The Ration Dataset
What we measure, where it comes from, and how to cite it
Coverage
- Foods measured
- 3,215
- Compounds tracked
- 181
- Compound measurements
- 9,658
- Studies cited
- 1,299
Counts are read live from the database on each page build, so they reflect the corpus as it stands today.
What is in it
Ration combines three layers of food data. The first is standard nutrient composition: calories, macros, vitamins, minerals, and amino acids per 100 grams, taken from USDA FoodData Central laboratory measurements. The second is compound composition, which most nutrition databases omit entirely: oxalate, phytate, lectin, purine, heavy-metal, and bioactive levels compiled from published research. The third is preparation effects, meaning the measured percent change a cooking or processing method produces in a given compound.
The third layer is the part that does not exist elsewhere in structured form. Knowing a food is high in oxalate is only useful if you also know that boiling it removes a measured share of that oxalate. Those reductions are extracted from the studies that measured them and carry the citation alongside the number.
How values are graded
Every compound value carries a confidence grade reflecting how many independent studies measured it and how closely they agree. Where a food has never been measured for a nutrient or compound, Ration shows a dash rather than an imputed estimate. Rankings are computed from the stored values directly, never curated by hand, so a food appears at the top of a list only because its measurement puts it there.
Full sourcing and correction practice is documented in the editorial policy.
Citing this data
Researchers, journalists, and other databases are welcome to cite these figures. Attribute to Ration with a link to the specific nutrient or compound page the number came from, since each page states its own sample size and sources. For questions about the underlying measurements or bulk access, reach the editorial team through the editorial policy page.
Browse the data
The full catalog is sortable at the food database. Per-nutrient rankings live under nutrients, and compound levels with their reduction methods live under compounds.