Incorrect Nutritional Info is a BUMMER!

onawhymm
onawhymm Posts: 469 Member
edited September 22 in Food and Nutrition
Found a great looking recipe on sparkspeople for Chicken with Warm Mango Salsa that list the nutritional info as:
Nutritional Info
Servings Per Recipe: 4
Amount Per Serving
Calories: 139.1
Total Fat: 3.0 g
Cholesterol: 57.3 mg
Sodium: 65.7 mg
Total Carbs: 14.4 g
Dietary Fiber: 1.9 g
Protein: 14.5 g

Ingredients
PAM spray
4 large boneless skinless chicken thighs, about 1-1/2 pounds
Nu-Salt and fresh ground pepper to taste
1 medium red onion, small dice
1 small jalapeno, chopped fine
1 medium tomato, small dice
1 large mango, small dice
juice and zest of 2 limes
2/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro



Directions
Instructions
Preheat grill or grill pan over high heat
Spray chicken thighs lightly with PAM and season with Nu-Salt and pepper
Grill about 4 minutes per side, or until just cooked through
Meanwhile, heat a large nonstick pan over med-high heat
Spray with PAM and add onions
Season onions with Nu-Salt and pepper and cook until almost tender
Add jalapeno, tomato and mango to the pan
Cook, tossing often, until just heated through
Add lime juice and zest and cilantro and adjust seasonings, if necessary
Slice chicken and serve with warm salsa
Although no actual salt is called for in this recipe, please add it as you see fit


Number of Servings: 4

BUT - the only change I made was to use Chicken Breasts instead of thighs and I used a slightly higher weight (2 lbs of breasts versus 1.5 lbs of thighs and waaaayyyy lower calorie and fat wise!)

Anyway - I then plugged the whole recipe into MFP AFTER dinner and the REAL nutritional info is over 450 calories per serving - NOT anywhere close to the 139 they listed.

Sort of bums you out as it blows your day. Who do you trust in terms of nutritional info!!!!!??????

Replies

  • NightOwl1
    NightOwl1 Posts: 881 Member
    Look for confirmations. The more confirmations something has, the more reliable the information is.

    Also, since 99% of nutritional is user submitted, it is only accurate if the community keeps up with it. Make sure to submit corrections if you find incorrect info.
  • Photoplex
    Photoplex Posts: 49 Member
    Look for confirmations. The more confirmations something has, the more reliable the information is.

    Also, since 99% of nutritional is user submitted, it is only accurate if the community keeps up with it. Make sure to submit corrections if you find incorrect info.

    She clearly stated that the recipe wasn't from MFP. Her point is that she found a recipe somewhere else that claimed to have X calories per serving, but after calculating it on MFP the reality is that it's much more calorific per serving.
  • the MFP info doesn't sound right...there is no way a small chicken breast (or thigh) and some veggies and a little mango is over 400 cal...
  • that doesn't sound right at all, I quick entered the ingredients (just guessing - I don't know truly how many cups each veggie or fruit was or what kind of chicken you had) and I got about 185 calories per serving.

    Was that calorie amount the total you got for the whole meal? Did you remember to divide it by 4 for the number of servings?
  • onawhymm
    onawhymm Posts: 469 Member
    Well here's the info I plugged into MFP:
    Recipe name

    Number of servings

    Serves peopleIngredients Calories Carbs Fat Protein
    Grilled Chicken Breast - Grilled Skinless Chicken Breast, 32 oz 1,496 0 32 280
    Mangos - Raw, 1 fruit without refuse 135 35 1 1
    Tomatoes - Red, ripe, raw, year round average, 1 medium whole (2-3/5" dia) 22 5 0 1
    Red Onion - Raw, 1 onion 44 10 0 1
    Cucumber - Peeled, raw, 0.5 medium 12 2 0 1
    Add Ingredient
    Total: 1709 52 33 284
    Per Serving: 427 13 8 71
  • DHalaby73
    DHalaby73 Posts: 980 Member
    you can add it in the database yourself...all you have to do is when you look up each item and if you don't find it in there at the bottom it gives you the option of adding it to the database..try that
  • potluck965
    potluck965 Posts: 529 Member
    I just plugged the chicken breast in here at MFP, the first option in the list and came up with something like 900 calories for 32 ounces. You need to check several of the options in the list and see if you can get a few that are close to each other.
  • taletreader
    taletreader Posts: 377 Member
    Your 2 lbs of chicken breast is raw, right, not cooked? I get about 990 cals for 2 lbs (I used 900g) of raw chicken breast, meat only. You've likely used the values for *cooked* chicken breast, which is lighter than raw.

    With this I get approx 300 cals per serving, and that's with 8 oz of chicken breast per person, which is a lot.
  • onawhymm
    onawhymm Posts: 469 Member
    Thanks for the info on the chicken. Yes - it was 2 lbs. uncooked - 4 pretty good sized boneless breasts. The 300 calories sounds a heck of alot better! Not sure what they were thinking on the original nutritional values posted with the recipe!!!

    It was a great recipe though!
  • Lyadeia
    Lyadeia Posts: 4,603 Member
    Every time I find a new recipe that I want to try, I ALWAYS manually add the ingredients into MFP's recipe calculator. I have found huge discrepancies between actual recipe and what's listed with the recipe. I also believe that some of this is due to the different brands of foods that people choose. Also, some recipes choose low fat or fat free, and when you choose something even slightly different, the calories and ratios will be totally different. It is always best to add your recipes here with the exact ingredients that you plan on using and basically ignoring what the recipe tells you.
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