Nutritional value for a recipe?

[Nic71]

Let’s say I create a dish using various beans, vegetables and herbs. How do I calculate what the cals, fat content, carbs, proteins etc are for this? It’s all mixed together and a bowl of it would probably contain different amounts of each ingredient than the next. I’d say this is impossible….right?

 

[lovinglife]

If I understand what you’re asking - you are making a dish with various ingredients but multiple portions in the same dish?

Well it’s never an exact science unless you weigh absolutely every single thing you eat so let’s take it as an average.

Sometimes when I make a recipe I create a meal or recipe in Myfitnesspal although I don’t count anything but carbs and calories (calories are mandatory in the app) - weigh the ingredients as I add them and then if the recipe is for 4 I just divide the totals by. 4.

Sometimes I don’t bother with the app and just do it on a bit of paper adding just the carbs up then divide by how many portions

 

[Margarettt]

Hi @Nic71 I think this is a great question and I had/have similar struggles. @lovinglife 's reply came up as I was typing so my answer is more or less the same, except perhaps that she is capable and confident and I'm all over the place.
I work out how many carbs in the total and then divide by portions. For example we had tinned chopped tomatoes over meatballs tonight. Four of us ate so I counted 3 carbs in a quarter of the can. Its not an exact science but because I'm very low carb its always near enough to know I'm under.
I hope that makes sense

 

[lovinglife]

Hi @Nic71 I think this is a great question and I had/have similar struggles. @lovinglife 's reply came up as I was typing so my answer is more or less the same, except perhaps that she is capable and confident and I'm all over the place.
I work out how many carbs in the total and then divide by portions. For example we had tinned chopped tomatoes over meatballs tonight. Four of us ate so I counted 3 carbs in a quarter of the can. Its not an exact science but because I'm very low carb its always near enough to know I'm under.
I hope that makes sense

Don’t do yourself down you’re doing fine

 

[Margarettt]

Don’t do yourself down you’re doing fine

Stop, you'll make me cry!!

 

[Nic71]

My dish was various beans such as kidney beans, butter beans, chickpeas along with courgettes, garlic, baby corn with chopped tomatoes all cooked with a few herbs. It’s all cooked in the one pan and then 3/4 ladles served into a bowl

 

[lovinglife]

My dish was various beans such as kidney beans, butter beans, chickpeas along with courgettes, garlic, baby corn with chopped tomatoes all cooked with a few herbs. It’s all cooked in the one pan and then 3/4 ladles served into a bowl

So did you add all the carbs up before you portioned it out? Then just divide that total by how many portions you got out of it. Sometimes it can be helpful to portion it out all at once if you’re not sure how many portions or how much you are going to eat at one time. If you’re saving some for another meal then you’ve already got your portions

3/4 ladles may be a bit too general a measurement and you may need to be more exact e.g.) 3 OR 4 if you are strict with carbs as that 4th ladle could make a difference to the carb count and what it does to your BG- especially with the ingredients you have listed e.g. the bean’s & chickpeas as they are quite carby.

 

[Nic71]

Valid question but how do you know that a portion contains a specific amount of a specific ingredient? One portion may contain more of an ingredient than the next portion

 

[lovinglife]

Valid question but how do you know that a portion contains a specific amount of a specific ingredient? One portion may contain more of an ingredient than the next portion

Unless you make single portions you’ll never know, but as long as the ingredients are well distributed then it shouldn’t vary so much that it affects the count, I just “eyeball” the portion size but you could weigh out the portions so that you have exact weights which would help with the accuracy.

I don’t eat beans & pulses and I’m on less than 20g carb a day, probably no more than 5g carb a meal so a variation in weight and mix in the ingredients wouldn’t matter so much to me but like I said it may make a difference for you with the ingredients you use

 

[KennyA]

I work to the "close enough" principle. If you're a bit over on this serving, you'll be a bit under on the next. Given that you can't be 100% certain what the carb content of a particular food is anyway - that depends eg on the age of the veg, variety, all sorts - I guess I'm close enough.

Incidentally, if you're using canned kidney beans or similar, be sure to wash them thoroughly - a lot of starch is in the liquid they're canned in.

 

[MrsA2]

I'd also test my bg immediately before eating the meal, then again 2 hours after, and maybe 1 and 3 hours after too and see what it did to my bg, because irrespective what carbs it contains if it spiked me too high I wouldn't have that recipe again.

For example with me, anything with wheat flour in instantly raise my bg even though "nutritionally" it shouldn't. My body can't read recipes or labels

 

[aylalake]

Let’s say I create a dish using various beans, vegetables and herbs. How do I calculate what the cals, fat content, carbs, proteins etc are for this? It’s all mixed together and a bowl of it would probably contain different amounts of each ingredient than the next. I’d say this is impossible….right?

There are a lot of apps available that will calculate this for you. You just need to input the ingredients one by one, with their nutritional values (available on the back of the packets or tins) and the number of portions it produced.

I used Carb Manager (this has photos showing you different portion sizes) or MyFitnessPal. Nowadays I use my own acquired knowledge of frequently used ingredients.

I agree with @KennyA - thoroughly rinse tinned pulses. Not that I eat any of those any more as they spike my blood sugar readings through the roof for hours, even 24 or more hours.