Anyone from the UK? This site needs more British foods!

OK so I know that there are plenty on here but I dont like all this 'half cup' and 'full cup' business and limited UK restaurant choices! 

Who is from the UK and how do you log your food when you go to Sainsbury's, Asda, Tesco or Aldi and buy something that isn't on here - do you painstakingly log each nutrional value like me?

How do we get CC to include more British stuff?

Hello Nelly. 

I'm using ounces and cups and grams, depending on what seems the most accurate or easy.   Like you, I log any ready made foods from supermarkets, filling it in on the form, and then tag them. 

I rather like the cup measurement when I have boiled rice as I just give myself a 1/2 cup scoop. 

Personally (and professionally) I don't find cup measurements at all accurate for cooking, as a US cup of flour is equivalent to 140g or 5oz, while a cup of sugar is 225g or 8oz.  Incidentally a US stick of butter is 110g or 4oz.  But butter is also measured in cups: and just who rams butter into a cup in order to measure it?  I can see it being useful for those batter-like cake recipes that require melted butter, but when solid butter is required it seems a very cack-handed measurement.  Even cockamamie.

Adapting American recipes needs careful thought because quantities are different although they may appear to be the same.  For instance, its worth knowing that there are 16 fluid ounces per pint in the US as opposed to the 20 floz in the UK, and that 10 American pints are equal to 8 English ones.  Just wish I could drink that much.

Original Post by wiltshirelass:

But butter is also measured in cups: and just who rams butter into a cup in order to measure it?  I can see it being useful for those batter-like cake recipes that require melted butter, but when solid butter is required it seems a very cack-handed measurement.  Even cockamamie.

 

It would be if people actually did that!  :-)  Sticks of butter in North America come with marks along the side to indicate how wide a slice corresponds to 1 cup, 1/2 cup, 1/3 cup, 1/4 cup, etc.

Doesn't it all depend on the cup? I mean I have various cups in my kitchen and all of different sizes... which one do I use to measure? I like the gram weight, there is no doubt about cup sizes with gram weights!

Thats why I use my kitchen scale and weigh everything.  I put a bowl on it first, zero it out, then fill it scribbling down how many grams.  

 

For almost everything in the food logs there is the "other" option.  Use that and just put in how many grams you ate.

Original Post by nelly1880:

Doesn't it all depend on the cup? I mean I have various cups in my kitchen and all of different sizes... which one do I use to measure? I like the gram weight, there is no doubt about cup sizes with gram weights!

Hi Nelly!  I can understand the confusion. When an American recipe calls for a cup of something, there is only one actual size for that.  You have to use an official "measuring cup".   Not just any cup out of your kitchen.  Official cooking measuring cups are all the exact same size.  So no matter what you are using for cooking, example flour, water or eggs whites, you would use the same "measuring cup" for all of them.  When you buy measuring cups, they usually come in a multiple pack of these sizes: 1/4 , 1/3 , 1/2 , 2/3 and 1 Cup sizes. 

See this link for an example. http://www.cooking.com/products/shprodli.asp? Keywords=measuring+cup&ccaid=CKGOOGAW2013 10

So even though you see all different styles and colors, the actual sizes are all exactly the same. Otherwise trying to bake would be hopeless..lol.  Hopefully this helps! 

Original Post by nelly1880:

OK so I know that there are plenty on here but I dont like all this 'half cup' and 'full cup' business and limited UK restaurant choices! 

Who is from the UK and how do you log your food when you go to Sainsbury's, Asda, Tesco or Aldi and buy something that isn't on here - do you painstakingly log each nutrional value like me?

How do we get CC to include more British stuff?

You can add your own items, but that's a pain sometimes.  I know since I live in Germany and almost no German items are listed.

But hey!  CC is an American site (as far as I know).  It focuses on American foods.  I can't expect them to include German foods as well.

Your next option is to ask them to add things.  I don't know their policy on that or if they're working on it, but it never hurts to ask.

Until then, THE BEST way to overcome this is to eat mostly fresh foods - fruit, vegetables, and lean meats.  An apple is an apple no matter where you buy it.  For everything else, like breads, chips, etc., I just pick the closest thing that CC has if I don't feel like entering new data.  It's worked for me.  I've been maintaining my goal weight for about 6 months now.

Good luck.

 

This has been frustrating me too, and i almost always weigh my food even salad dressings and then use the 'other' options.

I find that things like '1 egg' and '1 medium apple'  are rarely ever close to the the products i have and do always have to weigh them. It's not such a big deal as i manually put in all my food label data anyway because i find it usually differs quite alot from the american versions.

I think the biggest frustration for me the huge variety of packaged goods that are suggested in recipies that are just not available here. I bought a cook book recently that was american and pretty much every recipie calls for some kind of product i cant buy.

The cup thing also is a bit of a bother because i usually only cook for one and trying to measure 7/8th's or 2/3 of a cup  is pretty difficult to do accuratly when i only have 1 and 1/4 measuring cups. I usually have to weigh out a cup to convert it to grams in order to get things right. I never really understood why cups were used instead of grams, grams seem more acurate and easy to use to me and i dont have to keep 10 different measuring cups in my cubourd, just one scale.

Just thought I'd let you know I'm from UK too and never posted before but have to agree with you! I've had to add almost everything I eat and then when I want to suggest it (to add more foods to the database for other UK users) I've found that I'd have to do it all again.

Originally I was under the impression foods I added would automatically go into the main database but obviously this is not the case (having searched for stuff I logged before).

Anyway - it would be nice if everything you entered into your own food log would go into the main food log automatically or be sent somewhere to be checked/allowed automatically.

Would save quite a bit of time .. at least in my case :-)