Is there a free online resource for British calorie counters?
September 5, 2011 8:35 AM Subscribe
Mum is trying to count calories in her recipes. Is there a free, online resource where she can look up nutritional information using British names for things (eg mince and courgettes, not ground beef and zucchini) and get the results in calories per 100g (not per 'medium item' or per 2/3 cup)?
Explanation for the American majority: you might be surprised how many differences there are between UK and US English when it comes to food, otherwise the USDA web site would be perfect. I'm surprised that our government doesn't seem to provide a similar resource.
Also we (or at least my family) tend to measure by weight rather than volume and my mother is bemused and slightly offended by the idea of measuring carrots by the cup.
Explanation for the American majority: you might be surprised how many differences there are between UK and US English when it comes to food, otherwise the USDA web site would be perfect. I'm surprised that our government doesn't seem to provide a similar resource.
Also we (or at least my family) tend to measure by weight rather than volume and my mother is bemused and slightly offended by the idea of measuring carrots by the cup.
TheDailyPlate will let you search for UK items and by British names. They have numerous Tesco and Sainsbury's goods in their database, so might be worth a go.
posted by mippy at 8:45 AM on September 5, 2011
posted by mippy at 8:45 AM on September 5, 2011
Wolfram Alpha will let you paste in the ingredients of a recipe and spit out a nutrition label for you (in addition to doing a host of other cool things).
I did just try it using your example terms of mince and courgettes, and it did not recognize them. Hmm. Oh well. It does recognize SI units, at least.
posted by adamrice at 8:58 AM on September 5, 2011 [1 favorite]
I did just try it using your example terms of mince and courgettes, and it did not recognize them. Hmm. Oh well. It does recognize SI units, at least.
posted by adamrice at 8:58 AM on September 5, 2011 [1 favorite]
try the the Food Standards Authority of Australia and NZ database--granted it's Australian but it should be pretty close (bearing in mind that in Oz we call courgettes zucchinis).
posted by Logophiliac at 9:06 AM on September 5, 2011
posted by Logophiliac at 9:06 AM on September 5, 2011
Daily Plate has many things listed under both American and British names, and I recall seeing a lot of Tesco brands in the DB, so there's a good chance there's a lot of UK packaged foods available.
Basic food items might be directly listed by cup, or ounce, but if you add them to a daily record, you can often choose from a variety of other options. In the case of courgettes, you can choose to measure in servings, grams, cups, tablespoons, teaspoons, ounces, milliliters or pounds. A serving, in this case, is defined as 100g.
My favorite recipe analyzer is the one at CalorieCount.About.Com. I just checked and it handles courgettes okay, but requires that you clarify mince to be beef, and whether it's lean, etc.
posted by jacquilynne at 9:07 AM on September 5, 2011
Basic food items might be directly listed by cup, or ounce, but if you add them to a daily record, you can often choose from a variety of other options. In the case of courgettes, you can choose to measure in servings, grams, cups, tablespoons, teaspoons, ounces, milliliters or pounds. A serving, in this case, is defined as 100g.
My favorite recipe analyzer is the one at CalorieCount.About.Com. I just checked and it handles courgettes okay, but requires that you clarify mince to be beef, and whether it's lean, etc.
posted by jacquilynne at 9:07 AM on September 5, 2011
http://www.shapeupclub.com/ has uk based stuff. It gets pretty specific. As well as various fatnesses of regular mince it gets so specific that it has for example "Tescos Healthy Living Pork Mince" etc. Some of the more advanced features require a paid membership.
Bovril is, beautifully, included both as a spread and as a soup :)
posted by Iteki at 9:46 AM on September 5, 2011
Bovril is, beautifully, included both as a spread and as a soup :)
posted by Iteki at 9:46 AM on September 5, 2011
Seconding myfitnesspal.com, it is excellent and full of UK foods from UK supermarkets, restaurants, etc. You can easily set it to grammes.
It works out how many calories you should eat to lose X lb per week, so there's no guesswork. I've lost about 10 pounds losing the website and their iPhone app, so it's very effective if you stick to it.
posted by NoiselessPenguin at 11:00 AM on September 5, 2011
It works out how many calories you should eat to lose X lb per week, so there's no guesswork. I've lost about 10 pounds losing the website and their iPhone app, so it's very effective if you stick to it.
posted by NoiselessPenguin at 11:00 AM on September 5, 2011
Thirding Daily Plate.
posted by triggerfinger at 12:00 PM on September 5, 2011
posted by triggerfinger at 12:00 PM on September 5, 2011
I always use the Calorie Count recipe analyzer, too. Sometimes you have to do some fiddling to get the right ingredients, as jacquilynne notes.
posted by devinemissk at 1:05 PM on September 5, 2011
posted by devinemissk at 1:05 PM on September 5, 2011
Best answer: CalorieKing's Australian site is probably closer than American sites. It lets you search for 'mince', though not courgettes. You can also specify weights using a drop down box (eg select 'g', enter 100).
posted by obiwanwasabi at 6:34 PM on September 5, 2011
posted by obiwanwasabi at 6:34 PM on September 5, 2011
Response by poster: Thanks for your input, everyone.
The two Aussie sites do the job nicely. Trial searches on My Fitness pal and the Livestrong thing showed calories/100g were not always easy to extract.
posted by nowonmai at 10:30 AM on October 5, 2011
The two Aussie sites do the job nicely. Trial searches on My Fitness pal and the Livestrong thing showed calories/100g were not always easy to extract.
posted by nowonmai at 10:30 AM on October 5, 2011
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