Nutritional data - who to belive?

Who do you belive when the label on the package, FitDay, and the USDA
website all say different things?

The label, unless it has obvious mistakes.

"Hilly" wrote in message
...
Who do you belive when the label on the package, FitDay, and the USDA
website all say different things?

On Apr 8, 11:07*am, "Roger Zoul" wrote:
The label, unless it has obvious mistakes.

Yes, I agree. In many cases, if it's a packaged item with a label,
you can't find the exact item on the USDA database at all. And there
is no way of knowing when/if the manufacturer changed the ingredients,
vs what's shown online.





"Hilly" wrote in message

...



Who do you belive when the label on the package, FitDay, and the USDA
website all say different things?- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

"Hilly" wrote:

Who do you belive when the label on the package, FitDay, and the USDA
website all say different things?

Anyone who picks one and sticks with it will get
good results. There's a cliche' that teaches this
wisdom: "The man with one watch knows what
time it is. The man with several is never sure."
It's from a time before atomic clocks ...

Pick any one, stick with it, do fine. Pick several,
fuss over the differences, create your own confusion
where no confusion is needed.

The point is they are all more accurate in their
details than dieters usually need. Portion sizes and
gram/calorie counts aren't accurate to the last calorie.
The differences among the databases are small
enough that is just doesn't matter.

Consider a part of the Atkins program that also
teaches the same lesson - On the Atkins web site
can be found lists on "powers of five" and "powers of
ten". In each list are serving sizes of various foods
that give approximately 5 or 10 net carb grams
respectively. Look up the items in detail and you will
find they aren't all that close to exactly 5 or exactly
10. But it doesn't matter. *Counting portions* of
items from the two lists is good enough to work.

Like so many bits of advice from Dr A or any other
well known low carb expert, this concept applies
across the low carb board. A lot less accuracy is
needed than the tables give. Rounding portions to
the nearest 5 grams increments works great but
there are tables that give to the tenth of a gram.

So pick your favorite and don't worry about disagreements.
If a food isn't listed in your favorite, find it in the first
alternate source you find and use that.

Are labels accurate? Running the numbers to tell if
they pre-deducted fiber and figuring out if it is true
zero or rounded down from 0.5 is about all that's ever
needed. It takes ten servings of 0.5 to get to 5 so all
that matters for that is a rough count of servings and
the idea that the lower your quota the more you need to
track the round-down. More about learning of hidden
carbs and that calories matter ...

On Apr 8, 9:55*am, "Hilly" wrote:
Who do you belive when the label on the package, FitDay, and the USDA
website all say different things?

Neither. The nutrition in a given food item varies by how that food
was grown, what nutrition it got when growing, when and how it was
harvested, how it was handled post harvest and how it was processed
into the final product. One food item grown on one farm will have it
own nutritional profile and the same item grown by another farmer
across the road will have a different nutritional profile depending on
the soil, the water availability, the added fertilizers, etc.

The manufacturers grab the nutritional info from an old government
listing of generic food values and plunks it into the label.

Here is a good piece of advice. If that food has a label, there will
be a better choice available. In other words don't buy manufactured
boxed crap, buy the real food and make it yourself. If you can get the
food right from the farmer or from a market that stocks their product
daily, even better.

Eat real food. Manufactured crap is poor in nutrition in virtually
every case.

"Tunderbar" wrote in message
...
On Apr 8, 9:55 am, "Hilly" wrote:
Who do you belive when the label on the package, FitDay, and the USDA
website all say different things?

Neither. The nutrition in a given food item varies by how that food
was grown, what nutrition it got when growing, when and how it was
harvested, how it was handled post harvest and how it was processed
into the final product. One food item grown on one farm will have it
own nutritional profile and the same item grown by another farmer
across the road will have a different nutritional profile depending on
the soil, the water availability, the added fertilizers, etc.

The manufacturers grab the nutritional info from an old government
listing of generic food values and plunks it into the label.

Here is a good piece of advice. If that food has a label, there will
be a better choice available. In other words don't buy manufactured
boxed crap, buy the real food and make it yourself. If you can get the
food right from the farmer or from a market that stocks their product
daily, even better.

Eat real food. Manufactured crap is poor in nutrition in virtually
every case.

I'm talking frozen veggies here, not some complex list of chemicals.
Birdseye frozen brussels sprouts that steam in the bag. The only ingredient
on the label is "brussels sprouts". It lists the carb
count as 10 grams for 10 sprouts and 5 grams fiber. FitDay lists it as 17
grams carb and 7 grams fiber for 10 sprouts. The USDA website doesn't
list in number of sprouts, but in grams or cups. I'm quite anal about
counting
every carb in all my food. Just habit I suppose.

I don't always buy fresh because this time of year, you can't always get
fresh in a form that's appealing, or even fresh looking. The veggies they
sell
in the produce section at our local grocer often looks picked over,
dried up or just plain sad.

I do normally eat only whole, "real" foods, and not "manufactured boxed
crap". I'll
even spring for organic once in a while if the budget permits. I don't
always
have the choice, though. I've been doing LC long enough that I no longer
care
for the junk I used to eat. I also much prefer my own cooking than going out
for dinner. All this pays off in the long run, in more ways than one.

"Marengo" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 8 Apr 2008 09:55:13 -0500, "Hilly"
wrote:

Who do you belive when the label on the package, FitDay, and the USDA
website all say different things?


I record everything I eat into FitDay. I always use the "custom food"
feature to enter the label data on a commercial product. What
commercial food product are you finding that is already in FitDay and
on the USDA site with nutritional values different from the food
label? I've never heard of this before.
---
Peter
270/220/180

I've found several instances over the past couple years where the data
differs
between package labels, FitDay, and USDA site. Can't remember right off what
all of them are, but I know there are some.

You would think that the values listed on the package of frozen veggies
would
be identical to the USDA site. Perhaps they are if you measure in grams or
cups in most instances. FitDay does have some discrepancies though. If I run
across any more, I'll let you know, Peter.

On Tue, 8 Apr 2008 09:55:13 -0500, "Hilly"
wrote:

Who do you belive when the label on the package, FitDay, and the USDA
website all say different things?


I record everything I eat into FitDay. I always use the "custom food"
feature to enter the label data on a commercial product. What
commercial food product are you finding that is already in FitDay and
on the USDA site with nutritional values different from the food
label? I've never heard of this before.
---
Peter
270/220/180

"Marengo" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 8 Apr 2008 12:36:44 -0500, "Hilly"
wrote:


I'm talking frozen veggies here, not some complex list of chemicals.
Birdseye frozen brussels sprouts that steam in the bag. The only
ingredient
on the label is "brussels sprouts". It lists the carb
count as 10 grams for 10 sprouts and 5 grams fiber. FitDay lists it as 17
grams carb and 7 grams fiber for 10 sprouts. The USDA website doesn't
list in number of sprouts, but in grams or cups. I'm quite anal about
counting
every carb in all my food. Just habit I suppose.

Well, that seems a bit silly to me. If you're that anal about
measuring (as I am), then get youself an inexpensive food scale and
weigh the # of grams of what you'r eating. It makes no sense to use
# of sprouts as a measure, then to get on a soapbox and say that it
doesn't match the USDA or FitDay grams -- knowing full well that the
size of a sprout can vary. You know very well if you use FitDay much
that it has several different measures for each food (oz, g, and
"small, med. or large, etc.) and that the latter are always
approximated for those those who do not have access to scales. So
what is the problem exactly? And from what you said, unless you're
weighing the food, there is not necessarily a discrepancy in what you
described. There very well may be 10g in a in 10 sprouts of frozen
brussel spouts, depending on the weight of the sprouts. You're trying
to compare weight to volume then complaining about the difference when
they are not the same thing.
---
Peter
270/220/180

Not complaining, just stating there's a difference, and asking who to
belive.
I don't think it's silly at all to wonder why there's a difference. How else
can
you learn if you don't wonder and ask questions?

On Tue, 8 Apr 2008 12:36:44 -0500, "Hilly"
wrote:


I'm talking frozen veggies here, not some complex list of chemicals.
Birdseye frozen brussels sprouts that steam in the bag. The only ingredient
on the label is "brussels sprouts". It lists the carb
count as 10 grams for 10 sprouts and 5 grams fiber. FitDay lists it as 17
grams carb and 7 grams fiber for 10 sprouts. The USDA website doesn't
list in number of sprouts, but in grams or cups. I'm quite anal about
counting
every carb in all my food. Just habit I suppose.

Well, that seems a bit silly to me. If you're that anal about
measuring (as I am), then get youself an inexpensive food scale and
weigh the # of grams of what you'r eating. It makes no sense to use
# of sprouts as a measure, then to get on a soapbox and say that it
doesn't match the USDA or FitDay grams -- knowing full well that the
size of a sprout can vary. You know very well if you use FitDay much
that it has several different measures for each food (oz, g, and
"small, med. or large, etc.) and that the latter are always
approximated for those those who do not have access to scales. So
what is the problem exactly? And from what you said, unless you're
weighing the food, there is not necessarily a discrepancy in what you
described. There very well may be 10g in a in 10 sprouts of frozen
brussel spouts, depending on the weight of the sprouts. You're trying
to compare weight to volume then complaining about the difference when
they are not the same thing.
---
Peter
270/220/180