It can be frustrating to people, such as myself, when I’m looking up the nutritional information on a recipe like chili only to see that their unit of measure is something called a cup. I decided to find out for myself….
OK, first off a definition on what a US cup measure is defined as;
The cup currently used in the United States for nutrition labeling is defined in United States law as 240 ml.
| 1 U.S. “legal” cup | = |
240 |
milliliters |
| = |
16 |
international tablespoons | |
| = |
12 |
Australian tablespoons | |
| ≈ |
8.12 |
U.S. customary fluid ounces | |
| ≈ |
8.45 |
imperial fluid ounces |
In terms of a cup of plain water, I found it to weigh in at about 231 grams. OK then, so what is a cup of my homemade chili? Let’s take a look at the ingredients I use to make a simple bean and meat chili;
1 lb ground beef (80% – 20% mix)
1 onion, chopped (as a topping for when you eat)
1 can petite diced tomatoes, 8 oz
1 can red kidney beans, drained
14 grams of Williams chili mix (per lb ground beef)
1 tsp Olive oil
I weighed a ‘cup’ of this chili using a standard glass measuring cup and came up with 234 grams or just about the same as with using water! As there were about 247 calories in that cup – I then came up with a figure of 1.06 grams per calorie…. Note: This number flies in the face of the more common number of 2 calories per gram…
Forsythkid.com 