if you dont eat it, does it count?

[thisisvlad]

in a previous post, someone gave me an excellent recipe for soup. but i have a question about it. one of the ingredients is lemon grass. 1/2 cup of lemongrass should have about 9 g carbs according to fitday... *but* you dont actually eat the lemon grass. you just put it in the soup to add flavor. so the question is, do you not count the carbs if you dont actually eat the stalks? or do the carbs come out of the grass along w/ the juices?

*v

[scott123]

That's a good question. Here is what I know.

A. Fitday/USDA database are dead wrong regarding lemongrass's netcarb count. Who ever decided to enter lemon grass as having 0 fiber is doing some serious drugs. Lemon grass has fiber. That's a no brainer.

B. The flavors you are extracting via prolonged moist heat are essential oils. Whatever carbs there may be in lemon grass are not soluble in water.

Using this nutritional info as a guide, I'd guesstimate the fiber in 1/2 cup of lemon grass to be no less than 8g, leaving no more than 1g of netcarbs (and that's if you ate it).

So, to make a long story short, since you're not eating the lemon grass, 0 carbs.

[thisisvlad]

So, to make a long story short, since you're not eating the lemon grass, 0 carbs.

thanks!!

*v