Variety counts breadth: how many different foods showed up. A wider set can improve the chance of covering different nutrients, though the count on its own cannot grade a diet Verger 2021.
The Calk Variety Map turns this count into a visual record of foods and groups present during the month.
Ingredient Variety#
What Calk calculates. Calk counts distinct ingredients in complete food-log days. Frying one day and boiling the next counts as two, so the number can rise without the rotation widening.
What you can do. If the rotation is narrow, add one ingredient to a repeated meal: a second vegetable in a bowl, a different bean in soup, fruit with breakfast or seeds on yogurt. Dietary-diversity measures are often associated with better micronutrient adequacy, but the strength and definition vary by population Verger 2021.
Produce Pattern#
What Calk calculates. Calk counts vegetables and fruit the way the NHS 5 A Day guidance does and compares the daily average with 400 g, five portions of 80 g NHS 2026. The card shows that as a percentage and says when you are less than one portion short. Fresh, frozen and canned produce counts by weight; dried fruit counts by the portion, so 30 g equals 80 g of fresh fruit. Potatoes are a starchy food and stay out, as do fries and crisps, while sweet potatoes count. Juice is left out, and in sweetened dried fruit or fruit in syrup only the fruit counts, without the added sugar.
WHO’s 400 g leaves out all starchy roots, sweet potato included; Calk follows the NHS on that point World 2020. Large prospective studies associate higher intake with lower long-term risk, but the association does not predict an individual’s outcome Aune 2017.
What you can do. Add produce to a meal that already repeats. Fresh, frozen and canned options can all help; check added salt or sugar when it matters.
Plant Diversity#
What Calk calculates. Calk counts distinct plant ingredients from vegetables, fruit, legumes, grains, nuts, seeds, herbs and spices.
The American Gut Project compared 41 people reporting more than 30 plant types a week with 44 reporting fewer than 10 and found greater microbial diversity in the higher-variety group McDonald 2018. The study was observational and did not establish 30 as a health threshold.
What you can do. Use the count to widen a narrow rotation, with foods you eat in an ordinary amount. The full evidence and limits are in where 30 plants a week comes from.
Live-Culture Foods#
What Calk calculates. Calk looks at the last seven days, at least four of them complete, and counts the days with at least 50 g of a food that carries live cultures as eaten: kefir, yogurt, skyr, ayran, sauerkraut, kimchi, brine-fermented cucumbers, kombucha. Vinegar pickles, sourdough bread, pasteurized drinks, sweetened yogurt and the same kefir baked or sauerkraut stewed do not count. On more than half of the days, the card names the food behind the habit. Otherwise it offers one you already eat, unsweetened and in a usual portion of 50 g or more; if there is none, the card stays away.
Salted ferments such as sauerkraut, kimchi and brine cucumbers drop out of the card while your week’s salt is over the limit, and the card offers kefir or yogurt instead.
In a ten-week trial, a diet high in fermented foods raised the diversity of gut bacteria and lowered markers of inflammation Wastyk 2021. There is no official intake recommendation. Calk shows how often you eat these foods.
What you can do. Add a portion of a live-culture food you already like to a meal that repeats: kefir or yogurt at breakfast, sauerkraut or kimchi beside a main dish. If salt is high this week, start with the unsalted ones.
Fish Frequency#
What Calk calculates. Calk counts days and meals containing fish or seafood and distinguishes common omega-3 sources where ingredient data supports it.
American Heart Association guidance recommends two fish servings a week, especially fatty fish, for people without cardiovascular disease Rimm 2018. Local guidance can differ for pregnancy, children and fish with higher mercury levels.
What you can do. If fish fits your diet but rarely appears, add one familiar option. Canned and frozen fish count. If you do not eat fish, the separate omega-3 view covers the plant sources.
Red Meat Pattern#
What Calk calculates. Frequency is counted in days: a day with steak and a day with sausage both count as meat days, and the two are counted together. Processed meat is also counted on its own, and when it repeats the advice starts with it. Fresh red meat contributes protein, iron, zinc and B12; processed meat adds a different risk context.
World Cancer Research Fund guidance suggests limiting red meat to about 350–500 g cooked weight per week for people who eat it and consuming very little, if any, processed meat World 2018.
What you can do. If the pattern is frequent, replace one repeated serving with fish, poultry, legumes, tofu or another protein you already eat. Start with processed meat when it is the main repeated source.