kj to cals - they are NOT the same thing

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Trinity1982
Trinity1982 Posts: 54
in Food and Nutrition
I'm starting to find it frustrating when people are adding things to the system and not converting food from kj (Kilojoules) to cal (calories). THERE IS A HUGE DIFFERENCE!!!

Please please please, if you're going to add foods to the system ensure that you make the conversion. There are some very easy conversion tables on the net if you just google them. It only takes a second!

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  • hellraisedfire
    hellraisedfire Posts: 403 Member
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    where are foods given in kJ?
  • Trinity1982
    Trinity1982 Posts: 54
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    My hubby bought me Nescafe Mocha 99% fat free coffee sachets and the box says 240kj and in the MFP system it was showing up as 240 cals - the kj to cal conversion means it's actually 57 cals!!!
  • treetop57
    treetop57 Posts: 1,578 Member
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    One food calorie is equal to 4.184 kilojoules. Within the European Union, both the kilocalorie (kcal) and kilojoule (kJ) appear on nutrition labels. In many countries, only one of the units is displayed.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_energy

    It probably adds to the confusion that a "food calorie" is what scientists call a kcal or kilocalorie. I'm sure some people stop reading at the k!
  • Trinity1982
    Trinity1982 Posts: 54
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    thank you for clearing that up - i'd forgotten about kcal! it's hard to explain when you can't remember which k and cal are for what unit of measure :)
  • katysmelly
    katysmelly Posts: 380 Member
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    In the UK, they always list both, as far as I'm aware.

    Yeah - HUGE difference. LOL
  • nellymaree
    nellymaree Posts: 4
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    Alot of people also put the daily RDI's as the actually quantitiy the food contains... eg. 10mg of Iron they would put as 10% RDI instead of 55% or whatever the actual %'s are... I just think if you're going to enter into the database, and share with everyone rather than keep it just as a personal food, then double and triple check that it's entered right!!
  • jaabee11
    jaabee11 Posts: 322 Member
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    And please check the spelling from the label in front of you.
    Last year I was still finding nearly everything with both kj and cal but this year it is getting harder, most things only having the kj.
    I'm in Australia.
    Can't wait for the update eventually to choose either.
  • court182
    court182 Posts: 307
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    In the UK, they always list both, as far as I'm aware.

    The same is true for Spain.

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