Foods with no nutritional data

[Restorer]

I've been fairly comfortable using the USDA database, via http://www.nutritiondata.com, to find values for the important nutrients (potassium, phosphorus, sodium, protein, etc.) in what I eat. Unfortunately, there are always food items that aren't listed, or are specific to a single brand and don't have complete information. I wonder if there is a better way to estimate the important values for these types of foods.

Mostly, I'm thinking about things that aren't common in the US, like ethnic foods. Even worse, a lot of the time these imported items don't even have the basic nutritional information in English on the package. For example, I have no idea how much potassium and phosphorus are in the Korean ingredient called doenjang.

Also, I've been munching on gummi bears and other gummi candies, and I can't find any information about the phosphorus content of gummies. I'm kind of thinking that they don't have an insignificant amount of phosphorus, as phosphorus is found in protein often, and gummies are made out of gelatin, a much higher concentration than Jello.

Anyway, just kinda voicing my frustrations on imperfect knowledge.

[peleroja]

Hopefully there is a local distributor phone number on your gummi bears.  I once called the people who make Crystal Light because I noticed it listed some kind of potassium on the container.  They told me exactly how much potassium was in 8 oz. and I could figure out the 12 oz. glass I use from there.  The bottom line is they want to keep your business, so most companies will bend over backwards to give you the info you need.  Let us know how it goes.

[pelagia]

You can try e-mailing the customer service group for the company.  If the contact info isn't on the box, you can usually find it on line.  I did that for cereals when Stephen was on dialysis.

also, try looking up gelatin in the database.  that might be in there.

[breezysummerday]

http://www.nutritiondata.com/facts/foods-from-cold-stone-creamery/8556/2

Try that

[peleroja]

Here's another one to try:

http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/search/index.html

[BigSky]

http://www.thecaloriecounter.com/Foods/1900/19106/3/Food.aspx

http://www.calorieking.com/foods/calories-in-candy-gummy-bears_f-Y2lkPTMwMTQ2JmJpZD0xJmZpZD02OTk5MCZwYXI9.html

[Restorer]

Thanks for those links everyone. It helps that the last two give potassium amounts, but none of those give phosphorus values. The NutritionData site takes all its data directly from the USDA database, plus vendor-specific limited data, like the Cold Stone gummi bears, but the vendor-specific information is usually less complete. The one linked here doesn't list phosphorus.

I might try contacting Haribo (the makers of the gummi bears), but I found another way to estimate it. The database does include dry gelatin. Now, I have no idea how much dry gelatin goes into one gummi bear, but apparently 100 grams of dry gelatin has only 36 mg of phosphorus, for 89 g of protein. My bulk package of bears doesn't list the protein amount in as serving, but I doubt there's any way a reasonable number of gummi bears have that much protein in them, so probably not a whole lot of gelatin either, so not much phosphorus.

Thanks everyone.

[flip]

The Gummy Bears are pretty safe if you're talking about the candy. The vitamins are a different story. I prefer jelly beans and they were reccomended by my dietitian.

[Restorer]

That's good to know. I ordered a few five-pound bags of Haribo gummies after I found that I liked their chew the best, and Amazon had them for $15 for 5 lbs. Too bad it turned out only the Gold Bears and Techno Bears had the chew and flavors I liked - the mini-frogs didn't have much flavor, and the raspberries were much too soft.