Do toasted foods have less calories than non-toasted?

autodominio

Last saturday we were having a BBQ and my sister-in-law asked her hamburger buns toasted well because "really toasted bread has less calories". a few of us made fun of the claim and others supported it. They said that in diets they recommend toasting bread or tortillas to minimize the calories they contain. After I made fun of it as an excuse to overeat because well it has less calories it must be good. I started to think if the argument has any legs to stand.
So a food calorie is defined as "is approximately the amount of energy needed to raise the temperature of one kilogram of water by one degree Celsius" according to wikipedia but I've seen that in many different places as well. And primitive methods of calculating calories was to burn the foods to see how much heat they generated. And that's about all I know about the topic.

So here's the question if you toast something to the point where it almost burns or is heated a lot, is it releasing the energy (calories) it has in the form of heat?

And I'm asking strictly as a technical question. Not interested in following a diet or encouraging anyone to follow a fad.
I just wonder if engineers or chemists out there had anything to add.

LKArgh

This is complete assumption from my part, but I would expect that a calorimeter measures the pure energy released by the food burning, and not including the energy needed to start the burning process. Assuming the plan is not to ignite the food before eating and then let it burn to charcoal before eating, the process of heating the food would be basically the opposite: adding energy to food, to increase its temperature. Now, whether this triggers some chemical reaction that alters the food consistency and modifies the calories, probably depends on how you heat/cook the food, and the type of food you are heating. In case of hamburger buns, I would bet that unless your sister-in-law eats hers in the form of coal, whether she eats them toasted or not, makes no difference. Now, if she toasts them to the point that half the bun turns black, for sure she is eating less calories, but jsut cutting the bun in half and then eating it woudl have achieved the same goal

Acg67

autodominio wrote: »

Last saturday we were having a BBQ and my sister-in-law asked her hamburger buns toasted well because "really toasted bread has less calories". a few of us made fun of the claim and others supported it. They said that in diets they recommend toasting bread or tortillas to minimize the calories they contain. After I made fun of it as an excuse to overeat because well it has less calories it must be good. I started to think if the argument has any legs to stand.
So a food calorie is defined as "is approximately the amount of energy needed to raise the temperature of one kilogram of water by one degree Celsius" according to wikipedia but I've seen that in many different places as well. And primitive methods of calculating calories was to burn the foods to see how much heat they generated. And that's about all I know about the topic.

So here's the question if you toast something to the point where it almost burns or is heated a lot, is it releasing the energy (calories) it has in the form of heat?

And I'm asking strictly as a technical question. Not interested in following a diet or encouraging anyone to follow a fad.
I just wonder if engineers or chemists out there had anything to add.

Wat

cwolfman13

I chalk this kind of stuff up to "majoring in the minors". Does toasting bread reduce the caloric density of the bread? I have no idea...but if it does I'm going to go out on a limb here given everything else I know about food and nutrition and say that any difference is largely irrelevant and rather minuscule.

Majoring in the minors.

zyxst

I'd say toasted and non-toasted food has the same caloric content.

I do know that some foods change their nutrient make-up (is that the right term?) when cooked, like cassava.

autodominio

@aggelikik "unless your sister-in-law eats hers in the form of coal" ha ha this made me chuckle.
and yes @cwolfman13 the difference, if there is any, must be negligible if not we would've heard more about it by now.

suruda

I do think Toasted food generally has more flavor (like nuts especially) and therefore you are satisfied with less...calories is highly doubtful to me!

acpgee

I've never heard of a case being made for toast, but there has been some research about how cooling and reheating pasta and rice reduces the glycemic index and increases resistant starch content, thereby lowering the amount of calories absorbed in the gut.

http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-29629761
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/science-news/11489675/Simple-rice-cooking-hack-could-reduce-calories-by-60-per-cent.html

jnv7594

Well, it does seem like a strange question. However, I have noticed something about toasted bread. It weighs less in grams than untoasted bread, but that's true with a lot of things once you heat them up. Frozen foods and meat are the same in terms of weighing less after they're cooked. But if you weight the bread before toasting it and then after, the difference is usually several grams, which would mean if I am figuring calories by the gram weight of the bread AFTER toasting, it would have less calories...sometimes up to 10 or 20. Now the difference in weight could just be the moisture burning off, but it's still something I've wondered about...whether or not I should go by the gram weight of the bread before or after toasting when I figure calories. Same goes with meat and some other foods.

KarenJanine

Sometimes a raisin falls out of my fruit-loaf into the toaster, so it has a few fewer calories.

But I think the case for eating burnt food in a bid to cut calories is clutching at straws. Unless you're eating charcoal, the differences will be small.

hollyrayburn

I don't know why I even opened up this thread. I sure as heck don't know why I'm commenting in it. That's the most redonkilous thing I've heard in a while.

But sigh. In.

ninerbuff

While there may be minutely less material, the calorie count would be hardly affected at all.

This really would be a dumb way to justify eating more calories.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

hollyrayburn

ninerbuff wrote: »

While there may be minutely less material, the calorie count would be hardly affected at all.

This really would be a dumb way to justify eating more calories.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

Wait, so if I toast my bread, I can't have 6 tablespoons on my sammich, because it won't "even out"?

1shauna1

Well....maybe they mean the more burnt it is the less you eat because it's just not palatable.

PeachyPlum

jnv7594 wrote: »

Well, it does seem like a strange question. However, I have noticed something about toasted bread. It weighs less in grams than untoasted bread, but that's true with a lot of things once you heat them up. Frozen foods and meat are the same in terms of weighing less after they're cooked. But if you weight the bread before toasting it and then after, the difference is usually several grams, which would mean if I am figuring calories by the gram weight of the bread AFTER toasting, it would have less calories...sometimes up to 10 or 20. Now the difference in weight could just be the moisture burning off, but it's still something I've wondered about...whether or not I should go by the gram weight of the bread before or after toasting when I figure calories. Same goes with meat and some other foods.

The weight reduction is water evaporating off during cooking/toasting. The amount of calorie-containing matter is the same, except for the few crumbs that dropped in the toaster.

jnv7594

PeachyPlum wrote: »

jnv7594 wrote: »

Well, it does seem like a strange question. However, I have noticed something about toasted bread. It weighs less in grams than untoasted bread, but that's true with a lot of things once you heat them up. Frozen foods and meat are the same in terms of weighing less after they're cooked. But if you weight the bread before toasting it and then after, the difference is usually several grams, which would mean if I am figuring calories by the gram weight of the bread AFTER toasting, it would have less calories...sometimes up to 10 or 20. Now the difference in weight could just be the moisture burning off, but it's still something I've wondered about...whether or not I should go by the gram weight of the bread before or after toasting when I figure calories. Same goes with meat and some other foods.

The weight reduction is water evaporating off during cooking/toasting. The amount of calorie-containing matter is the same, except for the few crumbs that dropped in the toaster.

Yes, and that means that same piece of bread would add up to fewer calories toasted because it weighs less when measured. Say I don't weigh my bread until after toasting, it could come up to 10 or so calories less (going by the weight) than if I weighed it and ate it untoasted. That's why I always wonder if food should be weighed before or after toasting/cooking. Regardless if it's water or not, the weight changes even if only by a few grams, so when I log it by weight, I would be logging less calories.

avskk

Oh my God, no.

If you weigh it after toasting, you find the correct entry for toasted bread, which accounts for the weight difference. If you weigh it before toasting, you use the correct entry for the untoasted bread. Yes, if you logged a piece of toasted bread as a piece of untoasted bread, your calorie count would be off. That's not because the calorie content magically changes when you heat it; it's because you would be using the wrong entry.

Ready2Rock206

Oh my. This is why so many people have such a problem losing weight. No. You didn't toast out half the calories.

jnv7594

avskk wrote: »

Oh my God, no.

If you weigh it after toasting, you find the correct entry for toasted bread, which accounts for the weight difference. If you weigh it before toasting, you use the correct entry for the untoasted bread. Yes, if you logged a piece of toasted bread as a piece of untoasted bread, your calorie count would be off. That's not because the calorie content magically changes when you heat it; it's because you would be using the wrong entry.

Well, for the record. I typically weigh the bread before toasting, but I have weighed it after before just to see the difference. I was basically bringing this up as a general wondering as people have posted questions about this before...in regards to weighing food before or after cooking. I don't really use "toasted" or "untoasted" entries, lol. I usually weigh all my food raw. Still makes one wonder though, not with just bread. Just like the other night, I had some frozen chicken strips. They weighed quite a bit more frozen when I measured them out before baking than they did after I cooked them and put them on my salad. Obviously that was due to water evaporating. I just used the after cooking weight personally, but because I weighed them before cooking, after cooking the weight didn't come up to a full serving. The weight difference was pretty significant.

By the way, I've lost 85 pounds, so I must be doing something right, lol. Not sure what the "oh my god no" comment was for. Toasted bread DOES weigh differently than untoasted, which is why there are different entries in the database as you mentioned. I think you're actually missing the point of what I'm saying to be honest.

ETA...looks like your comment may not have been directed at me like I thought it was. If it wasn't my apologies for getting defensive.

jennifershoo

BURN THE CALORIES!!!

Wat?? Lol

PeachyPlum

jennifershoo wrote: »

BURN THE CALORIES!!!

Wat?? Lol

In fairness, I burned 75%* of the calories out of our bread while making toast for Sunday breakfast over the weekend.

The fire department came because the alarm company dispatched them automatically. It was embarrassing.

*It was really effectively 100% of the calories, because we threw the toast away. So if you toast it real good, you can make bread calorie-free by toasting it.