How to search for cooked or raw foods?

bethhhpx
bethhhpx Posts: 5 Member
in Food and Nutrition
I know this may sound like such a stupid question, but does anyone know why I struggle to find the cooked/raw versions of foods? Or is there a way I can look on the nutritional info to find out if it was submitted as raw or cooked?

For example, I want to search for Tesco Sweet Potato Cooked Weight because I am very conscious that I may not be logging my food properly and therefore going over my calories...

Many thanks,
Beth

Replies

  • CyberTone
    CyberTone Posts: 7,337 Member
    edited February 2018
    In general, search the USDA National Nutrient Database for whole food items, the brands for whole food items are not that important. Find the name of the item from the USDA database, then copy and paste the name into MFP search. Add raw or cooked to the search string.

    Search MFP for "sweet potato cooked flesh" to get the appropriate database record.

    https://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/search/list?ds=Standard+Reference
  • livingleanlivingclean
    livingleanlivingclean Posts: 11,751 Member
    Does tesco sell a cooked sweet potato product? If so, I'd imagine it would be in packaging, and come with a nutrition label.

    If it's just a sweet potato, look up a generic USDA entry for raw or cooked... I'd personally use raw, as cooking technique will alter the cooked weight a lot.
  • bethhhpx
    bethhhpx Posts: 5 Member
    Thank for this info. @CyberTone

    Ah so it is for more whole foods rather than branded. I usually just buy the loose potatoes rather than those in a packaging but to make it easy I might just buy the packaged ones. Do you have any tips on cooking things in batch but weighing it out raw if you get me? @livingleanlivingclean
  • livingleanlivingclean
    livingleanlivingclean Posts: 11,751 Member
    edited February 2018
    bethhhpx wrote: »
    Thank for this info. @CyberTone

    Ah so it is for more whole foods rather than branded. I usually just buy the loose potatoes rather than those in a packaging but to make it easy I might just buy the packaged ones. Do you have any tips on cooking things in batch but weighing it out raw if you get me? @livingleanlivingclean

    I usually eat the same thing during the week, so I know I need 5 portions of things - say I have 200g sweet potato (logged as raw weight) in my lunch.

    I weigh out 1kg sweet potato chunks, cook them, cool them, reweigh and divide the cooked weight by 5.

    Perhaps I have 40g rice (raw weight) with dinner each week night - I weigh out 200g raw rice, cook it, cool it, reweigh the cooked rice and divide by 5.

    The cooked weight is irrelevant to the calorie counting process as all that will have been lost or gained is water (0 calories)
  • bethhhpx
    bethhhpx Posts: 5 Member
    Thank you for this @livingleanlivingclean - it means a lot and will help my meal prepping/calorie counting lots!

    :blush:

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