Plate builder

Why the internet cannot agree what a plate costs

Look up the calories in a Sri Lankan rice and curry and the published figures run from roughly 280 to 910. Every one of those pages is quoting something real. They are just quoting different plates: a cup of rice on its own, or rice with dhal, a fish curry, a mallung, a papadum and a spoon of pol sambol.

Composition tables list ingredients, not dinners. There is no row anywhere for the plate your mother makes. So the honest thing is to show the sum instead of asserting a total, which is what this does.

The thing that moves the number most

Not the ingredient. The cooking. Roast potatoes in goose fat are about 85 kcal a portion more than the same potatoes in oil. Rice in coconut milk is about 85 more than rice in water. A fried papadum is 20 more than a roasted one, and most people eat three. Ghee brushed on a roti is 45 a teaspoon and nobody counts it.

None of that is a reason to stop eating any of it. It is a reason to know which lever is worth pulling, so the deficit comes from somewhere you will not miss.

Where the numbers come from

• USDA FoodData Central
• Sri Lankan Food Composition Database
• Indian Food Composition Tables 2017 (ICMR-NIN)

Values are scaled to the household portion shown and rounded to the nearest 5 kcal. Treat any single figure as an estimate with a range around it, because that is what it is.

Common questions

Why do published calorie counts for the same dish disagree so much?

Because they are quoting different plates. Search for the calories in a Sri Lankan rice and curry and you will find figures from about 280 to 910. Nobody is lying. One page means a cup of rice, another means rice with three curries, a papadum and pol sambol. The portion is the disagreement, which is why this tool asks you to build the plate instead of handing you a number.

How accurate are these numbers?

Each component is a realistic household portion taken from a published composition table and rounded to the nearest 5 kcal. That rounding is deliberate. Quoting 147.3 kcal for a roast potato implies a precision that does not exist for something whose size varies by a third depending on how it was cut.

Where do the calorie values come from?

USDA FoodData Central, the Indian Food Composition Tables 2017 from ICMR-NIN, and the Sri Lankan food composition database. Each component names its source. Those tables cover single foods rather than composite dishes, which is exactly why the plate has to be assembled rather than looked up.

Why does preparation change the number so much?

Because fat is dense and cooking adds it invisibly. Roast potatoes in goose fat run about 85 kcal more per portion than the same potatoes in oil. Rice cooked in coconut milk is about 85 kcal more than rice cooked in water. Deep-fried aubergine soaks up more oil than almost anything else on a plate. Each component here states the preparation assumed.

Is this a food database?

No, and it will not become one. It is about eighty everyday components used to show arithmetic on a web page. The app itself has no food database at all: you describe what you ate, and the calories are grounded at the moment you log it.

Does the app do this for me?

Yes, and without the tapping. You say "rice and curry with dhal and a papadum" or point the camera at the plate, and it works out the same sum, then remembers your usual portions so the next one is closer.

Plates already priced

Thirty everyday plates are built from these same components, each with its own composition table and the versions that move the number: calories in real plates.