Overview
Nutrition works by matching your search term to the best generic food in the USDA FoodData Central SR Legacy database and returning its per-100-gram nutrition panel, layered with derived intelligence the raw USDA data does not carry - calories per gram, the percentage of calories from protein, fat and carbohydrate, and protein per 100 calories. Paid plans unlock the full micronutrient panel (sodium, potassium, cholesterol, the individual fats, minerals and vitamins), the percent Daily Value each nutrient supplies the way a Nutrition Facts label reads, plain-language dietary flags like high protein and low sodium, and can scale the whole panel to any serving weight in grams. Data comes from the public-domain USDA food composition dataset.
Formula
One function covers the whole catalog: the first argument names the source, the rest are its inputs, and the "field" pair says which single value lands in the cell. Formulas covers the grammar that applies to all of them.
=VERVE("nutrition", A2, "field", "fdcId")=VERVE.CALL("nutrition", A2, "field", "fdcId")A2 holds the food you are looking up. Drag the formula down and each row resolves on its own.
With literal values
Nothing has to come from a cell — typed values work the same way.
=VERVE("nutrition", "banana", "field", "fdcId")=VERVE.CALL("nutrition", "banana", "field", "fdcId")Inputs
Required inputs are positional, in the order below. Everything else is passed as a "name", value pair after them — the same shape as SUMIFS. Premium inputs are accepted on every plan but only take effect on plans that include them.
| Input | Type | Where it goes | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
foodRequired | string | argument 2 (A2) | Name of the food to look up (e.g. banana, chicken breast, olive oil) length 1–100 |
gramsOptionalPremium | number | "grams", value | Serving weight in grams to scale the nutrition panel to. Defaults to a per-100-gram basis. range 1–10000 |
Passing an option
=VERVE("nutrition", A2, "grams", 118)=VERVE.CALL("nutrition", A2, "grams", 118)What lands in your sheet
The "field" pair is what makes the formula resolve to one cell. Its value is a dot-path from the table below, so swapping it is how you pull a different value — one formula per column.
Seeing everything at once
Drop the "field" pair and the formula returns the whole response instead: two columns, field name on the left and value on the right, spilling from the cell you typed in.
=VERVE("nutrition", A2)=VERVE.CALL("nutrition", A2)The second row's table would land on top of the first's, and every cell after the first reads #REF! (#SPILL! in Excel). Keep one per sheet, or name a field, and leave the cells below and to the right empty.
Response fields
Paths are relative to data. Each one is exactly what the "field" pair accepts, so swapping it is how you pull a different value into a cell. On a plan without a Premium field the cell reads #PREMIUM(field) rather than a value, so a locked field never looks like a real answer.
| Use as "field" | Type | Example cell value | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
food | string | Bananas, raw | Matched food name from the USDA database |
fdcId | number | 173944 | USDA FoodData Central unique identifier for the food |
category | string | Fruits and Fruit Juices | USDA food category the item belongs to |
basis | string | per 100g | Basis the nutrition values are reported on (per 100g, or the requested serving) |
servingSizes | array[3] | Common household serving sizes reported for the food | |
servingSizes.0.label | string | 1 NLEA serving | Description of the serving size (e.g. 1 cup, sliced) |
servingSizes.0.grams | number | 126 | Weight of the serving in grams |
nutrition | object | {…} | Headline calories and macronutrients |
nutrition.calories | number | 89 | Energy in kilocalories |
nutrition.protein | number | 1.09 | Protein in grams |
nutrition.totalFat | number | 0.33 | Total fat in grams |
nutrition.carbohydrates | number | 22.8 | Total carbohydrates in grams |
nutrition.fiber | number | 2.6 | Dietary fiber in grams |
nutrition.sugars | number | 12.2 | Total sugars in grams |
micronutrients | object | {…} | Full micronutrient panel |
micronutrients.sodiumPremium | number | 1 | Sodium in milligrams |
micronutrients.potassiumPremium | number | 358 | Potassium in milligrams |
micronutrients.cholesterolPremium | number | 0 | Cholesterol in milligrams |
micronutrients.saturatedFatPremium | number | 0.112 | Saturated fat in grams |
micronutrients.transFatPremium | number | 0 | Trans fat in grams |
micronutrients.monounsaturatedFatPremium | number | 0.032 | Monounsaturated fat in grams |
micronutrients.polyunsaturatedFatPremium | number | 0.073 | Polyunsaturated fat in grams |
micronutrients.calciumPremium | number | 5 | Calcium in milligrams |
micronutrients.ironPremium | number | 0.26 | Iron in milligrams |
micronutrients.magnesiumPremium | number | 27 | Magnesium in milligrams |
micronutrients.phosphorusPremium | number | 22 | Phosphorus in milligrams |
micronutrients.zincPremium | number | 0.15 | Zinc in milligrams |
micronutrients.vitaminCPremium | number | 8.7 | Vitamin C in milligrams |
micronutrients.vitaminAPremium | number | 3 | Vitamin A in micrograms |
micronutrients.vitaminDPremium | number | 0 | Vitamin D in micrograms |
micronutrients.vitaminEPremium | number | 0.1 | Vitamin E in milligrams |
micronutrients.vitaminKPremium | number | 0.5 | Vitamin K in micrograms |
micronutrients.thiaminPremium | number | 0.031 | Thiamin (B1) in milligrams |
micronutrients.riboflavinPremium | number | 0.073 | Riboflavin (B2) in milligrams |
micronutrients.niacinPremium | number | 0.665 | Niacin (B3) in milligrams |
micronutrients.vitaminB6Premium | number | 0.367 | Vitamin B6 in milligrams |
micronutrients.folatePremium | number | 20 | Folate in micrograms |
micronutrients.vitaminB12Premium | number | 0 | Vitamin B12 in micrograms |
micronutrients.waterPremium | number | 74.9 | Water content in grams |
analytics | object | {…} | Derived nutrition intelligence |
analytics.caloriesPerGramPremium | number | 0.89 | Energy density in calories per gram |
analytics.proteinCaloriePercentPremium | number | 4.4 | Share of calories from protein (percent) |
analytics.fatCaloriePercentPremium | number | 3 | Share of calories from fat (percent) |
analytics.carbCaloriePercentPremium | number | 92.6 | Share of calories from carbohydrate (percent) |
analytics.proteinPer100CaloriesPremium | number | 1.22 | Grams of protein per 100 calories |
dailyValues | object | {…} | Percent of the FDA Daily Value each nutrient supplies on the reported basis |
dailyValues.proteinPremium | number | 2.2 | Protein as a percent of the Daily Value |
dailyValues.totalFatPremium | number | 0.4 | Total fat as a percent of the Daily Value |
dailyValues.saturatedFatPremium | number | 0.6 | Saturated fat as a percent of the Daily Value |
dailyValues.cholesterolPremium | number | 0 | Cholesterol as a percent of the Daily Value |
dailyValues.sodiumPremium | number | 0 | Sodium as a percent of the Daily Value |
dailyValues.carbohydratesPremium | number | 8.3 | Total carbohydrates as a percent of the Daily Value |
dailyValues.fiberPremium | number | 9.3 | Dietary fiber as a percent of the Daily Value |
dailyValues.potassiumPremium | number | 7.6 | Potassium as a percent of the Daily Value |
dailyValues.calciumPremium | number | 0.4 | Calcium as a percent of the Daily Value |
dailyValues.ironPremium | number | 1.4 | Iron as a percent of the Daily Value |
dailyValues.magnesiumPremium | number | 6.4 | Magnesium as a percent of the Daily Value |
dailyValues.phosphorusPremium | number | 1.8 | Phosphorus as a percent of the Daily Value |
dailyValues.zincPremium | number | 1.4 | Zinc as a percent of the Daily Value |
dailyValues.vitaminCPremium | number | 9.7 | Vitamin C as a percent of the Daily Value |
dailyValues.vitaminAPremium | number | 0.3 | Vitamin A as a percent of the Daily Value |
dailyValues.vitaminDPremium | number | 0 | Vitamin D as a percent of the Daily Value |
dailyValues.vitaminEPremium | number | 0.7 | Vitamin E as a percent of the Daily Value |
dailyValues.vitaminKPremium | number | 0.4 | Vitamin K as a percent of the Daily Value |
dailyValues.thiaminPremium | number | 2.6 | Thiamin (B1) as a percent of the Daily Value |
dailyValues.riboflavinPremium | number | 5.6 | Riboflavin (B2) as a percent of the Daily Value |
dailyValues.niacinPremium | number | 4.2 | Niacin (B3) as a percent of the Daily Value |
dailyValues.vitaminB6Premium | number | 21.6 | Vitamin B6 as a percent of the Daily Value |
dailyValues.folatePremium | number | 5 | Folate as a percent of the Daily Value |
dailyValues.vitaminB12Premium | number | 0 | Vitamin B12 as a percent of the Daily Value |
dietaryFlags | object | {…} | Plain-language dietary attributes derived from FDA nutrient-content-claim thresholds |
dietaryFlags.highProteinPremium | boolean | false | True when protein is at least 20% of the Daily Value per 100g |
dietaryFlags.goodSourceOfProteinPremium | boolean | false | True when protein is 10-19% of the Daily Value per 100g |
dietaryFlags.highFiberPremium | boolean | false | True when fiber is at least 20% of the Daily Value per 100g |
dietaryFlags.goodSourceOfFiberPremium | boolean | false | True when fiber is 10-19% of the Daily Value per 100g |
dietaryFlags.lowSodiumPremium | boolean | true | True when sodium is 140mg or less per 100g |
dietaryFlags.lowFatPremium | boolean | true | True when total fat is 3g or less per 100g |
dietaryFlags.lowSaturatedFatPremium | boolean | true | True when saturated fat is 1g or less per 100g |
dietaryFlags.lowCholesterolPremium | boolean | true | True when cholesterol is 20mg or less per 100g |
dietaryFlags.lowCaloriePremium | boolean | false | True when energy is 40 kcal or less per 100g |
Filling a whole column
Both platforms make one batched call for a column rather than one request per cell, and both cost the same — 2 credits per row looked up. How you write it differs, because the two runtimes batch at different points.
=VERVE("nutrition", A2:A100, "field", "fdcId")In Google Sheets, give the arguments ranges and the answers spill down from the cell you typed in. Custom functions there run synchronously and in isolation, so dragged cells cannot be coalesced — the range form is how a column becomes one call. The "field" pair is required here: a per-row two-column table has nowhere to spill. Use a full column per input (A2:A100, not A2) — a single-cell reference is read as row 1 only and the rest of the column comes back blank.
In Excel, type the formula once and fill down — no range form and none needed, because its runtime is asynchronous and the add-in coalesces the calls a fill produces into a single batched request. Do not hand VERVE.CALL a range: Excel flattens it into positional arguments, so A2:A100 arrives as a hundred separate arguments and the cell reads #ERR rather than filling.
Either way, column A holds your food values and the answers land beside them, one row each, blank rows skipped.
When a cell doesn't fill
A failed lookup returns readable text starting with #ERR rather than a spreadsheet error, because Excel cannot show a custom message on a real error — you would get a bare #VALUE! with no reason. The trade-off is that IFERROR() will not catch it; test with LEFT(cell, 4) = "#ERR" instead. Error handling covers the rest.
| Cell reads | What happened |
|---|---|
#ERR Not connected | No API key saved. Open the side panel and connect your account. |
#ERR Replace <name> with a cell or value | A preview formula was copied as-is. Swap the placeholder for a cell reference. |
#ERR No "x" in nutrition | An option name this source does not take. The message lists the ones it does. |
#ERR No data point "…" | The "field" path is not in the response. Check it against the table above. |
#PREMIUM(field) | The field exists but your plan does not include it. |
#ERR Out of credits | The cycle's credits are spent. Usage resets on your billing date. |
Before the formula works
The add-in reads the API key you saved once in the side panel — the key never goes in the formula, so a shared sheet does not leak it and a collaborator without access simply sees the last calculated values.
- Install the add-in for Google Sheets or Excel.
- Open the side panel and sign in, or paste a key from your dashboard.
- Type the formula above into any cell.
Other ways to use Nutrition Facts
Set up Nutrition Facts on VerveSheets, or reach the same source a different way. Your VerveSheets account and credits work on all of them — one key, one balance.
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