Carb Counting & Package Labels



E

em

Guest
What is the deal when a package is labeled as having 1g of carbs, 2g, etc?
Does 1g mean >= 1 and <1.5? Or does it mean >= 1 and <2? I'm thinking that
foods marked 0g and <1g can be less of a problem than foods marked
1g/serving. Maybe that 1g actually goes up to 1.9, meaning that 3 servings
of such-and-such, at 1g/serving, could be much closer to 6g than 3. Anybody
have any insight on this? Thanks! -- Mike
 
em wrote:
> What is the deal when a package is labeled as having 1g of carbs, 2g, etc?
> Does 1g mean >= 1 and <1.5? Or does it mean >= 1 and <2? I'm thinking that
> foods marked 0g and <1g can be less of a problem than foods marked
> 1g/serving. Maybe that 1g actually goes up to 1.9, meaning that 3 servings
> of such-and-such, at 1g/serving, could be much closer to 6g than 3. Anybody
> have any insight on this? Thanks! -- Mike

They aren't allowed to round 1.9 to 1. If it says 1, at most, it's
actually 1.5.

--
http://www.ornery-geeks.org/consulting/
 
"em" <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> What is the deal when a package is labeled as having 1g of carbs, 2g, etc?
> Does 1g mean >= 1 and <1.5? Or does it mean >= 1 and <2? I'm thinking that
> foods marked 0g and <1g can be less of a problem than foods marked
> 1g/serving. Maybe that 1g actually goes up to 1.9, meaning that 3 servings
> of such-and-such, at 1g/serving, could be much closer to 6g than 3. Anybody
> have any insight on this?

In the US labels follow the standard rounding rules taught to
kids in elementary school. At or above .5 round up, below .5
round down. As a result if there's even the slightest reason to
believe an item has carbs (so few edible substances lack carbs
that the almost means anything but land meat and clear oil)
then any item whose label says zero should be counted as 0.5.

A bigger problem is the careful choice of serving size to be
able to use that rounding feature. US heavy cream is 6 grams
per cup which is under 0.5 per tablespoon. Thus the serving
size of a tablespoon is selected and the labal says zero so
there's a steady stream of new folks tricked into thinking cream
is completely carb free ...

On the other hand, how exact do you need to be? When
tracking to stay in ketosis counting servings of veggies works
just fine if you don't eat anything that has fancy claims on
the label. if your count for the day could be off by 10, how much
sense does it make to count to the nearest 0.1? I think this
cliche applies - "Measure with a micrometer. Mark with chaulk.
Cut with an axe." Without getting upset by the process, count
the best you can to the accuracy you can but understand that
the error in your count is going to be higher than the digits in
your final number suggest.
 
"em" <[email protected]> writes:

> What is the deal when a package is labeled as having 1g of carbs, 2g,
> etc? Does 1g mean >= 1 and <1.5? Or does it mean >= 1 and <2? I'm
> thinking that foods marked 0g and <1g can be less of a problem than
> foods marked 1g/serving. Maybe that 1g actually goes up to 1.9,
> meaning that 3 servings of such-and-such, at 1g/serving, could be much
> closer to 6g than 3. Anybody have any insight on this? Thanks! -- Mike

..5 <= "1g" < 1.5

In other words, "1g" means greater than or equal to .5, and less than
1.5. Normal rounding.

However, labels are allowed up to 10% error, so that really makes the
range from .45 to 1.65. Not a big deal when you're dealing with small
numbers, but like you say, the difference can add up when you're eating
several servings of something.

And that's if everything's correctly labeled. I've seen Consumer
Reports tests that showed things like canned soup having 2-3 times the
sodium they claimed. Not that CR is the ultimate arbiter of correctness
or anything, but food labeling definitely isn't perfect. Take it all
with a grain of salt, and maybe check brands against each other or
against generic charts if one claims a suspiciously low number of carbs.



--
Aaron -- 285/254/200 -- aaron.baugher.biz
 
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