Hi Guys:

I need help on this one. What category are sugar snap peas? Are they a starchy carb or a Nonstarchy veggie? In SPII, green peas are a starch, but snow peas are a veggie. Are sugar snap peas considered a pea pod and included with snow peas?

She mentions that a NS veggie is < 5 grams of carbs/half cup serving, but my program doesn't include sugar snap peas.

Thanks for any help on this one. I know nothing about peas.

Wanda

Wanda,

I found a nutritional label for some frozen sugar snap peas here

It said that they have 6g of carbs per 2/3 cup.

Pea Thread
This link came up in a search for "sugar snap peas". I found some other info out there too. HTH.

LizzyB

Hi Cicely & Lizzy:

Cicely, that link didn't work but what you give suggests that they are NS veggies. Lizzy, thanks for the link. It was helpful except I don't know how to convert the weight to measurement to figure it out.

I keep finding different carb counts for these babies. Fitday has edible pea pods listed at 11.28 grams/1 cup which makes them a starch. I found this link: http://www.broccoli.com/peasnut.htm but don't know how that converts either. Then there's this one: http://www.google.ca/search?q=cache...&hl=en&ie=UTF-8 which makes them a starch as well.

There are differing opinions on carb count and I'm not sure why Schwarzbein didn't include them on her list. Maybe I'll compromise and make it half veggie & half starch.

Come to think of it, I think the carb count is the same for baby carrots. Yep, I just checked - 11 grams/1 cup. I've been counting them raw as veggies.

Ok, now I'm scratching my head in indecision.

Wanda

How about if they are raw or lightly sauteed they are a NS veg. If they're cooked like carrots or tomatoes, then they're a carb. Whatcha think?

Liz

Hey, Lizzy, good thinking!!!! Maybe that's what I'll do.

Those baby carrots are throwing me a bit too. Somehow I get the feeling that they should be a starch. You know, I think I'm going to e-mail SP about these.

Wanda

Wanda,

I don't know about carb counts, but more often than not, those packages of "baby carrots" are not baby carrots at all, but what's left of broken or rotting carrots after the outside is carved away. They therefore consist almost entirely of the core of the carrot, where the fewest nutrients are found. They're convenient, but I never buy them any more.

Carrots are one of the few things I always buy organic, and since there are no pesticides involved, I don't even peel them anymore -- just give them a good scrub. That way they're not too much trouble, and they're one more thing I know my kids will get some good out of.

Beth N.

GOOD GRIEF!! From sweet litte, convenient "baby carrots" to firm guts of rotting, decaying, OLD carrots! Now you're gonna tell me the tooth fairey is just my sneeky Mommy...

Isn't it nuts that cooking carrots changes them from ok to not-so-ok? Whoda thunk it?

I'll still buy baby carrots since the ones I get are organic and pretty cheap. The big ones rotting in my fridge probably aren't really doing me much good, nutrition wise, at this point.

Jinx

PS, since you were so kind as to malign my friend the baby carrot, I must tell you to take care with cleaning those organic veggies. Even though there are no peticides, E Coli from natural poopoo fertilizer can cause problems.

OMG Beth, say it ain't so! I wonder if that goes for organic baby carrots as well? Shoulda known they were too good to be true. How'd you find that out?

Jinxy, you're so funny..... poopoo fertilizer...

Wanda

Well, it's been a few years on that one, so I went looking again, and the news, apparently, is good. Originally baby carrots were, indeed, cut down from carrots in the reject pile -- rotten, or just too big, too small, or too crooked.

BUT, apparently the tremendous growth in demand surpassed the supply of rejects, so that a new variety of carrot was developed specifically for use as "baby carrots" that would grow quickly and have a more uniform width from stem to tip. The articles I found on this did indicate that this variety of carrot is substantially lower in beta-carotene than other carrots, but that carrots are SO high in beta-carotene that the reduction isn't too relevant.

So, there. Your problem is solved and I'm left trying to figure out how to make sure I get all the poop off my organic ones.

Beth N.

Hi Beth:

Finally something too good to be true that's true. I love those little things.

What an interesting story of how baby carrots came to be. Thanks for going to the trouble to help us out.


Aren't those fruit & veggie sprays good for getting poop off? I think I read that you can clean them with a small amount of food grade peroxide added to water. Also heard liquid grape seed extract (added to water) is a good disinfectant. Plain old vinegar would work too.

Wanda

I really got the impression from the articles that I read that most of what are called baby carrots are now cut from carrots specifically grown for this purpose. The convenience of them drove the demand up so high and so fast that the supply of rejects couldn't nearly keep up. (And, again, many of those rejects were just misshapen, anyway.) So I wouldn't worry too much about the rot thing, especially if you're buying a quality organic. Even if they're not truly "baby" carrots, I think they're very likely to be pretty whole and fresh.

Sorry for the panic I seem to have caused. Munch away!

Beth N.

I finally found out for certain where baby carrots come from!

...sorry, I changed my mind, ignore me!

Chicken Wanda

Cute, Wanda! It's too late! I must of got lucky and caught a quick peek before you chickened out!

Tig

Hi Tig:

LOL, I wasn't sure if I'd get kicked off the forum for distributing veggie porn! Silly me, always worrying about what people think.

Wanda