KABOCHA SQUASH: A CALORIC MYSTERY

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  • Jade0529
    Jade0529 Posts: 213 Member
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    It is a winter melon/ winter squash - classified as "Cucurbita maxima"

    Here is more info including nutritional information

    http://extension.umass.edu/vegetable/ethnic-crops/kabocha-cucurbita-maxima-auyama
  • btwinkyb
    btwinkyb Posts: 7 Member
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    I found this link... You need to use Google translate or something, but if you look at the table, it compares Japanese pumpkin vs. Western one (which I believe are the Halloween pumpkins Americans tend to use).

    Hopefully this helps! :-)

    http://kcal.akhealthnews.com/kabocha38.html

    In any case, conclusion seems to be that's it's very low in calories, whether you use the UMass values or the ones on this Japanese site.

    As a site note, are the calories on the UMass site for raw kabocha? I tend to just microwave covered and that essentially steams it... Not sure how to account for the calories then, whether with before or after steaming weight.
  • michrun09
    michrun09 Posts: 1 Member
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    I too am a passionate lover of the nutritionally-mysterious kabocha, and have found lots of conflicting data online. I even went so far as to contact a lab to see if it would be possible to get a sample tested so we could know once and for all, but it cost $650, sooo unless everyone from this now ancient thread want to chip in, it will remain unknown.
  • Noreenmarie1234
    Noreenmarie1234 Posts: 7,493 Member
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    So how many calories are in a typical small squash?
  • RodaRose
    RodaRose Posts: 9,562 Member
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    Noreenmarie1234 wrote: »
    So how many calories are in a typical small squash?

    Count it as raw "acorn" squash or "butternut" squash.

  • _Terrapin_
    _Terrapin_ Posts: 4,302 Member
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    OP probably moved on; thread from November 2012.
  • HokuMom
    HokuMom Posts: 1 Member
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    Can't find Kabocha, but here are other squash values. If Kabocha is more similar to Hubbard, then it is very low.

    https://snaped.fns.usda.gov/snap//NTTS/acornsquashLabel.gif (15g - 2g fiber = 13 g/1 cup)
    https://snaped.fns.usda.gov/snap//NTTS/butternutsquashLabel.gif (16g - 3g fiber = 13 g/1 cup)
    https://snaped.fns.usda.gov/snap//NTTS/hubbardsquashLabel.gif (10g - 5g fiber = 5 g/1 cup)
    https://snaped.fns.usda.gov/snap//NTTS/spaghettisquashLabel.gif (7g - 2g fiber = 5 g/1 cup)

    Pumpkin (6g - 1g fiber = 5 g/0.5 cup) - note serving size.
    https://snaped.fns.usda.gov/nutrition-through-seasons/seasonal-produce/pumpkin

  • JessDavies6
    JessDavies6 Posts: 2 Member
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    So i think i cracked the da Vinci code!
    Ive reviewed the source of the data and its very legit
    http://www.5aday.co.nz/facts-and-tips/fruit-vegetable-info/buttercup-squash.aspx
  • bezlooney
    bezlooney Posts: 81 Member
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    JessDavies6 wrote: »
    So i think i cracked the da Vinci code!
    Ive reviewed the source of the data and its very legit
    http://www.5aday.co.nz/facts-and-tips/fruit-vegetable-info/buttercup-squash.aspx

    This is for buttercup not kabocha though?
  • JessDavies6
    JessDavies6 Posts: 2 Member
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    bezlooney wrote: »
    JessDavies6 wrote: »
    So i think i cracked the da Vinci code!
    Ive reviewed the source of the data and its very legit
    http://www.5aday.co.nz/facts-and-tips/fruit-vegetable-info/buttercup-squash.aspx

    This is for buttercup not kabocha though?

    I think they are the same, I might be wrong but they are so similar I imagine their nutrition content would be too
  • snowflake930
    snowflake930 Posts: 2,188 Member
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    Kabocha Squash

    A
    Grade

    Nutrition Facts

    Serving Size 3/4 cup (85 g)

    Per Serving % Daily Value*

    Calories 30

    Carbohydrates 7g 2%

    Dietary Fiber 1g 4%

    Sugars 3g

    Protein 1g


    Vitamin A 70% · Vitamin C 15%

    Calcium 2% · Iron 2%



    *Based on a 2000 calorie diet


    GOOD POINTS
    •High in dietary fiber
    •Very high in vitamin A
    •Very high in vitamin C

    BAD POINTS
    •Very high in sugar
  • Need2Exerc1se
    Need2Exerc1se Posts: 13,576 Member
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    I've never heard of this site so I don't know how reliable it is, but it has nutritional info for kabocha

    http://slism.com/calorie/106046/
  • Susiefun
    Susiefun Posts: 18 Member
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    This is such an old thread, but like the original poster, I too started searching.
    I ate dinner tonight. I had kabocha. I went to log it. 30 calories??? For something so dense, and sweet...it's denser than the sweet potatoes I steamed with it. And starchier than a potato. I found 30 calories very hard to believe.

    I'm going with RachelVClark. I bought the kabocha at a Japanese market. She wrote: "In Japan the pumpkins are ALL Kobocha and they:re labelled with 60 calories or energy per 100grams."

    That sounds much more plausible. I mean, in my wishful thinking, I'd much prefer to believe only 30 calories, but I'm going to go with 60.
  • Chositadream101
    Chositadream101 Posts: 3 Member
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    I translated a Japanese nutrition website guys...it's ~90 calories per 100g cooked. it's not surprising since it is much sweeter than butternut squash to my tastebud . I am Thai and we eat a lot of kabocha and the nutrition values from Thai sources put it around the same. I created a nutrition called "Japanese - boil/steam kabocha (Japanese website)" if you want the full nutrition
  • jwoolman5
    jwoolman5 Posts: 191 Member
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    Food databases are always very rough estimates by nature, more or less. The real calories from any food will vary according to the exact type, the growing conditions (including where grown), etc. Your own body's ability to extract that energy also varies.

    Do you really believe that a honeycrisp apple has the same amount of sugar as a red delicious? Or that the apple in front of you fits the database's measured values for large, medium, or small, or even by the gram? The data are averages for whatever apples they happened to use in the lab and can be way off for that particular apple you are eating.

    Even nutritional info in a mass-produced processed meal can be off by 20% in either direction without attracting the attention of the legal authorities. All these numbers are just estimates and can be way off for the particular item you are eating. But overall, they still provide a decent guideline for us to follow, which is all that counts.

    We don't really know how much energy we are expending over any given day either. We are just using estimates that may not be correct for us, hence the need to adjust calorie budgets if you are gaining weight rather than losing as expected. This is also true for energy expenditures for extra exercise. Just because there is a number attached to a machine does not make it correct for you in particular.

    Basically when in doubt, it is safest to underestimate calories expended by any extra exercise and overestimate the calories provided by the food you eat...

    So it's not that the databases are wrong about your favorite squash. They just aren't representative of the particular squash that you are eating, even if they list the entry as the same name.

    Anyway - if you know you gain weight during the season of indulging in this squash and are weighing it accurately and tracking, obviously the general database entry for that particular type of squash is not correct for you. Just record it as much higher in calories to compensate. Make a custom entry if needed. This will encourage you to eat more reasonable portions, especially since you might be getting a beta carotene overdose if you're looking a bit orange... Then see what happens over the next year as the seasons change.

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