Intolerances vs. dietary preferences — what's the difference?
How Forkless handles the foods you can never eat versus the style of eating you prefer, and why we treat them differently.
The short version
Section titled “The short version”Intolerances are foods you can never eat. Forkless excludes them, every recipe, every plan, every time. They are absolute.
Dietary preferences are the styles of eating you want plans built around. Vegan, keto, paleo, and others. They shape what gets recommended, but they are not safety boundaries.
If you have a nut intolerance, set it under Intolerances. If you eat keto, check it under Dietary Preferences. They live in different sections of your profile and they do different jobs.
Side by side
Section titled “Side by side”| Intolerances | Dietary preferences | |
|---|---|---|
| What it does | Excludes ingredients from every recipe | Shapes which recipes get recommended |
| Strictness | Absolute. Never appears in any plan, ever. | Strong preference. Filters the recipe pool. |
| What you set | Ingredients you can’t eat (nuts, shellfish, dairy, gluten, eggs, soy, fish) | Eating styles you follow (vegan, vegetarian, gluten-free, dairy-free, keto, paleo, halal, kosher) |
| How you set it | Check all that apply | Check all that apply |
| When to use | A food makes you sick, you have a medical reason to avoid it, or you simply will not eat it under any circumstance | You prefer a particular way of eating and want plans built around it |
| Where it lives | Profile → Intolerances | Profile → Dietary Preferences |
| Can you override it for one meal? | No. Intolerances are never overridden. | Yes. You can swap individual recipes outside your preferences if you want. |
Where intolerances are configured
Section titled “Where intolerances are configured”Open Profile → Intolerances.
Forkless ships with seven intolerances pre-listed: nuts, shellfish, dairy, gluten, eggs, soy, fish. Check the ones that apply.
Once an intolerance is set, Forkless filters it out of the plans the engine generates and the swap suggestions it offers.
You will not see a recipe containing an intolerance ingredient in your plan. It will not be suggested as a swap.
Where dietary preferences are configured
Section titled “Where dietary preferences are configured”Open Profile → Dietary Preferences.
Check any that apply. You can pick one, several, or none. The meal-planning engine prioritizes recipes that match what you’ve checked. A keto plan will lean low-carb. A vegan plan will contain no animal products. Halal and kosher are respected the same way.
Dietary preferences guide the recommended pool. If you spot a recipe outside your preferences and want to plan it anyway, you can — preferences guide the engine, intolerances stop it cold.
Why we treat them differently
Section titled “Why we treat them differently”Intolerances are about safety and trust. If Forkless shows you a recipe that contains something you can’t eat, the product has failed you in a way that matters. So we never do it. Intolerances are checked at every step of plan generation.
Dietary preferences are about, well, preference. Preferences flex. You might be keto on weekdays and looser on weekends. You might want to try a Mediterranean-leaning week even though you usually eat paleo. The engine respects your preferences by default and lets you step outside them when you choose to.
That difference — preference vs. boundary — is why these are two settings, not one.
What’s next
Section titled “What’s next”- Setting up your household and goals — the other two foundational profile settings.