How to measure ingredients

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  • posted by Brava
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    This may sound fussy but please bear with me. I have started the Fast 800 diet and I enjoy trying out the recipes. The tablespoon measure is used a lot. Is it better to interpret this as volume – the amount needed to fill a tablespoon measure, or as 15g which is usually seen as the equivalent? I’m asking because the two are not the same. I make No Carb Bircher for breakfast, walnuts and flax seeds are good examples of the volume and the weight being very different. I can’t find any guidelines on these basic principles and am curious. How to others decide this?

  • posted by JGwen
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    I use the fatsecret app to record all that I eat. – I would measure in g, and enter that in the app as that will give the most accurate figures for carbs, protein and fat. – I don’t follow the recipes in the books, instead eating what I fancy but setting myself limits on carbs and calories.

  • posted by Brava
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    Thank you, that is helpful and I think I shall do the same for the reason you give.

  • posted by Firefox7275
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    Not fussy at all you are quite right, Brava!

    Based on years of studying or working in hospital pharmacy, research laboratories and lifestyle healthcare …. For calories and nutrients it is correct/ accurate to weigh solid ingredients and measure the volume of liquid ingredients. 15ml = 15g for water only.

    However many people do not want to weigh out small quantities of dry ingredients when pressed for time (eg. at breakfast). It is also common for US citizens to use volume – cups – for dry ingredients in recipes.

    My bugbear or pet hate is TV chefs ‘guesstimating’ tablespoons or teaspoons of a cooking ingredient …. and it is clearly three times the amount they are saying! It is so misleading – as you guys all know – to anyone dieting or restricting certain foods.

    Linked to that: in the ‘Clever Guts’ book Dr MM mentions that he had “started taking a teaspoon [of potato starch] before bed” to treat insomnia (p. 269). You can imagine the generous doses supplemented and the digestive discomfort suffered by many poor readers. Grrrrr @ TV cooking shows.

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