Kathleen's Diet Planner

Kathleen's Diet Planner includes nearly every tool to help you monitor your overall health and nutrition, but little has been done to soften the look of this database-driven application. The initial interface is crowded, as are many of the windows for the various features, and it isn't clear how to get started. The publisher's Web site does contain 20 videos that walk you through literally each step of using the program, and the help file is exhaustive.

Kathleen's Diet Planner can track and chart a number of diet- and health-related details, including weight, blood pressure, measurements, and cholesterol. It has an impressive 40,000-plus food database, and comes with a shopping-list organizer to help you stay on track when you head to the grocery. The built-in reports are comprehensive, but you can also build your own. The trial version restricts the number of foods per day and the number of recipes you can add. It also has a hefty 15MB download. Database-savvy users will reap the most benefit from this comprehensive diet and nutrition manager.