Negative Quantity of an ingredient in recipe? Topic
Phrick
10/20/15
Good morning! I have made Greek-style strained yogurt before, and when I used to use My Fitness Pal there was an option in their recipe builder to put in a negative amount for an ingredient - so when I would strain the whey off the yogurt, I could measure it and then enter the ingredient "acid whey" in the quantity of " - 2 cups" or however much. This subtracted the whey's calories and macros from the recipe, leaving me with an accurate nutrient count for the actual yogurt I would be consuming.
Does My Net Diary have any kind of way to do something similar? I have noticed I can't put in negative amounts in my regular diary (I can't remember why I wanted to one day but I know I've tried and it didn't work).
Dietitian
10/20/15
replied to Phrick
Hi Phrick, if you login to the web program, bring up a recipe, then you will see all of the fields available for modifications. To account for water or drainage loss, you can enter an actual measured weight for the total recipe (you can override the calculated value or write in the total weight if its not computed due to a food item that has no weight or has a missing weight).
You can learn more tips & tricks for recipes in this blog post: http://www.mynetdiary.com/tips-for-accurate-recipes.html
Phrick
10/23/15
I know, but that doesn't really answer the question... just by entering the actual measured weight, that won't subtract the macros for the discarded whey, right?
I made the yogurt, then strained off almost 3 cups of whey. Acid whey has approximately 60 calories, 13g carbs, 2g protein and 0g fat per 8 fl oz - that's 120 calories, 39g carbs and 6g protein ELIMINATED from the recipe. That's not taken into account if all I do is change the measured weight - right?
It seems like the method of simply adjusting the final weight would actually concentrate or INCREASE the macros of the recipe, would it not? Because if I made 2700g of yogurt in total, then strained off and threw away 700g of acid whey and changed the recipe yield to 2000 grams but did not account for the subtracted calories and carbs, then all of the macros that I just threw away would still be in the recipe.
Phrick
10/23/15
replied to Dietitian
oops - sorry, still learning the layout of the forums here - I just replied in a post below this. Hope you see it, and thanks for your help :)
Dietician
10/23/15
replied to Phrick
You've got a really complicated recipe analysis issue here. I'm going to let Kathy respond when she returns to Forum next week. I understand what you're saying, but I'm not sure there's a really good answer that's going to give you complete accuracy. The only good way to ballpark your Greek style yogurt is to use a brand name version with similar fat content. But of course, you may be subtracting more or less of the whey liquid than the commercial version.
Donna Feldman MS RDN
Dietitian
10/28/15
replied to Phrick
Hi Phrick, sorry, you are correct, I didn't really answer your question. We don't have a way of accounting for loss of nutrients with straining. In this case, the generic USDA food item for Greek yogurt might be your best best. They have nonfat, lowfat (2% milk), and whole milk versions to choose from.
Best,
Kathy Isacks, MPS, RDN, CDE
SnaggleJan
01/19/16
If you know the nutritional info for the amount of strained whey, then you could just create a custom food by subtracting the info of the whey from your starting info, then under amount just put the weight of the finished yogurt. That would still be accurate.
Negative Quantity of an ingredient in recipe?
