Unit Conversion

Numbers become fuzzy when we track carbs in carrots that do not come on a scale. From a bag you grab some baby carrot. The bag says forty grams. You have sixty grams on your plate. There’s no way to match what you track to what you weigh. Most tracking doesn’t last because there’s always … Read more

Sweet potatoes: Everyone thinks that if they peel a sweet potato, they’re consuming fewer carbs (less food on the plate!). That is wrong. The carbohydrates are located in flesh, not underneath the skin. The fiber content is also found in the peel. Unless you have somehow extracted all the fiber from the peel without leaving … Read more

When you ask yourself how much carbs are in your meal, it always starts with salad, then moves to confusion regarding what’s on top of it: sauces. Tomatoes aren’t zero carb food, even though they’re rich in carotenoids (like lycopene) and low on the glycemic index. Depending on what you do with tomatoes; blend them … Read more

The nutrition facts on a package of potatoes are calculated from raw weight. This number won’t realy tell you anything if you’re eating boiled, baked, or fried potatoes with or without the skin. There’s a calculator that take all those factors into account so you know when it’s time to say no thanks to that … Read more

What kind of onion? Most recipes don’t say. But if you’re cooking to avoid carbs or counting them preciseley, that doesn’t matter. Standard nutrient databases assumes the little yellow thing in your crisper and the giant sweet one in bulk bags are nutritionally the same. Which they aren’t. Not even close. Measuring the right portion … Read more

Standing in front of the fridge, you hold an apple: a Honeycrisp. Will it raise your blood-sugar level? Can you count it in your day’s allotment? How can one apple be one serving? That isnt obvious. Botany doesn’t agree with biology about what’s edible. Half the fruit’s fiber are on the peel. The core takes … Read more

What’s this? You’re in produce aisle, staring at red grapes. Will they count toward your carb allotment? It is an honest quandary, since nothing appears more innocently fruit-like than a fruit, until you read the label. Think of it: grapes are little bags of sugar encased in a delicate wrapping. Compared to something like melon … Read more

A lot of people think “oh I know, one cup of strawberries is X number of grams of carbs,” but that’s not true at all. It depends on whether you measured your fruit with leafy greens chopped off or not. It also depends on if it was frozen as a whole, a cut-up block, or … Read more

We tend to lump all oranges together as carbohydrate sources, which is true until someone squeezes one into a glass and drinks it, or cuts up some segments for a salad bowl. Drinking an orange’s liquid versus biting into the fruit itself isn’t merely a matter of mouthfeel; it’s a very different experience for your … Read more

But now you face a banana: Will it screw with your day’s carb allotment? Is it a risk? Or is there no way to know unless you grab it, look at it, and see it transform from a thing into something else? The problem isn’t the banana; it’s how much banana you actualy consume. A … Read more