The Health Guru

Facts, Hints, Tips, Advice and Inspiration on everything to do about health & weight loss.

Where does The Health Guru get nutrition information from?

Posted on | August 6, 2012 | No Comments

Weigh Food

I am regularly asked where I find the nutrition information for my blogs posts – here is my answer:

I actually don’t send any of the food to laboratories – that costs a lot of money to do and is the responsibility of the manufacturer, not mine!

I buy, try, eat, weigh and estimate:  Just about every food that I post about I buy and try eating it before I post (unless I severely hate that food or I’m allergic to it!)   Where possible I divide the dish into the protein and carbs and weigh each of the ingredients accordingly. I then estimate how many teaspoons of fat it contains.  I will then investigate the ingredients that are used to create this recipe. For example:  I will understand what is in the ‘red sauce’ – ie. Sugar, tomato, tomato paste, 12 ground chillis.  I have been cooking all of my life and have a very good understanding of ingredients, food weight and portions in a recipe.

Knowing the above I calculate all the ingredient nutrition by weight.  This is the best that I can do.  There will be discrepancies.    ALWAYS plus/minus calories from this estimation.

How I calculate nutrition by the weight of food:  Divide your meal up into protein, carbs and fat and weigh the amount.  Then calculate using the following equation for each component:

Protein: 4 calories per gram (16.7 Kj)

Carbs: 4 calories per gram (16.7 Kj)

Fat:  9 calories per gram (37.7 Kj)

Yes, each gram of fat you consume provides more than twice as many calories as a gram of protein or carbohydrate!

Here’s an example:  You eat something that contains  10 grams of protein, 10 grams of fat, and 10 grams of carbohydrates

(10 g protein x 4) + (10 g fat x 9) + (10 g carbs x 4) = 170

That food would provide you with 170 calories.  40 calories come from protein, 90 calories come from fat, and 40 calories come from carbohydrates.

I love to cook and know the recipe content of each food:  This helps me alot.  If you know what ingredients are needed to bake / cook something, then you have a very good idea of the calorie content of most food.

Sometimes I just use the internet: If I can’t buy the particular food item I will google up the recipe for how to make it (or something similar) and use my best nutrition knowledge to calcuate. Also alot of confectionary food manufacturers don’t want their consumers to know the calories of their food items – so I have to do my best to estimate portions/ weight / ingredients and food nutrition.  Anytime I do this, I will always let my blog readers know.

So that’s it! Most of the time is just simple science and maths.

Hope that helps!

For more nutrition and health tips visit: www.healthguru.sg

Related posts:

How to calculate calorie expenditure correctly
How many calories you burn depends on the whether ...
Know your portion sizes
It’s time to get serious about portion size.  Many...
How to calculate the calories in your food
Calculating the calories in your own meals is ...
Category: General, Learn About Food
Tags: > >

Comments

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.


  • ShoutBox

    Last Message
    1 month
     ago
    • Info : Please, resolve the addition below before post any new comment...
    • Guest_1967 : Hi, would you know the nutrional information of Thai vermicelli salad? All I can find is for Phad Thai, but I'm looking for the boiled glass noodle one.
    • Health Guru : Thanks for the Thunder Tea Rice tip... I haven't eaten for ages - will go try it.
    • Guest_2263 : Hi Natalie, you need to check out Organic Thunder Rice in Bishan Bus Interchange. Cheers
    • Guest_4579 : please update..its years away now and theres a new version in the market as well.
    • Guest_2834 : Please update... :)
    • Guest_3832 : do u advocate low carb/keto dieting?

  • Singapore Blog Awards


  • Fig - 68 kcal in 100g
    68kcal
    Fig - 68 kcal in 100g
    by Noni