calorie/fiber question

Question
I have a question regarding the nutritional content of the South Beach Diet foods. The calorie content appears to be off on most South Beach products. Obviously, to get the total calorie content of an item, 4 calories is added for every 1 gram of carbohydrate, 4 calories for every 1 gram of protein, and 9 calories for every 1 gram of fat. If you take a look at the South Beach Diet Breakfast wrap at: http://www.kraftfoods.com/South_Beach_Diet/
You will see that the calorie content displays 160 calories. However, lets do the math.... This product contains 6 grams of fat, 26 grams of carbohydrate, and 14 grams of protien. 9 calories for every fat gram, so that would equal 54 calories. 4 calories for every carbohydrate, so that would equal 104 calories. And 4 calories for every protien gram, so that would equal 56 calories. This is a total of 214 calories...  So why is 160 calories dispalyed? After furthing looking into this, I'm wondering if fiber plays a factor in this number. There is 15 grams of fiber in this product. If I subtract 15 grams of fiber from the carbohydrate number, it equals 11 grams of carbohydrate. If I redo the math factoring that in, the total calorie content would be 154 calories, which is where the 160 calories would probably come about. My question is, what is the ACTUAL calorie content of this product? What is my body ACTUALLY absorbing if I eat this item, 154 calories, or 214 calories? As a person with an extremely strict calorie diet, this is very important. This is a 60 calorie difference, which DOES make a difference and is important if one is counting calories. Please inform me of the TRUE calorie count. Thank you.

Answer
Hi Kristy,

The calorie content stated on the label is correct. The total carbohydrate figure (26 g)includes starch, sugars, and fibre. To get the "available carbohydrate" (the amount of carbohydrate digested by the body), the fibre content does need to be subtracted from the total carbohydrate content listed (as you thought), giving you 11 g of available carbohydrate. It really is a bit confusing, but that's how the nutrition labels have been standardized.

Hope that helps!

Karen
www.getfitwithkaren.com

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