Spinach question
 

Sometimes I buy fresh bagged spinach leaves and measure pre-cooking. Other times I have the frozen chopped kind, so I have to measure that after cooking since I do the whole bag at once. Would that be more like 3/4 cup equivalent, or more like a 1/2? I know it's probably not a huge deal with spinach, but my coach never said to measure veggies before cooking, only meat. Now I think I've been overeating them which again, is not a bad thing, but I'd like to avoid any extra carbs that I can.

I think it would be 1c. fresh = 1/2 c. cooked. Spinach really wilts down when you cook it.

Both meat and veggies are to be measured uncooked.

stargirl seems close as spinach really cooks down. Maybe someone on the forum has actually measured it cooked down and will respond.

Molly

I asked my coach this a few months ago and was advised to measure how you eat, if eating raw, measure raw, if eating steamed, measure steamed. Thats the rule I follow.

I did ask my coach about measuring veggies cause there is a big difference between raw and after they are cooked. She said "measure raw, although either way is ok" So I guess it's whichever way works best for the veggie in question. :)

The measuring question has kind of been nagging me too - not so much cooked vs raw...but even portions based on how you are cutting. For example, 1 cup of the same veggie can vary greatly depending on how small you cut.

I've kinda settled on the fact that we're not dealing with foods that have large amounts of carbs in them to begin with - if I am dicing something small and it's a slightly heavier portion than if I was chopping large, it's probably a difference of a couple of carbs...not enough that I'm going to stress over it.

For spinach in particular - one cup only has 1g carbs AND 1g dietary fiber, so measuring raw or cooked isn't actually going to have a big impact on your overall intake.

This was posted a few weeks ago by a senior member. Can't give proper credit because I don't remember who it was. But it has made my life so much easier. I have a scale that measures in grams so it takes all the ???? out of it.

c=cup/g=grams
c=g Carb Fiber Net carbs Sugars
Asparagus 1c, 134 g 5 3 2 3g
Broccoli 1c, 91 g 6 2 4 2g
Brussel Sprouts 1c, 88g 8 3 5 2g
Cauliflower 1c, 130g 6 2 4 2g
Cabbage, green 1c, 89g 5 2 3 3g
Celery 1c, 100g 3 2 1 2g
Cucumber w/peel 1c, 133g 3 1 2 1g
Green beans, cooked 1c, 125g 10 4 6 2g
Kale, fresh 100g 10 2 8 0g
Mushroom portabella 100g 5 2 3 2g
Mushroom , white 1c, 70g 2 1 1 1g
Onion, raw 1c, 160g 15 3 12 7g
Red bell peper 1c, 149g 9 3 6 6g
Rhubarb 1c, 122g 6 2 4 1g
Rutabagas 1c, 140g 11 4 7 8g
Sauerkraut 1c, 142g 7 4 3 3g
Snowpeas 1c chopped, 100g 7 3 4 4g
Summer Squash (yellow/zucchini) 1c, 110g 4 1 3 2g
Turnips 1c, 140g 8 2 6 5g
V8 Juice note 1/2c, 120g 5 1 4 4g



Sorry this looks so much better in my spread sheet...!:?:

Not with spinach. Then you would get way too much.

I would cook down two cups and see what that measures.

This is great, but spinach is not on it :D

I know I was so disappointed, but I figure it is so simliar to Kale - I use the 100g as my rule

When I weigh out my spinach raw (85g= 2 cups), (3 oz =2 cups)

The fact I'm even EATING this much spinach should count for something! Popeye would be very proud of us all! LOL

According to the chart green beans and kale have the same amount of carbs, if you look at net carbs beans have LESS. Does anyone know why the beans are considered restricted and kale is not?

I use frozen spinach everyday in my smoothies. Just looked on the bag and 1 cup of frozen spinach has 3 g carb, 1g fiber. I think they blanch it and freeze it, so it is not as condensed as the cooked stuff is. Not sure how to measure fresh spinach, ie., how tightly do you pack it in the cup?

I'm still amazed at the difference in messages that coaches give us...

what's the sugar comparison? I'm thinking green beans have more natural sugar than kale does...