| Given the website is called kcal-watch, it is perhaps understandable that people might associate the website with opinion about health, dieting, nutrition, lifestyle and related topics. This is not the case. We are essentially focused on the task of obtaining and processing kcal (Calories) data. In other words, mathematics. As such it is fundamentally a technical resource and will always remain so.
If you buy a car there is no discussion with the dealer about how you will use it, where you should or should not go, that's your business. It is a means to an end. Thus it is with the spreadsheets. If you get them working for you, helping you to lose weight, then you can move on and forget all about kcal-watch. We do not discuss or get involved with anything else.
It could reasonably be argued that consumer-affairs is also a component. However, if all products consumed by people arrived with clear data on kcal per 100g as-sold, then this component would vanish overnight. I include in that, consistent presentation of data. Related complications will be routinely flagged, as necessary, like the misleading promotion in Case Study 02. Anything under this heading welcomed but we need hard evidence.
We are principally dealing with grams (weight). Although some products are delivered in bottles or jars quoting the contents in millilitres (volume), some are not. Popular sauces in both bottles and jars quote contents by weight, not volume. The latter tend to be more viscous. Items such as ketchup, tartare sauce and mustard.
Less viscous products, for example soy sauce and olive oil (essentially liquids), are supplied quoting contents in millilitres (volume). Obviously there can be no direct conversion from weight to volume but this should rarely, if ever, be a problem for us:
One millilitre of pure water weighs one gram. That does not strictly apply to semi-skimmed milk but the difference is infinitesimally minute. Bearing in mind that other less viscous products, tend to be used in miniscule quantities, it makes negligible difference in those cases either. I refer now to soy sauce, vegetable stock and the like. Weigh them out directly into the dish. That saves washing up.
An exception concerns cooking oil. Like all liquids, the volume is affected by temperature. That said, one millilitre of olive oil is generally cited as weighing 0.91 grams. (thus oil floats on water which is heavier).
So, if your olive oil is quoted as 823 kcal per 100ml (they do vary), that translates to (823 divided by 0.91) X 100 = 904 kcal per 100 grams (for your CONSUMPTION spreadsheet). NB: The TABLES page will work this out for you as well.
The same applies to some wines and other alcoholic beverages*. As a rule-of-thumb, nodding in an extra 10% to the kcal per 100 millilitre data will keep you out in front, if you weigh out a glass. Apply this rule to the olive oil above and the result is 905.3 kcal per 100g. Near enough and on the right side.
Therefore, as a general rule it is perfectly safe to treat millilitres as grams, whenever and wherever you meet them, for all but olive oil and alcoholic beverages. Weighing produce far easier and far more accurate overall, as precise weights can be guaranteed using an electronic kitchen scale.
* Alcoholic beverages vary. Some are more and some less dense than water. The less dense perhaps consumed more in quantity therefore adding 10% still a safe rule-of-thumb. |
