{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,24]],"date-time":"2026-09-24T11:05:52Z","timestamp":1790247952934,"version":"4.1.0"},"reference-count":34,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"19","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,23]],"date-time":"2026-09-23T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1790121600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Nutrients"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Background\/Objectives: Translating medical nutrition therapy guidance into practical meal plans requires consistent application of clinical and dietetic rules while accommodating different therapeutic regimens. This study developed and computationally evaluated a transparent Python-based decision-support prototype for diabetic menu planning. Methods: The prototype combines procedural decision rules, food-exchange patterns, nutritional checks, and mixed-integer linear programming (MILP). Two meal-frequency pathways were represented: a conventional multi-meal pathway and a three-main-meal pathway for people treated with modern basal\u2013bolus insulin regimens. For the multi-meal pathway, a structured dataset containing 42 candidate meals (seven alternatives in each of six meal categories) was used for objective-specific optimization and exhaustive evaluation of all 117,649 possible daily combinations under predefined nutritional constraints. Sensitivity to the allowable energy deviation and trade-offs among nutritional objectives were also examined. Results: The prototype produced deterministic pathway selection, exchange allocation, nutritional summaries, and explicit warnings when required information was unavailable. Under the baseline \u00b16.5% energy tolerance, 5628 of 117,649 six-meal combinations (4.78%) satisfied all nutritional constraints. Objective-specific optimization identified feasible solutions for minimizing energy, carbohydrate, and saturated fat and maximizing dietary fiber. The proportion of feasible combinations ranged from 2.71% at \u00b15% energy tolerance to 9.47% at \u00b110%, while comparison of objective-specific solutions demonstrated measurable nutritional trade-offs. The three-meal basal\u2013bolus pathway generated predefined exchange allocation and clinical-review warnings but was not subjected to the same exhaustive combinatorial optimization. Conclusions: The prototype demonstrates the computational feasibility of integrating explicit dietetic rules, regimen-related meal-pattern selection, food-exchange allocation, and mathematical optimization within an inspectable decision-support framework. The findings establish technical feasibility within the evaluated datasets rather than clinical effectiveness. Independent software testing, expert usability assessment, evaluation using larger and version-controlled meal datasets, and prospective clinical validation are required before routine clinical implementation.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/nu18193140","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,23]],"date-time":"2026-09-23T16:10:31Z","timestamp":1790179831000},"page":"3140","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["A Transparent Rule-Based Decision-Support Prototype for Diabetic Menu Planning and Meal-Combination Optimization: Development and Computational Evaluation"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"18","author":[{"given":"Mirela","family":"Mari\u0107","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Nutricionisti\u010dko Savjetovali\u0161te za Prehranu dr. sc. Mirela Mari\u0107, Petrova 47, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"investigation","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"data-curation","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"methodology","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"writing-review-editing","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"writing-original-draft","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"resources","vocabulary":"credit"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-1768-2231","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Vesna Antoska","family":"Knights","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Faculty of Technology and Technical Sciences, University \u201cSt. Kliment Ohridski\u201d\u2014Bitola, Dimitar Vlahov 57, 1400 Veles, North Macedonia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"conceptualization","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"investigation","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"methodology","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"visualization","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"data-curation","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"software","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"validation","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"writing-original-draft","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"writing-review-editing","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"formal-analysis","vocabulary":"credit"}]},{"given":"Dardan","family":"Bytyqi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Faculty of Technology and Technical Sciences, University \u201cSt. Kliment Ohridski\u201d\u2014Bitola, Dimitar Vlahov 57, 1400 Veles, North Macedonia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"writing-review-editing","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"writing-original-draft","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"validation","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"data-curation","vocabulary":"credit"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-6071-801X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Vezirka","family":"Jankuloska","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Faculty of Technology and Technical Sciences, University \u201cSt. Kliment Ohridski\u201d\u2014Bitola, Dimitar Vlahov 57, 1400 Veles, North Macedonia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"conceptualization","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"writing-original-draft","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"writing-review-editing","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"visualization","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"supervision","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"methodology","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"formal-analysis","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"validation","vocabulary":"credit"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-6657-7337","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Jasenka","family":"Gajdo\u0161 Kljusuri\u0107","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Faculty of Food Technology and Biotechnology, University of Zagreb, Pierottijeva 6, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"conceptualization","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"methodology","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"investigation","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"resources","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"visualization","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"supervision","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"software","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"data-curation","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"validation","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"writing-original-draft","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"formal-analysis","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"writing-review-editing","vocabulary":"credit"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,23]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"113112","DOI":"10.1016\/j.diabres.2026.113112","article-title":"Associations between inflammatory indices derived from complete blood counts and mortality risk in diabetes and prediabetes patients: A cohort study from NHANES 1999\u20132018","volume":"232","author":"She","year":"2026","journal-title":"Diabetes Res. 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