Nutritional Information Labels - how accurate are they?

jibblemonster
jibblemonster Posts: 1
in Food and Nutrition
I really like lentils, they're super filling and low calorie. Or.. at least I thought they were.

I usually enter my calories for MFP each day using the barcode scanner which is easiest for me. The brand of lentils that I usually eat is GOYA, who list their (dry) green lentils at 70 cal per 1/4 of a cup. I eat these quite regularly. However.. I just noticed that almost every other brand lists their green lentils at over 140 cal per 1/4 of a cup. How can this be right? Why would goya's green lentils be half the calories of other brands?

So.. I think I could be eating twice as many calories as I think I am, quite regularly. What do you guys think? Should I trust the label, or go with the generic estimation of how many calories are in (dry) green lentils?

I'm also generally curious about how reliable nutrional labels are. I read somewhere that manufacturers have to label them within 20% accuracy, but this particular product looks to me like it is less than 50% accurate, which just seems completely unreasonable to me. (Unless they've invented some miracle breed of lentil)

Replies

  • calamarione
    calamarione Posts: 16 Member
    I have no data so all of this is just guessing:

    1) I do know that when farmers use GMO products they may be more calorie dense. It could be possible that GOYA does NOT use GMO lentils which could account for the reduced calories. What about the other nutrients? Are the other brands also doubled for the other nutrients?

    2) There may be other processing aids that add calories to a food product. When you think of soup it should have what in it? Water? Veggies? Noodles? Meat? Right. But it also may have other additives that add calories. Guar gum and CMC come to mind quickly. Maybe even added sugar.

    Again, these are just possibilities. Maybe questions to help you in your research.
  • chezjuan
    chezjuan Posts: 747 Member
    Do the nutrition labels list the weight in grams of a serving? Like 1/4 cup (56g)? It could be that the Goya serving is based on a lighter weight.
  • GothyFaery
    GothyFaery Posts: 762 Member
    Goya is a company from Mexico, so maybe they are not bound by the same 20% rule as the FDA pushes here in the states. I have no idea how true that is but it seems like it could be a plausable explination.
  • 111YoYo111
    111YoYo111 Posts: 213 Member
    I also mistrust nutritional information advertised. I eat fruit cups daily but the calories inexplicably went from 30 or 40 to only 15 regardless of what fruit you are eating. They stopped stating the calories in huge letters on the front when they made this change too. The government (Canada) is currently implementing laws with regards to this so hopefully the situation improves.
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
    Honestly I typically compare it to other brands... if it's too good to be true, I just use the generic label. For example I bought some shrimps from Walmart... the label said 45 calories for 3 ounces of shrimp... Usually they are 85 calories... so I go with 85.
  • sheltrk
    sheltrk Posts: 111 Member
    Looking at the Goya label, I see two possible sources for the discrepancy.
    1. Goya's label says a 1/4 cup weighs 32 g. Most other dry lentils list more like 56 g for 1/4 cup.
    2. Lentils have a lot of fiber. Goya appears to be subtracting off all the fiber grams from the total carb count to get the calorie total--at least for their green dry lentils. If the fiber is all *insoluble* fiber, this is reasonable. However, *soluble* fiber can be broken down in the large intestine, so *soluble* fiber should not be subtracted from the carb total (by US regulation). I'm seeing some other lentil vendors not subtracting off any fiber grams from the carb count to get the calorie total. There seems to be some confusion on this point in nutrition labeling.

    Note: It is clear that soluble fiber does have some caloric value, but how much is not well known. It may depend somewhat on the gut biome in the individual. Also, exactly what constitutes "fiber" v. "other complex carb" is not well defined.

    Here's a decent article on "fiber calories":
    http://www.wisegeekhealth.com/do-fiber-calories-count.htm

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