USDA database vs WW Points guide

[JerryW]

I looked up strawberries on the USDA website (http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/cgi-bin/nut_search.pl) and found that they are extremely low points. So I declared strawberries to be free and ate a whole lot last summer. Lost weight too!

But WW charges us a point for a cup. What's the WW orthodoxy on this? How can they justify charging us incorrectly? Can it be that they made an error? Has anyone else found other fruits/veggies that math out differently than WW claims?

[bettysue6195]

My USDA data base (Palm Pilot) says 43 calories for 1 cup whole strawberries. With my points calculator it comes out to .7 points which would round up to 1 point.

[FirstCavWife]

I have the same database on my PDA with the same caloric count (43) but with fat at .53grams and fiber at 3.3 grams for 1 cup of whole strawberries. My WWCalc Points Calculator says that's .2 Points per cup.
Strange!
-Dawn

[WWCarol]

Unless strawberries have changed with this FlexPoints program, they have always been 1 1/2 cups = 1 point! graemlins/bcbsalute.gif

Strawberries have always been a bargain! :D

[latebloomer]

Well, when I eat carrots, I counted 1 cup as zero. It is something like 35 calories and 2 grams fiber. They WW book said 1 cup-1pt. I notice the Flex points book says 1 cup cooked-1 pt. and 1 cup uncooked is zero. I guess less of it is digestible raw? Weird, but feels good to be vindicated.

I love that you lost eating tons of strawberries. I eat 3 cups a day in peak season but I like the whipped cream on top so I can't say I lose much!

[JerryW]

Originally posted by FirstCavWife:
I have the same database on my PDA with the same caloric count (43) but with fat at .53grams and fiber at 3.3 grams for 1 cup of whole strawberries. My WWCalc Points Calculator says that's .2 Points per cup.
Strange!
-Dawn Yep, that's what I got too. So they're free. Carrots too! I think the lesson is, just because WW declares something to have a certain point count, doesn't mean it's true. Go to the source to find out the food values and calculate it yourself.

Jerry

[imported_Renée]

Hi all,
I don't officially attend my first WW meeting until tomorrow, but I've done a lot of research on it. I previously posted this:

"I'm not sure if they give this information out at meetings, but, the equation for calculating points on anything is fairly simple:

Pts = Cal/50 + Fat/12 - Fiber/5

Cal: Number of calories
Fat: Number of fat grams
Fiber: Number of grams of fiber

These values can be found on the "Nutritional Value" label of most products."

So, you just have to decide what serving size of strawberries you will be eating and find the nutritional information for that serving size.

[SSKatie]

Jerry, WW says that 1 1/2 cups of strawberries is 1 point. So, yes, if you eat LESS than what they say is 1 point, that comes out to.....0 points. So WW is not wrong on this. I'm sure they have made mistakes before, but I pretty much trust their judgement because they employ many experts in nutrition to give them their info.

If you want to eat 15 cups of strawberries a day and call that 0 points, I think you're just cheating yourself...and you'll probably end up paying WW a lot longer than you have to while getting to goal! :D

[QuilterInVA]

All the calories do add up that is why WW charges for them. They have set the program up to work in a certain way, not for us to guess and say we are OP when we are actually rewriting it to our ways. There were people on the first points program that were adding bran to everything to make it 0 points. Then people wonder why they aren't losing...we are supposed to be learning to eat in normal amounts.

[Aphreal]

I think there is a big difference in counting a .2pt serving as o (I would if it were just one serving and I would weigh it) and counting 10 servings as o. I know we dont count raw carrots but if I ate nothing at all BUT carrots, I could not in good conscience count them all as o.

I keep the general rule that 1cup of most any fruit is 1 pt. Right now my love is grapes. I can pack in alot of grapes in that one cup *grin*

Tiff

[SSKatie]

Hey, Tiff---you're not supposed to smash the grapes into pulp and count that as one cup!! :D :D

(I looooove grapes too!) graemlins/thumbup.gif