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Weight Loss Forum / Low Carb / August 2009

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How many carbs in vitamins and supplements?

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Mel - 30 Aug 2009 14:21 GMT
I have been an Atkins-type for 6 years.  Works well, lost 35 lbs, and
kept it off.  Daily carb count is around 60, but I never counted what
is in CoQ-10, Saw Palmetto, Hawthorne, Acidophilus, L-carnitine, Fish
oil, and so forth.  I also take a multiple aimed at the +50 yr-old
crowd.

How many carbs are in supplements like these?

Thanks for any info,

Mel
DJ Delorie - 30 Aug 2009 18:00 GMT
> I have been an Atkins-type for 6 years.  Works well, lost 35 lbs, and
> kept it off.  Daily carb count is around 60, but I never counted what
[quoted text clipped - 3 lines]
>
> How many carbs are in supplements like these?

Vitamins and minerals are too important to justify any excuse not to
take them.  For our purposes, assume they have zero net carbs.  Take
your vitamins!  :-)

Besides, if you're on Atkins, the *actual* number of carbs you eat is
irrelevent - what's important is finding a *relative* level that works
for you.  If you've been having success with the carb level you
*think* you have now, just keep it up and don't worry about whether
your counts are accurate.

I.e. If "I've been counting carbs this way, and at X carbs I'm ok and
at X+5 carbs I gain weight" - then keep counting that way and stay at
X carbs.  If you suddenly discover some "hidden" carbs you've been
eating all along, that doesn't change what you need to do - it just
changes what X means.
Billy - 30 Aug 2009 19:27 GMT
In article
<d11f9129-4388-4c89-a336-0293b4d5a661@g6g2000vbr.googlegroups.com>,

> I have been an Atkins-type for 6 years.  Works well, lost 35 lbs, and
> kept it off.  Daily carb count is around 60, but I never counted what
[quoted text clipped - 7 lines]
>
> Mel

First you would have to identify any fillers, coatings, and type of caps
used in the supplements that you take (some companies claim no fillers).
Then,look up the chemical formula for the ingredients, e.g. L-carnitine:
C18H36N2O12 --> C18 H36 N2 O12 as you can see, it has 18 carbon, 36
hydrogen, 2 nitrogen, and 12 oxygen. Since the hydrogen and oxygen are
in a 3 to 1 ratio, I would call this a carbo(carbon)hydrate(water). Fish
oil will be a fat (CxHx, little or no oxygen). Acidophilus bacteria
would be mostly protein (but the milk that they are in will have the
calories of milk).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acidophilus

Use the general rule for these substances.
1 gram carbohydrate = 4 kCal
1 gram of protein = 4 kCal
1 gram of fats or oil = 9 kCal
Signature

³When you give food to the poor, they call you a saint. When you ask why the poor have no food, they call you a communist.²
-Archbishop Helder Camara

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http://countercurrents.org/roberts020709.htm

pamela - 30 Aug 2009 20:50 GMT
> In article
> <d11f9129-4388-4c89-a336-0293b4d5a661@g6g2000vbr.googlegroups.com>,
[quoted text clipped - 26 lines]
> 1 gram of protein = 4 kCal
> 1 gram of fats or oil = 9 kCal

Abraham Lincoln once posed this question, allegedly, in a trial court.

"If you call a dog's tail a leg, how many legs does a dog have?"

"Five."  replied the opposition lawyer.

"Wrong." said Lincoln.  "Callaing a tail a leg still doesn't make it a
leg, the dog still has only four legs."

Calling something a carbohydrate (hydrate of carbon [CH2O]n) with a
different formula, doesn't make it a hydrocarbon.
Billy - 30 Aug 2009 21:54 GMT
> > In article
> > <d11f9129-4388-4c89-a336-0293b4d5a661@g6g2000vbr.googlegroups.com>,
[quoted text clipped - 38 lines]
> Calling something a carbohydrate (hydrate of carbon [CH2O]n) with a
> different formula, doesn't make it a hydrocarbon.

If you want to turn this into a disertation on the stoichiometry of
polar and non-polar compounds, you are welcome to the thread.

You are right of course, but for the purpose at hand, "I (me) would call
this a carbo(carbon)hydrate(water)".

Looks more like a dog than a duck.

Do you have a problem with 4 kCal/gram?
Signature

³When you give food to the poor, they call you a saint. When you ask why the poor have no food, they call you a communist.²
-Archbishop Helder Camara

http://tinyurl.com/o63ruj
http://countercurrents.org/roberts020709.htm

DJ Delorie - 30 Aug 2009 23:51 GMT
> You are right of course, but for the purpose at hand, "I (me) would call
> this a carbo(carbon)hydrate(water)".

Except that L-Carnitine is an amino acid compound[1], which makes it a
protein[2].  Also, it's chemical formula is C7H15NO3.  C18H36N2O12 is
L-Tartrate[3] (aka L-Carnitine Tartrate, aka (R)-Bis
[(3-carboxy-2-hydroxypropyl) trimethyl Ammonium]), which is also not a
carbohydrate.

It's not the number of atoms that makes it a carbohydrate, it's the
organization of them in the molecule[4].  Also, most common
carbohydrates have a *two* to one ratio of hydrogen to oxygen, like
glucose (C6H12O6), so having a three to one ratio would actually
disqualify it.

Plus, the fact that carnitine ends in "ine" is a big clue - carbs end
in "ose", proteins end in "ine".

> Do you have a problem with 4 kCal/gram?

Proteins are also 4 kCal/g.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnitine
[2] http://www.mynchen.demon.co.uk/Ketogenic_diet/Supplements/Carnitine.htm
[3] http://www.ispharm.com/product/I14-0045.html
[4] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbohydrate
Billy - 31 Aug 2009 05:21 GMT
> Plus, the fact that carnitine ends in "ine" is a big clue - carbs end
> in "ose", proteins end in "ine".
[quoted text clipped - 7 lines]
> [3] http://www.ispharm.com/product/I14-0045.html
> [4] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbohydrate

There you go Mel, if it is just carbons and hydrogens it's 9 kCal.
otherwise it is 4 kCals/gram.
Signature

"When you give food to the poor, they call you a saint. When you ask why the poor have no food, they call you a communist."
-Archbishop Helder Camara

http://tinyurl.com/o63ruj
http://countercurrents.org/roberts020709.htm

Mel - 31 Aug 2009 14:36 GMT
> There you go Mel, if it is just carbons and hydrogens it's 9 kCal.
> otherwise it is 4 kCals/gram.

Carbons and hydrogens and kCals don't mean much to me.  I was trained
as an engineer so the discussions were Interesting, but not directly
relevant to my quest.

All I want to know is if the half-cup of vitamins and supplements I am
taking everyday have been adding to the net carb count.  Based on the
carb counts in the carb-count manuals and on http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp,
I have been ingesting around 60 net carbs daily, allowing me to hold
at 210 pounds.  I'm 62 and 6'3" tall.  I exercise several times
weekly.  In 2003 I was a little over 240.

If the one-a-day vitamin and the various supplements have a lot of
carbs in them, it would be of moderate interest to know that I have
been getting, say, 80 or a 100 carbs per day, instead of the 60 I have
been getting from the Atkinsish regimen.  I'm just trying to get a
feel for how many net carbs I am stuffing into me each time I choke
down the pills/capsules/caplets/softgels/etc.

Thanks,

Mel
Doug Freyburger - 31 Aug 2009 19:38 GMT
> If the one-a-day vitamin and the various supplements have a lot of
> carbs in them, it would be of moderate interest to know that I have
> been getting, say, 80 or a 100 carbs per day, instead of the 60 I have
> been getting from the Atkinsish regimen.  I'm just trying to get a
> feel for how many net carbs I am stuffing into me each time I choke
> down the pills/capsules/caplets/softgels/etc.

As DJ Delorie already pointed out in another post - If you've already
lost and you're keeping it off then it doesn't actually matter.  I'll
add
that carb counts and calorie counts have very poor accuracy but
they work anyways - It's a matter of doing your own feedback and
correction.

Without more details of exactly what tablets you're taking the
original question can't be answered.  There are brands whose
supplements don't use fillers so there's no gross carbs in them.
There are brands that use protein gel capsules so there's no
gross carbs to the holder either.  There are brands that use carb
based fillers that are insoluble fiber that add zero to the net,
brands
that use other fiber to the fillers that add calories but not carbs to
the net, brands that use statch capsules rather than gel capsules.

Only the cheapest brands have sugar coating.  If you are taking
a brand so cheap it does it costs little to move up one step in
the quality ladder.

For a long time I rolled my own assortment of supplements.  I
looked for a generic multi that listed itself as equivalent to
Theragram-M and I used type of filler as a secondary chosing
method.  With a bottle lasting half a year I'd go a year or so at a
time without any carb filler.  I'd also add various specialty items
based on family medical history trying to do prevention.  Few
of the specialty items use carb based filler.

So 1) It doesn't matter, 2) It takes detailed reading of the labels
to tell, 3) Don't be surprised that once you have read the labels
you end up thinking they contribute zero.
pamela - 31 Aug 2009 22:30 GMT
>> There you go Mel, if it is just carbons and hydrogens it's 9 kCal.
>> otherwise it is 4 kCals/gram.
[quoted text clipped - 20 lines]
>
> Mel

What do the nutrition labels tell you, including the list of ingredients
  which are ordered by weight fraction?

Question... are vitamins "burned", and for your low carb interests DO
THEY CONVERT INTO GLUCOOSE ???  If they don't convert into glucose, they
do not have the detrimental action which is alleged to the the basis of
the low carb diet.

On the one hand, your question is good.

On th other hand, perhaps you need to think about it some more. Get down
to the nitty gritty of what carbs do that make them basic to the diet,
and then ask if the supplements, such as minerals (no) and vitamins(no)
act the same way.

Your brands of vitamins may have fillers that are digestable. But
between the nutrition label and the contents label, you could be able to
answer that question yourself -- suing your research skills finely honed
as an engineer.
 
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