What is an Usa Food Exchange?

It's like trading 5 pennies for 1 nickel or 10 dime for a dollar bill. Right! Okay. In food exchanges, you may exchanges one measurement or amount of food for another food in the same group, ie, if by change, such as I do...I have a 1/2 grapefruit every morning...let's say I ran out! I would look over the fruit exchange list to see what was there that I could have from the exchange group of the fruit list...then I could choose something from the fruit exchange.. Ah! Ha! I see I can sneak one of Bert's orange's. (2 1/2" across)= 1/2 cup fresh fruit.

The Food Exchange System is based on six exchanges lists: Starch/bread exchange, meat, vegetables, fruits, milk, and fats. There is also some special lists. Foods are grouped within each list on the basis of similar amounts of carbohydrate, protein, and fat. For example, one fruit exchange is Cho: 15g, Pro: 0g; Fat: 0g; Cal: 60; This equivalent to 1/2 cup of grapefruit juice, but only a 1/3 cup of prune juice because prune juice has more sugar then grapefruit juice. Keep in mind that there will be some surprises. Corn, for example, is a vegetable, but it appears on the starch/bread list. That is because corn is starchy and its carbohydrate value is much closer to bread then to most vegetables. Foods from the starch/bread list is sometimes called Starch Exchange and sometimes called the Bread Exchange-but they mean the same thing.