What Is an Usa Food Exchange

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Title: What Is an Usa Food Exchange
Categories: Diabetic, Info/help
Yield: 1 info/help


What is an USA Food Exchange?

It's like trading 5 pennies for 1 nickel or 10 dime for a dollar
bill. Right! Okay. In food exchanges, you may exchanges one
measurement or amount of food for another food in the same group, ie,
if by change, such as I do...I have a 1/2 grapefruit every
morning...let's say I ran out! I would look over the fruit exchange
list to see what was there that I could have from the exchange group
of the fruit list...then I could choose something from the fruit
exchange.. Ah! Ha! I see I can sneak one of Bert's orange's. (2 1/2"
across)= 1/2 cup fresh fruit.

The Food Exchange System is based on six exchanges lists: Starch/bread
exchange, meat, vegetables, fruits, milk, and fats. There is also
some special lists. Foods are grouped within each list on the basis
of similar amounts of carbohydrate, protein, and fat. For example,
one fruit exchange is CHO: 15g, PRO: 0g; FAT: 0g; CAL: 60; This
equivalent to 1/2 cup of grapefruit juice, but only a 1/3 cup of
prune juice because prune juice has more sugar then grapefruit juice.
Keep in mind that there will be some surprises. Corn, for example,
is a vegetable, but it appears on the starch/bread list. That is
because corn is starchy and its carbohydrate value is much closer to
bread then to most vegetables. Foods from the starch/bread list is
sometimes called STARCH EXCHANGE and sometimes called the BREAD
EXCHANGE---but they mean the same thing.

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