and minerals you need in milligrams or micrograms rather than grams. They don’t show up on the scale or in your calorie count, but a shortfall can show up as tiredness, poor recovery or, over years, real health problems.
Tracking them by hand is close to impossible. In Kality it happens by default: every food you log is broken down into more than forty nutrients.
What Kality tracks
| Group | Nutrients |
|---|---|
| Vitamins | A, C, D, E, K, B1 (thiamin), B2 (riboflavin), B3 (niacin), B5, B6, B7 (biotin), B9 (folate), B12, and choline |
| Minerals | Calcium, magnesium, potassium, sodium, phosphorus, chloride, iron, zinc, selenium, iodine, copper, manganese, molybdenum |
| Fats | Omega-3 (ALA, EPA, DHA), omega-6, saturated, monounsaturated, polyunsaturated and trans fat, cholesterol |
| Carbs | Fiber, sugars and added sugars |
| Antioxidants | Polyphenols, catechins, lycopene, anthocyanins, lutein and zeaxanthin |
| Other compounds | Caffeine, L-theanine, creatine, collagen, alcohol |
Targets that fit you
A single target for everyone would be wrong for most people. Kality sets your default targets by sex and age, based on reference intakes such as those published by the NIH Office of Dietary Supplements. A few examples:
- Iron: 18 mg a day for women under 51, 8 mg for men and for women from 51.
- Calcium: 1,000 mg, rising to 1,200 mg for women from 51 and everyone from 71.
- Potassium: 2,600 mg for women, 3,400 mg for men.
- Vitamin D: 20 mcg.
- Omega-3: 1.1 g for women, 1.6 g for men.
You can edit any of them. If you work with a coach or dietitian, they can set them for you, and the change appears on your phone straight away.
“In focus”: the few that matter to you
Forty numbers is too many to watch. So the Today screen shows an In focus card with up to five nutrients picked for you, based on your eating style, age, sex and goal. If you eat vegan or vegetarian, for example, Kality puts B12, iron, zinc, calcium and iodine in focus, because they’re the ones most likely to run short without animal foods. You can also pin the nutrients you care about yourself.
Daily limits: the other direction
Some things are a problem when you get too much. Kality keeps an upper limit for each of these:
| Nutrient | Daily limit |
|---|---|
| Sodium | 2,300 mg |
| Added sugars | 25 g |
| Total sugars | 50 g |
| Saturated fat | Under 10% of calories |
| Trans fat | Under 1% of calories |
| Cholesterol | 300 mg |
| Caffeine | 400 mg |
| Alcohol | 14 g (women) or 28 g (men) |
Once you pass 75% of a limit, it appears in the Over daily limit card, so you see it while there’s still time to change dinner. You can pick a Standard style, which quietly marks a limit once you pass it, or a Strict style, which turns orange at 90% and red when you go over.
Where micronutrients feed into your scores
Vitamin and mineral density is one of the factors in every meal quality score, and Vitamins & minerals, Sodium balance, Fat quality and Antioxidants are four of the eight pillars of the Longevity Score. Log your meals and all of it is calculated for you.
Kality gives general nutrition information, not medical advice. If you have a medical condition, are pregnant, or have a history of disordered eating, talk to a qualified health professional before changing how you eat.
