In one of my older posts, food guide pyramid, I talked about the food exchange list and how the food servings are counted.

In this post I will give you more details about how to count your calories, what is considered as one exchange.

As I said before, food is divided into:

1- Carbohydrates

2- Milk

3- Fruits

4- Proteins

5- Fat

1-    Carbohydrates:

One exchange of carbohydrate has 80 calories

One exchange of carbohydrates is one of the below:

-         2 small toast

-         1 big toast

-         1\2 loaf Arabic bread

-         1\2 baguette

-         1 medium size potato

-         2 tea cup of rice, pasta, cereal. Lentils, beans, peas, corn, foul, homos

-         3 tea cups of popcorn (popped)

-         12 vine leaves

-         6 koussa stuffed with rice

2-    Milk:

One exchange of milk has 90 calories (zero fat) or 120 calories (low fat) or 150 calories (full fat)

One exchange of milk is one of the below:

-         1 glass of liquid milk ( 250 ml)

-         3 tablespoons of powder milk

-         1 glass of Soya milk

-         3 teaspoons of labneh

-         1 glass of yoghurt

-         1 glass of yoghurt with fruit flavor

3-    Fruits:

One exchange of fruit has 60 calories

One exchange of fruit is one of the below:

-         1 apple

-         1 banana

-         1 orange

-         2 kiwis

-         2 tangerines

-         12 cherries

-         3 dates

-         ½ mango

-         1 peach

-         1 pear

-         10 strawberries

-         2 pineapple slices

-         1 big slice of watermelon

-         1 big slice of melon

-         ½ glass of any fresh juice

-         1 tablespoon of honey

-         1 tablespoon of jam

4 - proteins:

One exchange of very lean proteins has 35 calories

One exchange of very lean protein is one of the below:

-         30 g of chicken without the skin

-         ½ tuna can in water

-         30 g of white and zero fat cheeses ( read 1g of fat or less on the label)  

One exchange of lean proteins has 55 calories

One exchange of lean protein is one of the below:

-         30g of beef meat, without fat, sliced and grilled

-         30g of chicken with the skin

-         30g of white fish fillet

-         30g of smoked salmon

-         30g of smoked turkey, low in fat

-         ½ tuna in oil

-         5 grilled shrimps

-         30g of chicken or meat liver

-         30f of low fat cheeses, white or yellow (read 3g of fat or less on the label)  

One exchange of medium fat proteins has 75 calories

One exchange of medium fat protein is one of the below:

-         30g of fried beef meat without fat

-         30g of fried chicken breast with the skin

-         30g of smoked turkey 

-         30g of cheeses ( read 5g of fat or less on the label)

-         1 whole egg, but don’t eat more than 3 per week

One exchange of high fat proteins has 100 calories

One exchange of high fat protein is one of the below:

-         1 hot dog

-         30g of fried fish fillet

-         5 pieces of fried shrimps

-         30g of veal meat

-         30g of mortadella, salami

-         30 g of yellow cheeses high in fat ( read 8g of fat or more on the label)

5-    Fat:

One exchange of fat has 45 calories

One exchange of fat is one of the below:

-         1 teaspoon of olive or canola oil

-         1 teaspoon of mayonnaise regular

-         2 teaspoons of mayonnaise light

-         1 teaspoon of tahina

-         10 olives

-         ¼ avocado

-         2 almonds

-         2 walnuts

-         10 nuts

-         1 tablespoon of pumpkin seeds

-         1 teaspoon of sesame seeds

-         1 teaspoon of peanut butter

-         1 tablespoon of mixed nuts 

So now that you know about the exchange list, I will start to mention it in the diets.

I will just define how many exchanges you can have at a certain meal, and then you directly go to this post to pick your choices.

For example, the exchanges for a random breakfast:

1 carbohydrates, 1 milk, I cheese, 1 fruit

You can chose which foods suit you or whatever you feel like eating today.

Very easy and logic!