For roughly half of all nutrients, a daily total answers the wrong question. Not because the arithmetic is wrong, but because the body works on two different timescales.
Water-soluble nutrients cannot be stored. Whatever the body does not need right away leaves through the kidneys. What matters here is what was on the plate over the last few days – a single day is too short to show anything, and a month too long to still change it.
Fat-soluble vitamins and most minerals are stored: vitamins A, D, E and K in the liver and fatty tissue, iron as ferritin, calcium in bone, vitamin B12 in the liver. For these, one bad day means nothing. Four bad weeks mean a great deal.
That is why Up-Food counts the first group over 7 days and the second over 28. Not as a setting, but as the foundation: every nutrient in the catalogue records which window it belongs to.
Water-soluble or continuously consumed. Here the week is the sensible timeframe.
Stored. Here a shortfall builds over weeks to months – and clears just as slowly.
Vitamin B12 is water-soluble and still belongs in the second group. The body stores it in the liver – for years. A B12 shortfall therefore builds very slowly, but is often noticed late. It is the one nutrient where solubility makes the wrong prediction.
Up-Food tracks 34 nutrients. Of those, 13 fall into the 7-day and 17 into the 28-day window; the rest are calories, sugar, cholesterol and sodium – limits rather than requirements, which is why they are not in the tables above. 24 of the 34 have their own reference page with requirements, sources and signs of a shortfall.
Seven questions, then a plan is on the table – worked out across both windows. No sign-up, no email address.
Build a weekly plan What it costsSome nutrients the body stores, others are gone after a day. Vitamin C and the B vitamins cannot be stored; whatever is not needed is excreted. Here what counts is what was on the plate over the last seven days. Iron, calcium and the fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E and K accumulate instead: one bad day does nothing, four bad weeks do. Up-Food counts the first group over 7 days and the second over 28.
No, not in practice. Vitamin C is water-soluble: whatever the body does not need immediately leaves through the kidneys. Vitamin C therefore has to come from food regularly. The same holds for the B vitamins – except vitamin B12, which is stored in the liver for years.
The fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E and K are stored in the liver and fatty tissue. Iron is stored as ferritin, calcium in bone, and vitamin B12 in the liver. For these, a shortfall does not arise on a single day but over weeks to months – and it clears just as slowly.
28 days is exactly four weeks. That keeps the longer window in step with the weekly rhythm in which people plan and shop – a calendar month would drift against the weeks.
No. Arithmetic from ingredient amounts says what was on the plate – not what arrives in the blood. Absorption and utilisation depend on much that no recipe knows. If you suspect a deficiency, have a medical condition, or are pregnant or breastfeeding, that question belongs with a doctor.
Nutrient values come from the USDA database and are calculated from the real ingredient amounts in each recipe, not from blanket figures. The reference values for requirements follow DGE recommendations by age and sex.