Please help a beginner to enter new foods

TOOTR

Hi,

Could you lovely people please give me some beginner advice?

I'm trying to enter new foods into the database. It's driving me crazy.

A working example :

I have a 330ml Smoothie in my hand right here.

I've drunk the whole thing right? The whole 330ml. I want to enter the information into the MFP database as it doesn't come up as an existing item.

The nutritional content labelled is like this :

Average Nutrional Values per 100g.

1st question? What does this mean? Why is it not in ml? Have I drunk 100g worth? A subset of this?

Do I just enter in the numbers below? Or do I have to multiply /divide by some number to convert g into ml?

Numbers :

Energy : 93.3 Kcal or 390.7kJ .

2nd question? What's the difference? I want to enter calorie into the database - which one do I use?

Protein : 2.7g
Carbohydrate : 15.1g
Fat : 2.3g

Again - do I just enter these numbers straight in? Or do I have to multiply/divide by something?

Appreciate any help! I have tried googling but, much like Deep Thought in The Hitchhikers Guide to the galaxy - I believe I'm operating with the wrong questions.

Thanks

RaineyLaney

I would look at the serving size on the lable. example... Container has 2 serving sizes of 100g (means the bottle would be a totoal of 200g)

I would enter it as a serving size per label. 100g and then on amount line put 1. Then fill in all the other values. calories, fat, sodium protein etc. What ever that label says. If it isn't listed or has a "0" then put "0".

Now lets say that bottle is 2 servings and you have entered as 1 serving. then when you go to put this on your food diary, change the quanity to 2 (meaning you drank the 200g... or the whole bottle). I hope my example helps you

SassyDingo

They give nutritional info per 100g so that people can easily work out a %.

Your smoothie is worth 93 calories. You have to convert it. It is a bit annoying - I use this converter:

http://www.unitconversion.org/energy/kilojoules-to-calories-nutritional-conversion.html

You can use the protein numbers etc straight, as long as you aren't using the ones per 100g. Use the ones per serving - make sure the serving is actually 330g though. Some things like tomato sauce you obviously don't eat the whole container at once - so they give the nutritional info in a per serving (15g) and a per 100g. These things I enter as the per serving as suggested on the container, but may put that I had 2.3 servings.

If you have the app, you can always scan the barcode of your smoothy. Makes things easy.

Hildy_J

Hey,

Every food sold has to have the nutrition eg calories/100g listed - it's the LAW.

Look on the label - eg if it's 330ml then search the database for an entry for THAT smoothie that has the calories per ml (1ml) listed. Enter the 330. There's often 10 entries for the same item.

You don't need to enter the fat & protein values (unless you're putting a new item into the database) - they'll just fall in after you enter the calories.

bantamspaul

Others may correct me if I am wrong but I think 100ml water is 100grams so I tend to assume all liquids are pretty much the same hence, from your figures you have consumed (rounded up):

93.3kcals (this is the "calories" figure) x 3.3 (if 330g=330ml) = 308cals
Protein 2.7g x 3.3 = 8.9g
Carbs 15.1g x 3.3 = 49.8g
Fat 2.3g x 3.3 = 7.6g

TOOTR

Thanks everyone! You rock! Individually and collectively.

I'm living in Dubai which means a lot of the foods aren't on the database and also most don't show serving sizes.


Summing up my lessons of the day :

I've learned that companies are required by law to show calories per 100g.

I didn’t realize there was a barcode scanner in the app so that's fantastic. Well happy with that.

100ml = 100g. Thanks!

Calories are entered in kcal in MFP.


Thanks so much.

Really appreciated!

Hildy_J

Others may correct me if I am wrong but I think 100ml water is 100grams so I tend to assume all liquids are pretty much the same hence, from your figures you have consumed (rounded up):

Eeeek - no! For water 1ml = 1g but definitely not all liquids. A smoothie or chocolate milkshake or a glass of wine will be denser and considerably heavier. :noway:

On the other hand... water is pretty heavy.. perhaps denser than liquid fat? So... maybe? *scratches head*

Correction: water IS denser than liquid fat and denser than alcohol - so you would be over NOT under-estimating your calories using this as an equivalence. If you were drinking liquid mercury, however, you would be underestimating the mass if you equate it with water.

Hello? Hello? .... anyone?

bantamspaul

Errr......thanks Hildy_J.......I think. I would rather under-estimate so I will stick with 1ml=1g can't go far wrong unless I get a liking for Mercury

Tiernan1212

Appreciate any help! I have tried googling but, much like Deep Thought in The Hitchhikers Guide to the galaxy - I believe I'm operating with the wrong questions.

Thanks

It appears you have gotten your answer

I just had to appreciate the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy reference :drinker: