A cold potato does not suddenly lose a large number of calories after a night in the refrigerator. Cooling changes part of its starch structure, which can reduce how completely some of that starch is digested in the small intestine. So a cold potato may provide slightly less metabolizable energy than the same potato served […]
Older food labels offer an interesting record of how nutrition numbers and labeling rules have changed. One number has stayed remarkably familiar: a gram of fat is counted as 9 calories. We wanted to trace that familiar figure back to the original research and find out how it became the standard. The answer leads back […]
Olive oil takes up very little space in a pan, while its calorie contribution can be substantial. A tablespoon of olive oil weighs about 13.5 grams and provides roughly 119 calories, according to USDA food-composition data. That gives us a useful reference point for calories in olive oil, as long as we know how much […]
For a plain medium russet, calories in a baked potato come to about 164 before butter, sour cream, or another topping goes on. The USDA-based value used for a 173-gram baked russet with skin is about 95 calories per 100 grams. USDA FoodData Central is the primary database behind many of the nutrition entries you […]
A Reddit discussion about a cat-food pouch labeled 13 kcal offers a useful example of a common unit mix-up. A kilocalorie contains 1,000 small scientific calories, but 13 kcal does not mean 13,000 food Calories. Here is the distinction that matters: in nutrition, 1 kcal and 1 Calorie represent the same amount of food energy. […]
A calorie figure can come from direct measurement or from a calculation based on standard factors. That distinction matters especially for almonds, where food structure can affect how much energy the body absorbs. The calorie count on almond labels may not reflect how much energy your body actually absorbs. So do almonds have fewer calories […]
The USDA entry for baked sweet potato gives a clear starting figure: 90 calories per 100 grams. Compare that with a Thanksgiving casserole recipe, and the calculation changes quickly. So how many calories in sweet potato are there? A sweet potato baked in its skin without salt has about 90 calories per 100 grams, and […]
Raw carrots contain about 41 calories per 100 grams, which puts a medium 61-gram carrot at roughly 25 calories. Boiled and drained carrots come in at about 35 calories per 100 grams. Cooking can change the number you see because water content and final weight change, not because heat simply removes calories. So how many […]
Spaghetti squash has one quality that almost sells itself. Once it is baked or cooked, the inside separates with a fork into long strands that look a lot like spaghetti. That is where the name comes from, along with the comparison to pasta that appears almost everywhere people talk about this vegetable. The calorie difference […]
Butternut squash and potatoes often end up in the same place on the plate. Both can be roasted in cubes or served as a warm side dish, so comparing their calories makes a lot of sense. The numbers floating around online can look a little dramatic, though. One of the more common claims says that […]