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Does USDA Database Subtract Fiber?
I just bought my first jicama, so I went to the database to see what
the carb numbers on it are. (Next I'm off to look for recipes. For taste and texture, I'd say it's about 75% apple and 25% turnip.) For 1/2 cup of raw jicama, it says: 5.73 carbohydrate, by difference 3.2 fiber .06 fat .47 protein 25.0 calories So, multiplying things out, I get: 5.73 x 4 = 22.92 .06 x 9 = .54 .47 x 4 = 1.48 ----------------- Total: 25.34 Close enough for government work. So I'm assuming that 5.73 already has fiber subtracted, and that's what they mean by "by difference," right? But then I looked in my new Dr. A's Carbohydrate Gram Counter, and it says: 5.7 total carbs 3.2 fiber 2.5 net carbs .1 fat .5 protein 25.0 calories So Dr. A's chart gives the same amount for total carbs, including fiber, that the USDA chart gives for "carbohydrate by difference." But if that includes fiber, then they're both including the fiber count in the calories, aren't they? I thought the whole point of doing the math was that the calories never include fiber, so by subtracting the protein and fat calories from the total, you can see what calories belong to the net carbs without fiber. Something doesn't make sense here. -- Aaron -- 285/235/200 -- aaron.baugher.biz |
#2
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Does USDA Database Subtract Fiber?
No, by difference is how that calculate carbs. They take total energy
(calories) and subtract the protein and fat, the carbs are the difference. Aaron Baugher wrote: | I just bought my first jicama, so I went to the database to see what | the carb numbers on it are. (Next I'm off to look for recipes. For | taste and texture, I'd say it's about 75% apple and 25% turnip.) For | 1/2 cup of raw jicama, it says: | | 5.73 carbohydrate, by difference | 3.2 fiber | .06 fat | .47 protein | 25.0 calories | | So, multiplying things out, I get: | | 5.73 x 4 = 22.92 | .06 x 9 = .54 | .47 x 4 = 1.48 | ----------------- | Total: 25.34 | | Close enough for government work. So I'm assuming that 5.73 already | has fiber subtracted, and that's what they mean by "by difference," | right? | | But then I looked in my new Dr. A's Carbohydrate Gram Counter, and it | says: | | 5.7 total carbs | 3.2 fiber | 2.5 net carbs | .1 fat | .5 protein | 25.0 calories | | So Dr. A's chart gives the same amount for total carbs, including | fiber, that the USDA chart gives for "carbohydrate by difference." | But if that includes fiber, then they're both including the fiber | count in the calories, aren't they? I thought the whole point of | doing the math was that the calories never include fiber, so by | subtracting the protein and fat calories from the total, you can see | what calories belong to the net carbs without fiber. Something | doesn't make sense here. |
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Does USDA Database Subtract Fiber?
On Jul 13, 1:57 pm, Aaron Baugher wrote:
Close enough for government work. So I'm assuming that 5.73 already has fiber subtracted, and that's what they mean by "by difference," right? No. What they mean is... carbohydrate is never directly calculated. They find the total calories, test for how much protein and fat, subtract the calories for the protein and fat, and assume the rest of the calories are carbohydrate. Thus fiber is NOT subtracted, but part of the total carbohydrate. This is opposed to countries where carbohydrate is measured directly... so their carb counts do NOT include fiber. "By difference" means they ASSUME how many calories are from carbohydrate. This is why yogurt carbs as calculated in the US are wrong... because our calculations assume everything that is not protein and fat is carb, whereas most of the milk sugar has been converted to lactic acid... which still has calories, but is not a carb. I "count" a cup of whole milk plain yogurt as 4 carbs... and it "works" by my bg meter to do so. I thought the whole point of doing the math was that the calories never include fiber, so by subtracting the protein and fat calories from the total, you can see what calories belong to the net carbs without fiber. Something doesn't make sense here. The calories DO include fiber. Calories are measured by burning a food completely... and seeing how much the temperature of water is raised by the burning. So fiber counts. EVERYTHING counts, even if it can't be metabolized by humans at all. This is why high-fiber foods are good for weight loss... because you're eating a bunch of calories that are metabolically inactive. My current diet is around 1700 calories per day... but 200 of them are fiber, so my body only "gets" 1500 calories per day. |
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Does USDA Database Subtract Fiber?
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Does USDA Database Subtract Fiber?
On Jul 13, 9:24 pm, Aaron Baugher wrote:
That reminds me of something else I was wondering: is there any do-it-yourself way of determining how many carbs are in something? Since I make my own yogurt and cream cheese, and I understand that homemade yogurt tends to be lower in carbs than most store-bought yogurt, and I'm also planning to try some frozen yogurt soon, I'd really like to know how much mine actually has. I know Bernstein talks about using test strips to determine whether something has usable carbs, but I think that's just a yes/no sort of thing, not a measurement. Other than eating something and gauging the effect by the change in your blood sugar, is there any way to test a food yourself without getting a bomb calorimeter? As far as I know, you'd need a lab to test for carbs. First you'd need to break down all the "disaccharides" like sucrose and the digestible "complex" carbs like starch, and then you'd have to test for each of the possible monosaccharides. Glucose is not the only one! Bernstein's method of using urine test strips only works for glucose - cause that's what urine test strips test for. And that's why he says to chew up the food first and spit it out... saliva contains an enzyme that hydrolyzes starch. Starch would normally give you a negative result with that test... until it's broken down so there's glucose. And sucrose wouldn't test positive either, unless you hydrolyzed it first to obtain glucose. For a food containing lots of fructose or another monosaccharide besides glucose, the urine test strips won't work at all. Basically, the urine test strip as described by Bernstein (with saliva added) is gonna give you a yes/no to a question like... "Did they add sucrose to this broth?" or "Is this soup thickened with corn starch?" If it were me, I'd assume homemade yogurt had about 4g carb/cup... same as store-bought. Cream cheese is trickier as the store-bought stuff has all sorts of thickeners and such added to it which likely increase the carb count. If you assumed it had the same amount of carb, that would be a conservative estimate. |
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Does USDA Database Subtract Fiber?
On Jul 13, 9:24 pm, Aaron Baugher wrote:
Is there any advantage to eating 1700 calories where 200 are fiber, or just eating 1500 calories without fiber, though, from a diet perspective? I suppose it means a fuller stomach on fewer calories, but as far as weight loss goes, is there any reason a fiber calorie is better than no calorie at all? Probably not if you're eating 200 calories worth of psyllium husks or such. It'd just run right through you. But if you're eating lotsa fiber because you eat lotsa fruits and vegetables, it means you're getting a wide variety of micronutrients. I don't "aim" to get 50g fiber/day... it just happens cause I eat lots of fresh produce. I ask because my girlfriend read something about how fiber calories "attach" themselves to fat and carbs and carry them out of the body; and supposedly you could subtract one carb gram, one fat, and one protein from your diet for each fiber gram you ate, or something like that. I probably don't have the details right, but it sounded odd. That sounds rather odd to me too. I suppose if you ate ENOUGH fiber, it would work like that... just as some people abuse laxatives to lose weight. |
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Does USDA Database Subtract Fiber?
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Does USDA Database Subtract Fiber?
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