Net carbs and food labels

Hi

My partner and I just started Atkins a few weeks ago, and moving in to
OWL we are looking at expanding our food range.

Her father has been doing for 18 months and basically said what the book
said regarding net carbs --

net carbs = total carbs - dietary fibre

On the Atkins ceral box it says Net Carbs 3g and then on the back of the
box it says Carbohydrates 3g and Dietary Fibre 7g ??

Also I have frozen Broccoli Florets from the supermarket which says it
has 0.4g Total Carbs and 3.0g Dietary Fibre which would mean I could
eat as much as I wanted for 'free', but Atkins and other sites differ.

She also bought a packet of salted beer nuts because the dietary fibre
in that exceeded the total carbohydrates so she counted it as 0g.

The brown paper bag from the supermarket my mushrooms come in also show
they have more dietary fibre than carbs, again they would be free
according to the rule, but no low carb book I've ever seen shows
mushrooms as 0g net.

Does some packaging already take the fibre from the carbs and show that
as the carbs ??

I am in Australia so I'm not sure whether the labels here and different
to the US, and I can't find much on the Australian labelling system. It
is only starting to becomemore popular in Australia so at the moment we
have limited access to baking products and other low carb foods, other
then expensive health food stores.

I also found this site - www.nutritiondata.com - which I wanted to use
as it can show the breakdown in 100g which I find much easier to weigh
fruit and vegetables then to work out a cup of vegetables. It often
differs from what Atkins says in his counter as well.


Kind regards
Jody

Not sure about Australia, but sounds like it may be like some of the
european countries where fiber is already subracted out and listed
seperately and not included in the carb count. Here in the US they
show total carbs, which includes fiber, then list fiber seperately
under it, as a sub-category. Aside from fiber, the other thing that
gets subtracted out of the effective carb count is the carbs from sugar
alcohols, which impact blood glucose less than a regular carb would.
How much they impact apparently varies depending on the sugar alcohol
and the individual. If you search here, you'll find plenty of
discussion on that topic. IMO, products with sugar alcohols are ok, as
long as you use them in moderation and not make them a cornerstone of
your diet.

"Jody Scott" wrote in message
.130...
I am in Australia so I'm not sure whether the labels here and different
to the US, and I can't find much on the Australian labelling system. It
is only starting to becomemore popular in Australia so at the moment we
have limited access to baking products and other low carb foods, other
then expensive health food stores.


Yes, other Aussies have mentioned your labels have the fiber listed
separately so your carbs are already 'net.'

--
No Husband Has Ever Been Shot While Doing The Dishes

"None Given" wrote in
:


Yes, other Aussies have mentioned your labels have the fiber listed
separately so your carbs are already 'net.'


Thanks, that makes more sense as some products were just too low by the
time you took the dietary fibre off. So we were basically taking it off
twice which means we were going over our 'carb limit'. At the end of
the day we still lost weight.

I also found this article on the net which does mention that the
Australian labels are the same as the UK.

Jody
-----

Starch firm petitions FDA: 'Keep up with Australia' (back to contents)

PR Newswire

The US FDA is expected to release proposed rules on how information
about carbohydrates should appear on the nutrition facts panel of food
labels next year. Proposals before the FDA to break fibre out of the
'Total Carbohydrate Content' listing on the label are designed to bring
US rules into line with Australia and Europe.

The complex issue of carbohydrate labelling fired up by the low-carb
trend will move up a gear next month when the FDA is expected to release
proposed rules on how information about carbohydrates should appear on
the nutrition facts panel of food labels. Joining the dialogue,
resistant starch supplier National Starch submitted a petition to the
government body, proposing that fibre be broken out of the 'Total
Carbohydrate Content' listing on the label.

The intention is to list fibre separately so the consumer is informed
about the fibre content. Proven health benefits of fibre and a recent
message from public health authorities that consumers should double
their fibre intake mean that US consumers are already looking for fibre
information on food labels.

But in the current climate where US consumers remain wary of high
carbohydrate content as a result of the popular Atkins diet - that has
an estimated 30 million followers - the current label might not only
confuse the consumer, but also dissuade them from the buying the
product.

Europe and Australia have a totally separate listing for fibre on the
nutrition facts panel of the food label, a fact highlighted by the
starch firm in the petition. National Starch proposed to the Food and
Drug Administration that fibre be listed separate from 'Total
Carbohydrates' on the nutrition facts panel of the US food label.

One of the rationales behind the US moving to this type of labelling is
that it would provide consistency to global food labels, in particular
for international firms working in these different geographical zones.

Jody Scott wrote:
Hi

My partner and I just started Atkins a few weeks ago, and moving in to
OWL we are looking at expanding our food range.

Her father has been doing for 18 months and basically said what the book
said regarding net carbs --

net carbs = total carbs - dietary fibre

The book is referring to US labelling laws, where fiber is included
in the total carb count. It's not included in the UK, and probably
not included in Australia, judging from the labels you mentioned,
so there is nothing to subtract.

--
jamie )

"There's a seeker born every minute."

On Sat, 22 Jan 2005 22:59:34 GMT, Jody Scott
wrote:

I am in Australia so I'm not sure whether the labels here and different
to the US, and I can't find much on the Australian labelling system. It
is only starting to becomemore popular in Australia so at the moment we
have limited access to baking products and other low carb foods, other
then expensive health food stores.

Australian labels already have fibre deducted (or rather, counted
separately). So, when you see on an Oz label that something is x
grams of carb and y grams of fibre, treat it as exactly that. It's
only on the vary occasional US label (which will be obvious because it
does NOT include the second 'per 100g serve' panel which is mandatory
on Oz labels) that you can deduct.

We have access to less expensive (and often better quality according
to US residents who have visited over the years) meats, cheeses and
vegetables. We have wonderful locally-grown nuts. You don't NEED a
lot of pre-packed glop to do successful low-carb! Trust me on this -
I've been LC in Australia for almost 7 years now and rarely felt any
loss.

That said, you may be interested in looking at the Yahoo! group
Lowcarb Oz at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LowcarbOz
for seasonally-appropriate recipes (ice creams in December, casseroles
and soups in July rather than the other way around), local sources for
low-carb accompaniments and great local support. You need never feel
alone!

Aramanth
(in sunny South Australia, LC since May 29th 1998)