What on earth: Liquid measurements for grapes

DoingTheNeedful

The way I see it, you can either count grapes or weigh them. Logical, yeah?

So why on earth do all the "verified" entries for frigging grapes give liquid measurements? What am I going to do, pulp them and drink it?

elephant2mouse

If you're not drinking your grapes, you're doing it wrong.

Ang108

I think that it is ( outside of communities like MFP ) the " american " way.
I always have been surprised that so many recipes have measurements like " 3 cups of Brussels sprouts "in them. In the last 10-15 years it has become more popular to also use ounces, but the cup measurement is part of the US culinary culture that will be difficult to change.
At least this is my opinion and one of a non-American not even living in the country.

CyberTone

I think this was the not-so-intended result of MFP's idea to convert serving sizes automatically from cups to milliliters when a user creates a food item, regardless whether the conversion passes the "common sense" test. In your example, I guess the package of grapes provided nutrition information in a measurement of cups, most likely with grams in parentheses; however, the user that created the entry used only the 1 cup serving size and that measurement got converted to milliliters automatically by the software algorithm.

Breaking News We are in the process of rolling out a major update to our serving size behavior in our Android, iOS and Web apps. This update will allow automatic conversion between units of measure. For example, foods created in ounces will be measurable in grams, and foods created in cups will be measurable in liters). We will update the article below when the rollout of this feature is complete.
Reference:
https://myfitnesspal.desk.com/customer/en/portal/articles/300068-the-serving-size-i-need-to-log-is-not-available-

DoingTheNeedful

Huh. Okay, well, that makes sense CyberTone. The real question is, apart from contributing to bloat and fragmentation of items by creating my own "grapes" item, how might I go about fixing it?

Thowe92

I think MFP is saying to drink more wine.

tincanonastring

Don't use the Kroger - Grapes entry. Search "Grapes, raw" and one of the choices will have gram measurements. The best way to search whole food database entries is to use the exact listing as the USDA nutrition database.

http://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/search/list

DoingTheNeedful

Yeah, tracking down the USDA entry I want is hit or miss. Sometimes I can search for something-USDA and it'll hit, or not. I'll remember to try "grapes, raw" next time. Anything would be a damn sight better than searching for grapes and getting "Gatorade, grape drank" or whatever

Francl27

It's because people somehow think that it's a good idea to use volume measurements for solids, so MFP automatically converts into fluid ounces now.

Maxematics

Yeah, sometimes you really have to dig around for good entries or enter them yourself. It bothers me when I scan a barcode or search up a food in the database and see a half-assed entry tied to it. The way I see it, if someone is going to submit a food and share their submission with other MFP members, they should make sure it's as accurate as possible. I hate seeing things like "chobni grek youguert (Sam's) - vanilla" and it's fraught with spelling errors, the wrong unit(s) of measure are listed, and/or only the calories are included. For fruits and vegetables, always search "fruit/vegetable name usda"; I find those entries are the best and I often compare a few of them to make sure the calorie count is correct.

Kalikel

I've never heard of measuring grapes as a liquid before. I don't *think* it's the American way.

USDA entries are my personal favorites. Sometimes I have to make calorie adjustments, but they give you better info on your micros, so I use those when I can.

It's a pain in the butt, though. I have yet to find frozen raspberries. All the other berries, I can find the frozen version, but not the rasp ones. Maybe it's my fault - it could be there and I can't find it. But it really IS tough to use.

MelodyandBarbells

synacious wrote: »

Yeah, sometimes you really have to dig around for good entries or enter them yourself. It bothers me when I scan a barcode or search up a food in the database and see a half-assed entry tied to it. The way I see it, if someone is going to submit a food and share their submission with other MFP members, they should make sure it's as accurate as possible. I hate seeing things like "chobni grek youguert (Sam's) - vanilla" and it's fraught with spelling errors, the wrong unit(s) of measure are listed, and/or only the calories are included. For fruits and vegetables, always search "fruit/vegetable name usda"; I find those entries are the best and I often compare a few of them to make sure the calorie count is correct.

Since I use the app almost exclusively, I try to go back and edit crappy entries that are tied to a scanned barcode.

FYI for anyone, the author @SezxyStef covers how to do that here. http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1234699/logging-accurately-step-by-step-guide/p1

Kalikel wrote: »

I've never heard of measuring grapes as a liquid before. I don't *think* it's the American way.

USDA entries are my personal favorites. Sometimes I have to make calorie adjustments, but they give you better info on your micros, so I use those when I can.

It's a pain in the butt, though. I have yet to find frozen raspberries. All the other berries, I can find the frozen version, but not the rasp ones. Maybe it's my fault - it could be there and I can't find it. But it really IS tough to use.

As explained in some earlier posts above, they just mean the idea of cups measurement, in general. And now MFP has a "helpful" update where they can basically click a button and add all the conversions for any verified food. So if the measurement unit entered was cups (liquids), they'll automatically add ml, fl oz, liters, etc for you. If it was in grams (solid), they'll add lbs, kg, oz, 100g, etc

Maxematics

JaneiR36 wrote: »

synacious wrote: »

Yeah, sometimes you really have to dig around for good entries or enter them yourself. It bothers me when I scan a barcode or search up a food in the database and see a half-assed entry tied to it. The way I see it, if someone is going to submit a food and share their submission with other MFP members, they should make sure it's as accurate as possible. I hate seeing things like "chobni grek youguert (Sam's) - vanilla" and it's fraught with spelling errors, the wrong unit(s) of measure are listed, and/or only the calories are included. For fruits and vegetables, always search "fruit/vegetable name usda"; I find those entries are the best and I often compare a few of them to make sure the calorie count is correct.

Since I use the app almost exclusively, I try to go back and edit crappy entries that are tied to a scanned barcode.

Same! I'm glad they have the "Find a better match" option because 80% of the time I have to do that or make my own entry.

sinbadfxdl

Experiment. Liquify how many it would take.

kimny72

I have found this in many "verified" entries, solid foods with only liquid measures available. I actually avoid the verified entries at this point, they just aggravate me.

flaminica

DoingTheNeedful wrote: »

So why on earth do all the "verified" entries for frigging grapes give liquid measurements? What am I going to do, pulp them and drink it?

If it helps, millilitres and grams are freely convertable: 1ml = 1g. So 237ml is 237g.

The "verified" entries are riddled with errors. When in doubt, search multiple entries on MFP or double-check against other calorie databases altogether. MFP's database is huge, but the noise-to-signal ratio is so high that it's frequently unreliable.

tincanonastring

You can always just make your own for each new food you want to add and just use the "My Foods" section. I wouldn't worry about cluttering up the system. If MFP was worried about database accuracy, they'd actually pay someone to manage it responsibly and you wouldn't see ridiculous measurements/entries like that. They'd probably actually prefer database bloat so they can hype the size.

lynn_glenmont

flaminica wrote: »

DoingTheNeedful wrote: »

So why on earth do all the "verified" entries for frigging grapes give liquid measurements? What am I going to do, pulp them and drink it?

If it helps, millilitres and grams are freely convertable: 1ml = 1g. So 237ml is 237g.

The "verified" entries are riddled with errors. When in doubt, search multiple entries on MFP or double-check against other calorie databases altogether. MFP's database is huge, but the noise-to-signal ratio is so high that it's frequently unreliable.

That's only true for water or substances with the same density as water. 237 ml of water is 237 g. 250 ml of grapes are only 157 g (at least for the variety of grapes I have on hand, an oblong variety called moondrop).

flaminica

lynn_glenmont wrote: »

That's only true for water or substances with the same density as water. 237 ml of water is 237 g. 250 ml of grapes are only 157 g (at least for the variety of grapes I have on hand, an oblong variety called moondrop).

Thanks for the clarification.

vegan4lyfe2012

DoingTheNeedful wrote: »

Yeah, tracking down the USDA entry I want is hit or miss. Sometimes I can search for something-USDA and it'll hit, or not. I'll remember to try "grapes, raw" next time. Anything would be a damn sight better than searching for grapes and getting "Gatorade, grape drank" or whatever

"grape drank" LOL...Love! Thanks for making me chuckle!

CooCooPuff

kimny72 wrote: »

I have found this in many "verified" entries, solid foods with only liquid measures available. I actually avoid the verified entries at this point, they just aggravate me.

I'm usually fine with whole foods. It's with packaged foods that I have this problem. I was looking for an entry for some cookies recently and found ml. Mmmmm, liquid cookies.