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Diabetes and Food Packaging!

derry60 said:
I make my own Icecream, I buy frozen strawberries, put them into my Ninja blender, add some vanilla extract, fresh double cream, and some sweetener, Pulse a few times. That is it..Icecream. Much better than Halo icecream and cheaper.
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Sounds good to me. My vegan friend was not impressed with the peanut butter variety of Halo top: She described it as lacking in flavour with a slightly powdery texture. We both agreed wont buy that again.
Had a tiny bit to try, its horrible, and decided its not fair to expect Mr slim to eat either of them, so both going in the bin. What a waste.
 
What winds me up is when products are clearly packaged as a single serving but claim that they're multiple servings in the nutrition info! The Go Ahead crispy biscuits are packaged as 3 biscuits, but the nutrition info claim that a serving is a single biscuit
 
I’m not sure I’d even want to eat a single one of them. How many carbs is a single biscuit let alone 3 of them?
 
 
“As per your example, Yes that is simple, It's when the weight is 465g or other 'odd' numbers that it gets time consuming“

So how is multiplying or diving by some other randomly manufacturers chosen portion size (if you don’t conveniently want that exact portion size) any easier? I’d rather do multiples and fractions of 100 than 465.

At least this way we can easily compare one item to another knowing that a like amount of each is higher or lower. Eg two pots of yoghurt (edited) on the shelf. Regardless of portion size we choose to have we can instantly see which is the lower carb one. If they only did portion sizes but awkwardly had different chosen portion sizes then there’s all sorts of mathematical contortions to get them both to an equal size in order to compare.

Fortunately in the uk as well as the per 100 amounts most/many products do the per portion so we can all be happy.

Edited from mayo to yoghurt to save Jim’s sanity
 
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Don’t get me started on bottled mayonnaise. It’s all made from toxic oils irrespective of the carbohydrate content.

I make my own using olive oil
 
Jim Lahey said:
Don’t get me started on bottled mayonnaise. It’s all made from toxic oils irrespective of the carbohydrate content.

I make my own using olive oil
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Sorry just a random example. I keep thinking of making my own but as yet not got round to it. Out of interest how long would a batch keep in the fridge?
 
HSSS said:
Sorry just a random example. I keep thinking of making my own but as yet not got round to it. Out of interest how long would a batch keep in the fridge?
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Not sure really. I usually use it up within a couple of days. Favourite is to drown king prawns and fresh chilli served on raw spinach.
 
I was using some malt vinegar this lunch time and out of interest read the nutrition label. Liquids normally give the grams per 100ml. The vinegar gave the number of grams per tablespoon. No mention of 100ml I believe a tablespoon is 15ml. I was under the impression it was EU law that products should show the grams per 100. Clearly vinegar is an exception.
 
One of my toys is a Bamix with lots of accessories - it is so useful for so many jobs, just making mayonnaise would make it worth the money. It sits on the work top and gets used for all sorts - it even has its own dedicated washing jug for being useful, and its own roll of kitchen towel for drying off.
 
I don't know about EU law.
But when measuring most "thin" liquids (water, milk, vinegar, wine, ...), I assume 1ml weighs 1g. I know this is definitely the case for water and has not caused me any problems when cooking with the other liquids I listed.

And, I too, believe 1 tablespoon is 15ml. I think 1 dessert spoon is 10ml even though my Mum used to tell me a dessert spoon was half a tablespoon and, with this assumption, her cakes have always been wonderful.
 
helensaramay said:
And, I too, believe 1 tablespoon is 15ml. I think 1 dessert spoon is 10ml even though my Mum used to tell me a dessert spoon was half a tablespoon and, with this assumption, her cakes have always been wonderful.
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I agree with your mum. A dessert spoon is smaller than a tablespoon. Not sure by how much though.
 
HSSS said:
Sorry just a random example. I keep thinking of making my own but as yet not got round to it. Out of interest how long would a batch keep in the fridge?
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Home made mayonnaise is so delicious that I have never had a chance to find out how long it keeps. I make mine with 100% olive oil and leave those old seed oils well alone.
 
bulkbiker said:
Here you go Daf
View attachment 32172
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Thanks Des. All I was querying was why the vinegar didn't show it per 100, but did show it per tablespoon. At the end of the day it matters not for me, because the carb amounts are minuscule anyway and the portion size is also minuscule, but next time I will measure how much I use, just out of curiosity.
 
I would but I'm odd like that.. measure everything..
 
bulkbiker said:
I would but I'm odd like that.. measure everything..
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Oh I used to at the beginning. I have been known to chop a tiny piece off my cheese and give it the dog, and also to remove a few peas (2 or 3) because they over-weighed my portion allowance! I was very obsessive about it in those days.
 
Perhaps the idea would be stay away from ready meals and make your own....at least you'll then know what the ingredients are!
 
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Looking at the positives there were no food labels when we were diagnosed over 50 years ago.
So it's much easier now to work out the carbohydrate values and contents of packaged food as it's clearly written on the packet. If your having problems, there's no rush just take your time and use a calculator if needed.
Janis
 
Hi everyone, I have been reading the posts here and it sounds like there are different food labeling requirements in England. Here in Australia the first column is the amounts of carbs etc for the portion size, be it the meal itself if is single serve meal or the amount per serving size ie. this meal serves 4 people, then the serving size is how much each person should have. They also include the 100gr calculations (both of these are req on our labels) so if the meal serves multiple servings and you want to eat more or less than the recommended serving size you can calculate your carbs etc for the amount you are eating.
So if the portion is 130g per serve and you want 200g you just divide the amount listed for 100 g by the recommended portion size in this case 130 g and that gives you the amount of carbs per gram of weight. You then multiply this amount by the weight you are going to have 200 g and then you have the amount of carbs in the serving size you are going to eat.
Example: Aldi Spaghetti
Rec serving size = 210g which cont 27.5g carbs
Per 100g = 13.1 g carbs
Amount you want to eat is 230g. Then you would divide the 13.1g by 100. This gives you the amount of carbs in each gram of weight ie, 0.131g of carbs/g of weight. Then multiply this 0.131 by 230 will give you 30.13 the amount of carbs for the amount you want to eat.
I am so glad our labelling laws req these calculations.
I also have CalorieKing loaded on my IPad just in case, it comes in handy when eating out.
You can also go on the internet type in the question “how many calories in” and name the food you are eating and you often get a match will will list the calories,carbs etc for that food, sometimes you can type in the amount you are going to eat and it calculates it for you.
Hope I have not confused things further for anyone but I have been doing this a while now and find our labelling very helpful
 
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