Food not on list

[diane2158]

Hi don’t know if I’m just being thick, but how do I look at a food item packet and work out how to add or swap something on my menu. Thx

[Ossie-Sharon]

Hi, Diane. Convert the amounts of the major nutrients (carbohydrate, protein, and fat) to exchanges, then match the numbers of exchanges to what are allotted to you for each meal or day. The following are the approximate nutritional values of exchanges:
1 carbohydrate exchange = 15 grams of carbohydrates + up to 3 grams of protein
1 protein exchange = 7 grams of protein + up to 5 grams of fat
1 fat exchange = 5 grams of fat
1 fruit exchange = 15 grams of carbohydrates
1 vegetable exchange = 5 grams of carbohydrates + up to 2 grams of protein
1 sweet exchange = up to 15 grams of carbohydrates + up to 5 grams of fat
1 free exchange = up to 5 grams of carbohydrates or up to 2 grams of protein or fat
Example of Tesco Baked Beans in Tomato Sauce (https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/254876305):
Each can yields about 2 carbohydrate + 1 protein exchange.
Please let me know if something is unclear here. The system might take some getting used to, but that does NOT mean that you are thick! 🙂 People all over the world use this system, and plenty needed a learning curve before it became second nature to them.

[diane2158]

Hi still not got my head round this!!
A tin of John west sardines in tomato sauce 120 g tin
Carbohydrate1.8g
Protein 20.4g
Fat 12.0g
Are these a total No or how do I work them out ?

[Ossie-Sharon]

Hi, Diane. That product is fairly unprocessed and natural, and has tomato sauce instead of industrial oil – it is great! Fish are protein foods, so to figure out how to fit it into your menu, just divide the number of grams of protein in the product by 7 (the number of grams in a protein exchange) to see how many exchanges there are. In this case, there are 3 exchanges. Note that each protein exchange also assumes some fat, which these sardines have.

[diane2158]

Thanks very much for that think I’m getting there?
So when I do my menus how do I put the items on my menu so I can see if my carbs pro fat etc work out correctly.

[Ossie-Sharon]

Hi, Diane. The Menu Planner automatically does that for you when you select foods in the food lists and generate menus, and can be even more precise when you use the subapplication. You can reach the latter by clicking on the circular arrow icon on the right side of each meal header, then following the directions. You will see there you menu pattern with exchanges laid out for you as a guide.

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