Red flags¶
A red flag is a field value that means no menu is written. Not a caveated menu, not a conservative menu, not a menu with a warning at the top. A referral note instead.
The list is exhaustive. A concern not on it is not a stop condition — note it and proceed.
Stop conditions¶
Medical clearance and consent¶
| Trigger | Condition |
|---|---|
consent_accuracy |
absent or not "Yes" |
consent_data_processing |
|
absent or not "Yes" |
|
consent_clearance_confirm |
not "Yes", and any PAR-Q trigger below fired |
PAR-Q triggers: parq_1_heart = "Yes", parq_3_dizziness = "Yes",
parq_4_condition = "Yes", parq_5_medication = "Yes", parq_6_msk =
"Yes", parq_2a_breathlessness ≠ "No", parq_2b_heart_rate ≠ "No".
These are conditional stops — the referral note says what would unblock them.
Conditions requiring a registered dietitian¶
| Trigger | Condition |
|---|---|
health_conditions |
contains "Type 1 diabetes" |
health_diabetes_mgmt |
contains "Insulin" |
health_conditions |
contains "Kidney disease" |
health_conditions |
contains "Liver disease" |
health_conditions |
contains "Cancer (current or past)" — and treatment is current or recent per health_practitioners_detail |
nut_medical_diet |
"Yes" |
Type 2 diabetes and pre-diabetes are not stops unless insulin-managed. Build, and state in the menu that carbohydrate targets need their clinician's review.
Eating disorder¶
| Trigger | Condition |
|---|---|
nut_disordered_history |
"Yes" |
"Prefer not to say" is not a stop. It triggers the numberless adaptation in
Scope & limits.
Pregnancy and postpartum¶
| Trigger | Condition |
|---|---|
sys_menses_status |
"Pregnant" or "Postpartum" |
health_births |
|
| describes a birth within the last 6 months | |
sys_pregnancy_plans |
"Yes" — not a stop, but see below |
Planning a pregnancy is not a stop. It is a note: folate, iron and B12 are worth raising with their doctor before conception.
Gastrointestinal¶
| Trigger | Condition |
|---|---|
sys_gi_urgent |
any value other than "None of these" |
Blood in stool, black or tarry stools, unexplained vomiting, unintentional weight loss, difficulty swallowing. Any one of these. This is the most important entry on the page, because these are the answers a client is most likely to have given without thinking they matter.
| Trigger | Condition |
|---|---|
sys_digestive_vomiting |
"Yes" |
sys_digestive_diarrhoea |
"Yes" and sys_digestive_pain = "Yes" |
Unintentional weight loss¶
Where nut_typical_day or any free-text field describes unexplained weight
loss, stop — regardless of whether sys_gi_urgent was ticked.
Cardiovascular, found in the measurements¶
| Trigger | Condition |
|---|---|
meas_bp_systolic |
≥ 180 |
meas_bp_diastolic |
≥ 110 |
sys_cardio |
contains "Chest pain" or "Breathlessness at rest" |
A high reading here is a same-week medical matter and takes precedence over everything else on the page. Systolic 140–179 or diastolic 90–109 is not a stop — build, and note it.
Under 18¶
| Trigger | Condition |
|---|---|
client_dob |
age under 18 at the date of writing |
Growth changes the energy calculation and the whole basis of the portion system.
Severe allergy without detail¶
Where health_allergies or nut_intolerances describes anaphylaxis or a
severe reaction without naming the food clearly enough to exclude it reliably,
stop. This is a conditional stop — the note asks for the specific food.
Not stops¶
Listed because they look like they might be:
- High blood pressure, high cholesterol, thyroid disorder, osteoporosis, arthritis, asthma — diet-relevant, not stops
- Type 2 or pre-diabetes, not insulin-managed
- Anxiety, depression — note; do not build around
- Perimenopause, post-menopause — a protocol, not a stop
- Coeliac, IBS, lactose intolerance — constraints
- Currently seeing a dietitian (
health_practitioners) — not a stop, but the menu says it should be shared with them - Any single digestive symptom other than vomiting
- Heavy alcohol intake — note, refer, still build
- Smoking
The referral note¶
What replaces the menu. Same file path, same naming, English, and short — a page at most.
# Referral — [name]
Date: YYYY-MM-DD
## What stopped this
[One or two plain sentences. The finding, not the field ID. No diagnosis,
no speculation about cause.]
## What to do now
[Who to see, and how soon. Specific: "your GP, this week".]
## Why no menu was written
[One sentence. That this needs a professional the agent is not, and that
a menu written now could get in the way.]
## What would let this continue
[Only for conditional stops — the consent, the clearance, the missing
detail. Omit the section entirely otherwise.]
Four rules for writing it:
- Name the finding, not the field. "You mentioned blood in your stool", not
"
sys_gi_urgentwas non-empty". - Do not diagnose or speculate. Not what it might be, not that it is probably nothing, not that it is serious. The referral is the whole message.
- Give a real timeframe. "Soon" is not one. The GI and blood-pressure flags are this-week matters; a consent gap is not.
- Do not attach any of the menu. Not the energy target, not the portion counts, not "some general guidance in the meantime". If the pipeline stopped, it stopped.
Precedence¶
Where more than one fires, the note covers all of them, ordered most urgent first: GI and cardiovascular, then the dietitian referrals, then consent. A client who needs a doctor this week and has also not signed a consent form needs to read about the doctor first.