Measuring question: spinach leaves vs shredded

katieseitz
katieseitz Posts: 21
edited September 24 in Recipes
I made a salad last night and was trying to figure out the calories/carbs/fat/protein for my food tracker on here... The package of spinach said 40 cal / 1 1/2 cups shredded. But I didn't shred it. About how much whole leaves is equivalent to that? I just jammed a bunch into a measuring cup and called it good... but... that's not really very technical :P What's the proper way to measure whole leaves?

Replies

  • robin52077
    robin52077 Posts: 4,383 Member
    weigh it out. 4.5 cups is 85 grams......
  • MisdemeanorM
    MisdemeanorM Posts: 3,493 Member
    I would look at the total servings on the package then determine what % of the package you used, then figure out the math to convert % of package to # of servings. (easy - like, 4 servings and you use 1/2 the package... just log as 2 servings...)

    Especially being spinach and so low in cals I would not worry about getting it spot on. Putting it in a cup is not an awful way to measure it though as leafy greens can be measured that way, like 2C of lettuce is one serving of veggies. Or you can weigh it. Though, like I said, I would not go through all that work to accurately log either way on 10-20 calories difference in your estimation.
  • InstantSunshine
    InstantSunshine Posts: 355 Member
    Probably doesn't matter that much with spinach, there's nowt in it but iron! But yeah, I'd weigh it as well.
  • Red13
    Red13 Posts: 287 Member
    I wouldn't even worry about tracking spinach! Just like a lot of the lettuce family, it burns more calories to chew them than what their value is...
  • katieseitz
    katieseitz Posts: 21
    The bag is huge and has something like 15 servings, so it's tough to eyeball it like that haha. Also I don't have anything to weigh it with. I'm less worried about the calories than the carbs which is why I asked... I keep going over :/

    I thought the "it takes more calories to chew [x food]" was an old wives tale. I mean, 40 calories of spinach chewed in about ten minutes.... if my math is right that'd mean I could just chew gum for the 16 hours a day I'm awake and burn over 3,840 calories!
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