MyPlate.food MCP Server — USDA Nutrition Tools for AI Agents

A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that gives Claude, Cursor and other AI agents trusted USDA nutrition tools — BMI, calorie & macro needs, body fat, the MyPlate food-group plan, and search over 1,072 MyPlate Kitchen recipes. Free, remote, no install.

🤖 MCP server

MyPlate.food MCP server

USDA nutrition tools for AI agents. A Model Context Protocol server that gives Claude, Cursor, and other agents trusted, source-cited tools — BMI, calorie & macro needs, body fat, the MyPlate food-group plan, and search over 1,072 MyPlate Kitchen recipes — backed by the same data behind myplate.food.

Remote, no install

Connect to a hosted URL — Streamable HTTP or SSE.

16 tools

Calculators + recipe search, each source-cited.

Free

No key, no signup — free for live per-request use.

Connect

Point any MCP client at the remote endpoint:

streamable http
https://mcp.myplate.food/mcp
sse
https://mcp.myplate.food/sse

For a desktop client without native remote support (e.g. Claude Desktop), bridge it with mcp-remote:

json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "myplate": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["mcp-remote", "https://mcp.myplate.food/mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Tools

  • calculate_myplate_plan

    USDA MyPlate food-group plan + calorie target from age, sex, height, weight and activity.

  • calculate_calorie_needs

    BMR, TDEE, weight-loss targets, macro splits, protein targets and ideal-weight ranges — in one call. Ages 18 and over.

  • calculate_bmr

    Basal metabolic rate — Mifflin-St Jeor headline + revised Harris-Benedict. Ages 18 and over.

  • calculate_tdee

    Total daily energy expenditure at the given activity level, plus a table across all four. Ages 18 and over.

  • calculate_calorie_deficit

    Maintenance calories and up to three weight-loss paces with realistic weekly rates. No target under 1,200 kcal a day for women or 1,500 for men, and none in pregnancy or while breastfeeding. Ages 18 and over.

  • calculate_macros

    Macronutrient split from a calorie budget or a body profile (IOM AMDR presets). A profile needs age 18 or over.

  • calculate_protein_target

    Daily protein target in grams by body weight + activity. Under 18 it returns the RDA alone.

  • calculate_ideal_weight

    Ideal weight (Devine / Robinson / Miller / Hamwi) + the healthy-BMI band. Above the band: a first goal of 5 to 10% under the current weight, and the adjusted body weight. Ages 18 and over.

  • calculate_bmi

    BMI + weight classification from height & weight (CDC BMI-for-age percentiles when age < 20).

  • calculate_body_fat

    Body-fat % via the U.S. Navy circumference method, with an ACE category.

  • calculate_body_metric

    Seven quick metrics: waist-to-height/hip, lean body mass, FFMI, water intake, weight-loss %, 1-rep-max.

  • calculate_glp1_protein

    GLP-1 muscle-preservation protein target + per-meal spread + fiber Adequate Intake.

  • calculate_dach_energy

    German D-A-CH / DGE daily energy requirement (Müller-2004 resting energy × PAL).

  • calculate_dri

    The full Dietary Reference Intakes table — macros, vitamins and minerals with upper limits.

  • search_recipes

    Search 1,072 USDA MyPlate Kitchen recipes by query, food group, category, calories and rating.

  • get_recipe

    A full recipe: ingredients, directions, the complete USDA nutrition table and food-group amounts.

Example prompts

“What's the BMI for someone 5 ft 11 in and 176 lb?”
“Build a USDA MyPlate plan for a 30-year-old woman, 165 cm, 63 kg, moderately active.”
“Find high-protein USDA recipes under 400 calories and show me one in full.”

Scope & limits

  • Free for low-volume use, no key — 20 requests/minute per IP. Contact us for higher limits or commercial use.
  • Backed by the public JSON API — the same calculators and recipe data the site renders.
  • Educational estimates, not medical advice. Independent; not affiliated with the USDA.

Prefer plain HTTP? The same tools are a free JSON API.

MyPlate.food API

MCP FAQ

What is the MyPlate.food MCP server?

A remote Model Context Protocol server. It gives AI agents (Claude, Cursor, and any MCP client) the same USDA nutrition calculators and recipe search that power myplate.food, as callable tools.

How do I connect it?

Point any MCP client at https://mcp.myplate.food/mcp (Streamable HTTP) or https://mcp.myplate.food/sse (SSE). For desktop clients without remote support, use the npx mcp-remote bridge shown above.

Is it free?

Yes, for live per-request use — no key. There's a per-IP rate limit (20 requests/minute), and full recipe fetches (get_recipe, shared with the API) cap at 100/day per IP. For higher limits, licensed data feeds, or commercial use, contact us.

Is this official USDA data?

MyPlate.food is independent and not affiliated with the USDA. The tools implement published USDA/IOM/clinical equations and search the public-domain MyPlate Kitchen recipe library; results are educational, not medical advice.