Food database issues with Net carbs

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henriklynggaard
henriklynggaard Posts: 27 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Hi

Maybe I am late to the party, but I have been reading up on net carbs because I couldn't make sense of some of the food nutrition labels. That is when I learned there is a big difference in how nutrition labels are written in US and EU (and elsewhere I guess), and I have been calculating net carbs wrong

In US the nutrition label reads
Carbs = Total carbs (including dietary fibers) hence net carbs is carbs minus fibers

in EU the nutrition label reads
Carbs = Available carbs (excluding dietary fibers) hence net carbs is just carbs

Looking in the food database things become very complicated, as there doesn't seem to be a standard for how carbs are tracked in MFP. The label does read "Total carbs" thus suggesting the US way of writing, but the actual items in the database is a big mess of both styles, and there is no way (that I have found) to see where a food item originates from, or the style it is written in. Likewise it is very hard the verify the values.

How can I best ensure that carbs are counted correctly without making "my" versions of all the food I enter (or editing them)

Replies

  • CyberTone
    CyberTone Posts: 7,337 Member
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    MFP was founded and is located in San Francisco, California, United States of America. They designed the database based on the US FDA basic Nutrition Facts label. The FDA regulations require US manufacturers or any companies that package products for sale in the US to report Total Carbohydrates (including dietary fiber grams) on the label.

    Any MFP user can create a public Food Database item and enter any information they want. All users have the responsibility to verify every item they log to their Food Diary. MFP does not guarantee the database accuracy.
  • henriklynggaard
    henriklynggaard Posts: 27 Member
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    CyberTone wrote: »
    MFP was founded and is located in San Francisco, California, United States of America. They designed the database based on the US FDA basic Nutrition Facts label. The FDA regulations require US manufacturers or any companies that package products for sale in the US to report Total Carbohydrates (including dietary fiber grams) on the label.

    Any MFP user can create a public Food Database item and enter any information they want. All users have the responsibility to verify every item they log to their Food Diary. MFP does not guarantee the database accuracy.

    While technically correct, that doesn't really help users maintain a consistent food database.. There is currently nothing in the UI to help guide users. MFP knows my location and could provide a simple warning, or even better display the nutrition info differently i.e. according to the guidelines of your region.

    My bet is that many of not most EU members do not know about the labelling difference and thus enter the food incorrectly
  • livingleanlivingclean
    livingleanlivingclean Posts: 11,751 Member
    edited May 2018
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    You check all of the entries you use, and make sure the numbers are entered how you want them to be entered. If you can't find an entry, there's not really any other option that. editing one or making a new one for yourself (and label it net carbs, or total carbs... Whichever it is)
  • malibu927
    malibu927 Posts: 17,565 Member
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    henriklynggaard wrote: »
    CyberTone wrote: »
    MFP was founded and is located in San Francisco, California, United States of America. They designed the database based on the US FDA basic Nutrition Facts label. The FDA regulations require US manufacturers or any companies that package products for sale in the US to report Total Carbohydrates (including dietary fiber grams) on the label.

    Any MFP user can create a public Food Database item and enter any information they want. All users have the responsibility to verify every item they log to their Food Diary. MFP does not guarantee the database accuracy.

    While technically correct, that doesn't really help users maintain a consistent food database.. There is currently nothing in the UI to help guide users. MFP knows my location and could provide a simple warning, or even better display the nutrition info differently i.e. according to the guidelines of your region.

    My bet is that many of not most EU members do not know about the labelling difference and thus enter the food incorrectly

    They enter their labels exactly as stated. Actually they have issue with the sodium area, because (at least in the UK) they list salt instead.
  • henriklynggaard
    henriklynggaard Posts: 27 Member
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    malibu927 wrote: »

    They enter their labels exactly as stated. Actually they have issue with the sodium area, because (at least in the UK) they list salt instead.

    yep, I have the same problem in DK, labels only list salt :-\

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