Great nutrition analysis database

That's useful information , Lucy. Thank you!

Signy

I'm going to add a complication though!

Remember , it's a US data base. They have used a different method of analysis to the UK So in the UK carbs are chemically analysed, in the US the fats and proteins are chemically analysed and the carbs are recorded 'by difference' ie what's left.
More importantly, in the US they include fiber as a part of the total carb (different method of analysis again may be used

You will therefore get different figures if you compare data from different countries.
You just have to make sure that you don't inadvertently mix and match and compare a UK carb figure with a US total carb figure.

So for your almonds (I used blanched because there was a straight comparison)

the US data base gives 18.67g total carbs of which 9.9 are fiber If you deduct the fiber from the total carb then this gives a figure or 8.77g carbs
An older copy of McCance and Widdowson's , the UK 'bible' gives 6.9g of carbohydrate and 7.4 g of Non Starch Poly Saccharide (ie most fibre)

The comparative figures are 8.77g and 6.9g ( The difference probably accounted for by the methods and even the source of the almonds used )
I think that the authors of carbs and cals as UK dietitians would use the UK data. I believe that the book Carb, calorie and fat bible is also based on British data.

The archived copy of Widdowson's I used can be downloaded in excel form but isn't friendly to use like the US data base and is undoubtedly dated . There is a newer version but not online..
http://tna.europarchive.org/2011011...od.gov.uk/science/dietarysurveys/dietsurveys/

(just to complicate things the UK now accepts 2 methods for analysis of fibre on food labels but won't go into that)

Ahhh, thanks Phoenix!
So to clarify, Carbohydrate content on UK packaging already has the fibre deducted from the total ? That's the way I've been working on carb content as otherwise sometimes it doesn't make sense and goes in to negative carbs. Which would be wonderful if it were true !

Signy

Yes, no need to deduct anything in the UK.
The little gem carb counting book though published in the UK doesn't seem to have realised this. As far as I can see they have used UK data but then they take the fibre away for their net carb figure. (in effect deducting twice)
This sometimes gets them into difficulties. For celery they put 0.9g carb, 1.1g fibre and then have nothing to put in the net carb column so they put a dash. Sometimes they just decide to take the smaller figure from the larger one and for 50g of runner beans they put 1.1g of carb, 1,5g fibre and end up with a net carb of 0.4g !

There is also an apocryphal story of some low carb dieters on a US forum raving about this new Swedish crispbread with a negative amount of carbs ( an import with a European label)

phoenix said:

There is also an apocryphal story of some low carb dieters on a US forum raving about this new Swedish crispbread with a negative amount of carbs ( an import with a European label)

Click to expand...

You can buy it in IKEA, it's called Cårbsuk or something like that.

sanguine said:

You can buy it in IKEA, it's called Cårbsuk or something like that.

Click to expand...

Ah yes, an excellent eco friendly product. It's a great use for all those fibreboard off cuts that used to be thrown away.