The ketogenic diet is much easier to calculate using the metric system of grams and millilitres. Unfortunately, recipes and other things are still sometimes specified in terms of other measures, in which case, this section will help you convert to metric.

The aim of the ketogenic diet is to deliver specific numbers of calories as fat, as protein and as carbohydrate. Unfortunately food is measured in a variety of ways, from pounds and ounces to grams and millilitres, and so it is often necessary to convert from one form to another; this is an inconvenience, but is not particularly complicated.

The imperial system

Americans are still wedded to good old pounds and ounces, although most of the rest of the world is now metric. Even the Brits, as good europeans should, have capitulated and use the french way of measuring the world.

The pound (only standardised in 1855) is based on the roman libra, which is why it is abbreviated as lb. The ounce is based on the roman uncia, but something happened along the way, because uncia means one twelfth, and there were 12 uncia to the libra, whereas we have 16 ounces (oz) to the pound (lb).

The volume measure is interesting, since it was based on the binary system long before the advent of computers, with 4 gills to the pint, 2 pints to the quart, 4 quarts to the gallon etc. The only problem is that the US pint etc is not the same as the British pint..

The metric system

The metric system was introduced by Napoleon and the French Republic in 1801, as part of their rationalisation of the world, although it took a hundred odd years to have much effect.

Metric is easy because every thing is multiples of ten - grams and kilograms, millilitres and litres. One very useful feature for us is the link between the weight and the volume scales - one cubic centimetre of water is a millilitre and it weighs exactly one gram. More of this in a moment.

Conversion of imperial to metric

Sometimes measurements are given in imperial, and need conversion to metric. This is straightforward, all you need is a calculator - don’t try to do it by hand.

To convert pounds and ounces to grams

(UK) To convert pints and fluid ounces to millilitres

(US) To convert pints and fluid ounces to millilitres

Other measures

There are also some funny measures of volume which recipes delight to use; again, the UK and US sizes are different. The multiplication factors to convert to millilitres (ml) are.

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(update 2.1: 18 July 2002)
(issue 2: 22 August 1997)