Which nutritional info - usda or package

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ChickenKillerPuppy
ChickenKillerPuppy Posts: 297 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I am making a dish with red lentils. My package says 35g = 100 calories. The USDA database puts at about 120 calories for 35g (these are dry measurements). Should I go with the package or go with USDA? It's not just the difference of 20 calories because the recipe calls for about 53g (I know, still not a huge difference), but I am curious what others would do in this situation.

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  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,902 Member
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    I probably would not have even looked at the package and just gone with the USDA. But, having looked and seen a discrepancy, I'd go with the package.
  • ythannah
    ythannah Posts: 4,365 Member
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    I'd go with the package info, but I'm in Canada and some products are formulated differently for our market than for the US (shouldn't be any difference for something like lentils though).

    Out of curiosity I looked at my bag of green lentils, Canadian exclusive brand, and they say 100 cals for 35 g.
  • Derf_Smeggle
    Derf_Smeggle Posts: 611 Member
    edited October 2021
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    Go with the USDA numbers. In the United States reported calories on a label can be skewed to make the food look better.

    Third Group nutrients include calories, sugars, total fat, saturated fat, cholesterol, and sodium. For foods with label declarations of Third Group nutrients, the ratio between the amount obtained by laboratory analysis and the amount declared on the product label in the Nutrition Facts panel must be 120% or less. [ Lab/label x 100 ]. In other words, if the lab testing finds 120 calories and the company's nutrition label reports 100 calories, then the label is in compliance...
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 33,962 Member
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    I wouldn't probably have looked at USDA either and would have looked at the package, but most beans are 100-120 calories. Labeling can legally be off by 20% like Dert said above and it seems to me they usually err on the side of lower cal...but who knows? I always go by the package but I realize it's not a perfect system.
  • ythannah
    ythannah Posts: 4,365 Member
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    amusedmonkey wrote: »
    You can never be 100% accurate all the time. Even the same food in different seasons or from different batches can have different calories. All you can do is trust that your best judgment is enough for now. In my opinion, paying attention to how your weight is behaving over time is the only way to tell if you're undercounting or overcounting in general.

    ^^^ best answer!
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 13,643 Member
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    USDA if a generic product. Label if reason to believe that the processing may have affected values

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