Fruit and nuts

[Dougal67]

:wave: Hiya can you help me, I'm a terrible nibbler, so I thought of making up some tiny little bags of fruit and nuts (thinking this was a healthy option) but is it? I'm not sure, The contents in each bag are 2 almonds, 2 walnuts halves, 2 cashew nuts and 2 hazelnuts, 6 raisins, 6 tiny cubes of pineapple and 6 tiny cubes of apricots, sounds a lot but this amount just fits in the palm of your hand, BTW I'm T2

 

[hanadr]

You could probably eat that quantity of almost anything without doing too much damage. Almonds, pecans etc are very low carb. Dried fruits quite high, but it's the overall amount of carb which matters. If you are in the mood for some primary school maths, you could weigh out 10g of each of your "treats" and find the carb amount. then translate that to the quantities you are proposing to eat. Good fun . Have you any 10 year-olds armed with calculators who would enjoy helping?
Hana

 

[Napolyon1]

How do you convert the weight to carbs?

 

[AliC]

I'm thinking hanadr is suggesting the following so you can understand what you're consuming nutritionally:

For example, take the nutritional values for 1 almond (I got this info off this site - http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/nut-and-seed-products/3085/2 - not used them before but seems pretty well covered)

1 almond (1 gram) contains:
- Calories 5.7
- From Carbohydrate 0.9
- From Fat 4.1
- From Protein 0.7

Multiply by 2 as you have 2 in your bag, and you've got your values for the almonds. You can do the same for the other nuts and fruits, and if you can't count them individually like you can the almonds, you can weigh them and calculate it by weight instead (I'd say this approach was more accurate anyway and will always work). For example, the same way of calculating a single almond would be:

100g of almonds contains:
- Calories 575
- From Carbohydrate 87.7
- From Fat 414
- From Protein 73.6

Then weigh your almond (assume 1 gram):
- Calories 5.75 (575 / 100)
- From Carb: 0.87 (87.7 / 100)
- From Fat: 4.14 (414 / 100)
- From Protein: 0.73 (73.6 / 100)

You basically get the same figures.

 

[viviennem]

I'm thinking hanadr is suggesting the following so you can understand what you're consuming nutritionally:

For example, take the nutritional values for 1 almond (I got this info off this site - http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/nut ... cts/3085/2 - not used them before but seems pretty well covered)

1 almond (1 gram) contains:
- Calories 5.7
- From Carbohydrate 0.9
- From Fat 4.1
- From Protein 0.7

Multiply by 2 as you have 2 in your bag, and you've got your values for the almonds. You can do the same for the other nuts and fruits, and if you can't count them individually like you can the almonds, you can weigh them and calculate it by weight instead (I'd say this approach was more accurate anyway and will always work). For example, the same way of calculating a single almond would be:

100g of almonds contains:
- Calories 575
- From Carbohydrate 87.7
- From Fat 414
- From Protein 73.6

Then weigh your almond (assume 1 gram):
- Calories 5.75 (575 / 100)
- From Carb: 0.87 (87.7 / 100)
- From Fat: 4.14 (414 / 100)
- From Protein: 0.73 (73.6 / 100)

You basically get the same figures.

These figures are not telling you the amount of carbs per almond, they are telling you the amount of calories from carbs per almond - not quite the same thing!

Get yourself a carb counter book - Collins do a portable one in their Gem series; also the Calorie Carb and Fat Bible 2013 should soon be out. This is comprehensive but not portable :shock: . These will tell you the amount of carbs per 100g for foods; then get the calculator out for the weight of the food you are eating. Some foods are given "per portion" but they usually give the amount they consider to be a portion.

If you are eating low carb/high fat you don't really have to worry about calories, even for weight loss. You should find you are naturally eating fewer calories. My calorie intake from very low carb varies between 1300 and 2000 daily, and I lose weight on that (less than 50g carb daily). If I ate about 100g carb daily then I would probably have to count calories and watch my fat intake. It's carbs + fat that put weight on me - but we are all different!

I've probably been eating between 100g and 150g carb daily over Christmas/New Year, and my fasting BGs have been in the low 6s all the time. I'm back low-carbing since yesterday, and my fasting was 5.8 this morning. I expect it to keep dropping until I'm back in the high 4s/low 5s, which is where I like to be.

I haven't weighed myself yet! :wink:

Viv 8)