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My bag of Simply7™ Quinoa chips is based on quinoa flour and contains a significant amount of added starch. It claims to have 9 grams of protein/12 grams of carbs, a 3:4 ratio.

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However, pure Quinoa has only 8 g protein per 34 grams non-fiber carbs, see: http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/cereal-grains-and-pasta/10352/2 This is a less than a 1:4 ratio. There are no other ingredients that add a significant amount of protein. Does it really have that much protein?

ChrisW
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Kevin Kostlan
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    Something similar shows up in the analysis I did in http://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/22991/do-quinoa-flakes-have-the-same-nutritional-profile-as-whole-quinoa on Quinoa Flakes. It could be part of a refinement process. – Sean Duggan Oct 03 '14 at 17:40
  • There may also be different varieties of quinoa: perhaps the chips use a variety that is higher in protein than the one used to calculate the figures you found. – Nate Eldredge Oct 05 '14 at 03:01
  • @Sean: in your example the nutrition between the two examples is similar, there is just more overall "stuff" (non-water) in the Purcell product than the reference. My example is very, very different: the 9 grams of protein is way too high AND there are carby additives such as corn starch. – Kevin Kostlan Oct 06 '14 at 14:37
  • @ Eldredge: A variant with well over 3 times the protein:carb ratio? Is this even possible? – Kevin Kostlan Oct 06 '14 at 14:44
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    Your label for the chips contains almost no water. The link you provide is cooked, which is 2:1 water:quinoa *by volume*. To my recollection dry quinoa floats when first put into water and therefore is less dense. I expect this explains a bunch of the variation you see. – msw Oct 06 '14 at 23:15
  • @msw: How would differences in water content affect simply7's carb:protein *ratio*? – Kevin Kostlan Oct 07 '14 at 17:48
  • Those numbers are reported with on digit of accuracy. That means 8.4g -> 8g and 8.5 -> 9g. That difference is easily explainable by natural variation. – Christian Oct 09 '14 at 13:16
  • @Christian: The differences are way larger than rounding error. If it's 9.5:12 or 9:12.5 that doesn't really matter, it's still near a 3:4 ratio. If pure Quinoa is 8.5:34 or 8:34.5 it doesn't matter, it's still around a 1:4 ratio. These chips add a fair amount of starch, so I would expect it to be more like a 2:12. This is way, way less than 9:12. – Kevin Kostlan Oct 10 '14 at 17:51
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    They have since changed their label and now only claim 1 gram of protein.... –  Sep 25 '15 at 02:30
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    I agree with the above comment as the company Simply 7 which produces this chips product has switched its quinoa farmers and now as of Sep 2015, these chips have only 1g of protein currently and not 9g, as previously packaged. – pericles316 Sep 25 '15 at 08:28

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