eprintid: 17880 rev_number: 8 eprint_status: archive userid: 2 dir: disk0/00/01/78/80 datestamp: 2025-12-03 23:32:23 lastmod: 2025-12-03 23:32:24 status_changed: 2025-12-03 23:32:23 type: article metadata_visibility: show creators_name: Rodríguez- Jiménez, Marcela creators_name: Martín-del-Campo-Becerra, Gustavo Daniel creators_name: Sumalla Cano, Sandra creators_name: Crespo-Álvarez, Jorge creators_name: Elío Pascual, Iñaki creators_id: creators_id: creators_id: sandra.sumalla@uneatlantico.es creators_id: jorge.crespo@uneatlantico.es creators_id: inaki.elio@uneatlantico.es title: Image-Based Dietary Energy and Macronutrients Estimation with ChatGPT-5: Cross-Source Evaluation Across Escalating Context Scenarios ispublished: pub subjects: uneat_eng divisions: uneatlantico_produccion_cientifica divisions: uninimx_produccion_cientifica divisions: uninipr_produccion_cientifica divisions: unic_produccion_cientifica divisions: uniromana_produccion_cientifica full_text_status: public keywords: calorie and macronutrient estimation; image-based dietary assessment; validation metrics (MAE, MedAE, RMSE); vision-language models abstract: Background/Objectives: Estimating energy and macronutrients from food images is clinically relevant yet challenging, and rigorous evaluation requires transparent accuracy metrics with uncertainty and clear acknowledgement of reference data limitations across heterogeneous sources. This study assessed ChatGPT-5, a general-purpose vision-language model, across four scenarios differing in the amount and type of contextual information provided, using a composite dataset to quantify accuracy for calories and macronutrients. Methods: A total of 195 dishes were evaluated, sourced from Allrecipes.com, the SNAPMe dataset, and Home-prepared, weighed meals. Each dish was evaluated under Case 1 (image only), Case 2 (image plus standardized non-visual descriptors), Case 3 (image plus ingredient lists with amounts), and Case 4 (replicates Case 3 but excluding the image). The primary endpoint was kcal Mean Absolute Error (MAE); secondary endpoints included Median Absolute Error (MedAE) and Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) for kcal and macronutrients (protein, carbohydrates, and lipids), all reported with 95% Confidence Intervals (CIs) via dish-level bootstrap resampling and accompanied by absolute differences (Δ) between scenarios. Inference settings were standardized to support reproducibility and variance estimation. Source stratified analyses and quartile summaries were conducted to examine heterogeneity by curation level and nutrient ranges, with additional robustness checks for error complexity relationships. Results and Discussion: Accuracy improved from Case 1 to Case 2 and further in Case 3 for energy and all macronutrients when summarized by MAE, MedAE, and RMSE with 95% CIs, with absolute reductions (Δ) indicating material gains as contextual information increased. In contrast to Case 3, estimation accuracy declined in Case 4, underscoring the contribution of visual cues. Gains were largest in the Home-prepared dietitian-weighed subset and smaller yet consistent for Allrecipes.com and SNAPMe, reflecting differences in reference curation and measurement fidelity across sources. Scenario-level trends were concordant across sources, and stratified and quartile analyses showed coherent patterns of decreasing absolute errors with the provision of structured non-visual information and detailed ingredient data. Conclusions: ChatGPT-5 can deliver practically useful calorie and macronutrient estimates from food images, particularly when augmented with standardized nonvisual descriptors and detailed ingredients, as evidenced by reductions in MAE, MedAE, and RMSE with 95% CIs across scenarios. The decline in accuracy observed when the image was omitted, despite providing detailed ingredient information, indicates that visual cues contribute meaningfully to estimation performance and that improvements are not solely attributable to arithmetic from ingredient lists. Finally, to promote generalizability, it is recommended that future studies include repeated evaluations across diverse datasets, ensure public availability of prompts and outputs, and incorporate systematic comparisons with non-artificial-intelligence baselines. date: 2025-11 publication: Nutrients volume: 17 number: 22 pagerange: 3613 id_number: doi:10.3390/nu17223613 refereed: TRUE issn: 2072-6643 official_url: http://doi.org/10.3390/nu17223613 access: open language: en citation: Artículo Materias > Ingeniería Universidad Europea del Atlántico > Investigación > Producción Científica Universidad Internacional Iberoamericana México > Investigación > Producción Científica Universidad Internacional Iberoamericana Puerto Rico > Investigación > Producción Científica Universidad Internacional do Cuanza > Investigación > Producción Científica Universidad de La Romana > Investigación > Producción Científica Abierto Inglés Background/Objectives: Estimating energy and macronutrients from food images is clinically relevant yet challenging, and rigorous evaluation requires transparent accuracy metrics with uncertainty and clear acknowledgement of reference data limitations across heterogeneous sources. This study assessed ChatGPT-5, a general-purpose vision-language model, across four scenarios differing in the amount and type of contextual information provided, using a composite dataset to quantify accuracy for calories and macronutrients. Methods: A total of 195 dishes were evaluated, sourced from Allrecipes.com, the SNAPMe dataset, and Home-prepared, weighed meals. Each dish was evaluated under Case 1 (image only), Case 2 (image plus standardized non-visual descriptors), Case 3 (image plus ingredient lists with amounts), and Case 4 (replicates Case 3 but excluding the image). The primary endpoint was kcal Mean Absolute Error (MAE); secondary endpoints included Median Absolute Error (MedAE) and Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) for kcal and macronutrients (protein, carbohydrates, and lipids), all reported with 95% Confidence Intervals (CIs) via dish-level bootstrap resampling and accompanied by absolute differences (Δ) between scenarios. Inference settings were standardized to support reproducibility and variance estimation. Source stratified analyses and quartile summaries were conducted to examine heterogeneity by curation level and nutrient ranges, with additional robustness checks for error complexity relationships. Results and Discussion: Accuracy improved from Case 1 to Case 2 and further in Case 3 for energy and all macronutrients when summarized by MAE, MedAE, and RMSE with 95% CIs, with absolute reductions (Δ) indicating material gains as contextual information increased. In contrast to Case 3, estimation accuracy declined in Case 4, underscoring the contribution of visual cues. Gains were largest in the Home-prepared dietitian-weighed subset and smaller yet consistent for Allrecipes.com and SNAPMe, reflecting differences in reference curation and measurement fidelity across sources. Scenario-level trends were concordant across sources, and stratified and quartile analyses showed coherent patterns of decreasing absolute errors with the provision of structured non-visual information and detailed ingredient data. Conclusions: ChatGPT-5 can deliver practically useful calorie and macronutrient estimates from food images, particularly when augmented with standardized nonvisual descriptors and detailed ingredients, as evidenced by reductions in MAE, MedAE, and RMSE with 95% CIs across scenarios. The decline in accuracy observed when the image was omitted, despite providing detailed ingredient information, indicates that visual cues contribute meaningfully to estimation performance and that improvements are not solely attributable to arithmetic from ingredient lists. Finally, to promote generalizability, it is recommended that future studies include repeated evaluations across diverse datasets, ensure public availability of prompts and outputs, and incorporate systematic comparisons with non-artificial-intelligence baselines. metadata Rodríguez- Jiménez, Marcela; Martín-del-Campo-Becerra, Gustavo Daniel; Sumalla Cano, Sandra; Crespo-Álvarez, Jorge y Elío Pascual, Iñaki mail SIN ESPECIFICAR, SIN ESPECIFICAR, sandra.sumalla@uneatlantico.es, jorge.crespo@uneatlantico.es, inaki.elio@uneatlantico.es (2025) Image-Based Dietary Energy and Macronutrients Estimation with ChatGPT-5: Cross-Source Evaluation Across Escalating Context Scenarios. Nutrients, 17 (22). p. 3613. ISSN 2072-6643 document_url: http://repositorio.uniromana.edu.do/id/eprint/17880/1/nutrients-17-03613.pdf