Calorie Counter (Collins Gem) [Kindle Edition]

I would say this book is a good resource for anyone conscious about their calorie intake or the nutritional contents of various type of foods. The book uses the metric measurement rather than imperial which is great. It contains exactly the information I was after in the sense that it gives the calorific values per 100 grams of food rather than per portion which can be very inaccurate and subjective from one person to another. The different foods are listed per types or categories and I think it is quite easy to find what you are looking for and I also think that as you keep on using the book you will become more and more familiar with using it and localising the food you are after very easily. This book is a comprehensive tool to have, I was pleased to discover that all the foods I usually eat were in there and this made my day.
Now for the negative aspect, I found that the format of the book is a little too small (very much pocket size) which really has its pros and cons, but personally I would have preferred a slightly bigger book size, with a slightly bigger font size too.
However overall I'm very pleased with my buy and would recommend it.

I've only had this a few hours, and looked up four things in the course of making a batch of ratatoille. Already very disappointed.

1. I looked up aubergine in the 'Vegetables' section - i.e. raw aubergine, one of the ingredients in ratatoille. All it has is the calories for 'Aubergine, sliced, fried in corn oil'. Nothing for raw aubergine. Useless to me as I'm measuring the oil I'm cooking with separately (and being very sparing with it, because I'm on a diet!).

2. I looked up rice in the 'Pasta, Rice & Noodles' section - I found the calories for dry rice, but nothing for cooked rice. Again, not helpful if you are cooking for more than one person. I could, I suppose, weigh all the dry rice, and all the cooked rice, and do the sums, - but as the only one counting calories, it'd be a lot easier just to weigh my portion of cooked rice. There are, BTW, four pages devoted to Pre-cooked rice (i.e. microwave/boil in the bag).

3. I looked up tomatoes, needing the figure for regular, raw tomatoes. First in the list is 'canned, whole', then 'cherry', then 'fried in oil', 'grilled' then more canned stuff. Nothing for regular, raw tomatoes. Okay, so cherry tomatoes are probably the same as regular ones, calorie wise, but it still kind of beggars belief. And aubergines and tomatoes aren't the only veg where no figures are given for the raw produce.

Same problem in meat, fish, and fruit sections; often nothing for the raw, uncooked, unfrozen, uncanned, unbranded food.

Maybe fine if you live mostly out of tins and packets, and on fast food and ready-made meals.

This little book contains not only the calorific value of everything you might eat or drink, but also the protein, carb and fat values. It also very usefully lists not only standard foods (such as, say, cod or chicken) but the branded products made from those standard foods. It also gives the values of different means of cooking, e.g. steamed or fried. All that in a very neat little 3" x 4"!

I bought this book for my mum as I thought it would be exactly what she needed. Unfortunately as virtually all of the listings are for 'per 100g' it's not good for individual items. For example, if you have an egg it only gives the calories per 100g. I don't know about you, but I have no idea how much an egg weighs! Unfortunately I wouldn't recommend this book.

This book is not very useful for those who cook their own food, as it lists mainly cooked and ready prepared dishes and not as many raw ingredients as one might hope for.

The table and charts are too small to read on your kindle and the font size can't be changed, meaning that it is a total waste of money.Calorie Counter (Collins Gem)

I'm sure that the information contained in this guide is great but, unless you have amazingly good eyes don't buy the kindle edition. I have a Kindle Fire and even with the text size on maximum and wearing reading glasses, I could hardly read the information. Publisher's take note - it is unreadable!

Disappointingly says the book to carry with you between meals. Unfortunately you would also have to carry your kitchen scales. Why, when for example comparing branded bisccuits can they not put calories per biscuit is beyond me. I cam see the rationalle behind this for e.g. chips as portions vary, but it would be a lot better to visualise 1/2 tin of baked beans than 100g. Or the calorific value of 1 jaffa cake as opposed to 100g.