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'Cups' of food

LokomotivMordor
LokomotivMordor Posts: 23 Member
in Getting Started
When logging a lot of food comes up in portions of '1 cup' ect. I've heard that in the US people have a standardised measuring cups, I'm just wondering if that's roughly the same size as a normal tea cup. It might sound like a silly question but I've never seen one and it would help me get an idea of normal portion sizes.

Thanks!

Replies

  • amyk0202
    amyk0202 Posts: 666 Member
    You'd be better off getting a digital food scale & weighing your portions. Using measuring cups of food is very inaccurate. If you can't find an entry in the database using the weight, you can just create one.
  • TeaBea
    TeaBea Posts: 14,517 Member
    seamaspeineas wrote: »
    When logging a lot of food comes up in portions of '1 cup' ect. I've heard that in the US people have a standardised measuring cups, I'm just wondering if that's roughly the same size as a normal tea cup. It might sound like a silly question but I've never seen one and it would help me get an idea of normal portion sizes.

    Thanks!

    Yes - we use measuring cups in the U.S. There is one for dry ingredients and another for liquid.

    http://www.exploratorium.edu/cooking/convert/measurements.html

    A scale is going to be the most accurate. Dry ingredients can get packed down. Flour measures can vary greatly.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    use entries that use weight and get a food scale. how on earth anyone can measure 1 cup of chicken is beyond me...and I live in the U.S. Depending on how I chopped that up, I could be overestimating or underestimating if I used "cups" for that kind of stuff.
  • fire7ice
    fire7ice Posts: 23
    A US Cup is 240ml. A UK teacup may be smaller than that - possibly 190ml. Don't know what it would be in gram weights... but am sure it would vary depending on what you put in it.
  • LokomotivMordor
    LokomotivMordor Posts: 23 Member
    Thanks for the responses. I use a food scale at home, I had no idea how measuring solid foods accurately in a cup was supposed to work! it was just to have a rough idea of portion size when eating out. I find it hard to guess how many grams something weighs by looking at it I was thinking estimating how many cups it might fill would be easier in a restaurant - much as I swear by my kitchen scale I have no intention of bringing it into a restaurant!

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