Calorie variations - canned vs fresh - what to trust?

getyourbeans
getyourbeans Posts: 80 Member
in Food and Nutrition
My 'snack of the moment' lately has been roasted chickpeas - I've been eating them every day (usually the equivalent of a can's worth) but I'm a little confused about the calorie count now. The brand I was using listed the drained weight (240g) at 220 calories, 36g carbs, 2g fat, 17g protein.

I happened to go to a different supermarket and bought a different brand of chickpeas - at 240g, this brand had 304 calories, 42g cabrs, 3g fat and 18g protein. I thought that was weird as the ingredients are the same (water and chickpeas) shouldn't the drained weight give the same nutirional info? So I looked on MFP for generic, boiled chickpeas - and the nutritional information for 240g is 394 calories 66g carbs 6g fat and 21g protein.

What gives?

If the generic values are correct, then I've been underestimating calories by almost half! That's a big difference to me!

I thought food labellers were allowed a much smaller margin of error when labelling?

Can anyone shed any light on this?

Replies

  • lizzyb83
    lizzyb83 Posts: 107 Member
    Here is an article that explains a lot about labels. Pretty much they can be off by at 20%, and that's by law!

    http://health.usnews.com/health-news/blogs/eat-run/2012/08/21/when-nutrition-labels-lie

    But no one really checks them for accuracy. I just saw a video a few weeks ago on youtube that actually tested the food. Some were off by 50% :noway:
  • getyourbeans
    getyourbeans Posts: 80 Member
    The generic one has twice as many nutrients as your regular brand. That's why it's so much higher in calories. Possible explanations are:

    - The canned one is more processed and has less nutrients/more weird stuff (water, filler, whatever) for the same weight.
    - The canned one underreports its calories.
    - Not all chickpeas are the same size. I see tiny ones and I see huge ones. Plus their density/water content depends a lot on how long you soak them before cooking (homemade).

    I would guess a combination of all of these.

    Basically: Just go by the label. A lot of people here, me included, have decent success going by labels. This is all an estimation game after all, no numbers are going to be exact for anything you track here.

    If you eat this all the time, I suggest getting dry chickpeas and making them at home yourself. The label on the dry package will probably be as accurate as you can get for this type of thing. Plus, it will be a lot healthier than using canned all the time. You can just make them in a huge batch and freeze.

    You're probably right... it's just frustrating thinking that I might be undoing any progress (I'm not at a significant defecit). The thing is I don't want the "real" homemade beans if they're that high in cals! Maybe time to switch to smaller portions ;-) Thanks.

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