Google keeps adding new information to its Knowledge Graph, and today it is bringing nutrition info to its search results pages. Want to know how many calories there are in an avocado or how much protein there is in your chow mein? Google will now happily provide you with an answer. All of this information is, of course, also available through voice search and this new feature works on the web and mobile.
As Google notes, “this new nutritional information builds on our work on the Knowledge Graph, which brings together all kinds of information from across the web that wasn’t easily accessible.” Thanks to this, Google’s nutrition search, for example, knows that if you want to know about “summer squash,” zucchini should be an option in its drop-down menu because it’s apparently a type of summer squash.
Here are some other examples Google suggests you try (I should add that in my own searches, this wasn’t working yet, so your mileage may vary):
- Tempted by some popcorn at the movies? Ask “how many calories are in popcorn” and you’ll get your answer. [Hint: it's 31 calories per cup]
- Perplexed by a food label or recipe? Ask “what nutrients are in breadfruit?” or “is there sugar in grenadilla?”
- Big on a high-protein diet? Ask “how many carbs in corn?” or simply search for [corn] and you’ll see detailed nutrition info.
It’s worth noting that Microsoft’s Bing – thanks to data from Wolfram Alpha – has also been featuring some nutrition facts in its search results since at least 2010. As far as I can see, though, this data isn’t currently available through Bing’s natural language queries.
