does cooking add calories?

lukimakamai
lukimakamai Posts: 498 Member
edited September 25 in Food and Nutrition
This may sound like a stupid question, but I'm curious. I realize if I add salt, pepper, oil, butter (other things) to the pan it will change the calories. But, if I put onions under the broiler/on a grill and add nothing to it does the carmelization of the onion change the calories in the onion? I have seen several people on this site going to a raw diet so maybe someone has some inisght into this...I'm mostly intrested in if cooking changes the calories in sugary fruits and veggies that are more "surgary" after being cooked (berries, apples, onions, carrotts). Thanks in advance for the answers!

Replies

  • Newmammaluv
    Newmammaluv Posts: 379 Member
    bump!!
  • sharoniballoni
    sharoniballoni Posts: 163 Member
    No, it won't change the calories. It may only affect how the nutrients are absorbed and how your body processes it. Cooking can turn starch into sugar, but it doesn't make it more caloric.
  • ashleyh3156
    ashleyh3156 Posts: 177 Member
    thats a good question!!! I hope not, I have been using no cal, fat free spray so it better not!!!
  • Booper83
    Booper83 Posts: 70 Member
    Not sure on the calories. But, I know it takes away from the vitamins you get from the veggies and fruits. I think that's why people go to the raw diet. But, I'm sure more people have input.
  • lukimakamai
    lukimakamai Posts: 498 Member
    I'm glad no one laughed at my question! I knew about the vitamin difference in raw and cooked especially when you boil and thank you for explaining the starch to sugar!

    anyone else have info for me?
  • KrystalLight03
    KrystalLight03 Posts: 119
    It's kind of like the Law of Conservation of Mass: "Matter cannot be created or destroyed." You can't gain calories or lose them, no matter what you do to the food. You CAN change the vitamins/sugars/starches/overall nutrition, but you can't gain calories.

    Fruits and vegetables are the ovaries of the plant they are grown on, so by cooking them you are changing something in its structure and it will absorb differently in your body than if you were to just eat them raw. Depending on how your body responds to food, this could be a good or bad thing.

    ***Correction (excuse me, it's late): Fruits are the ovaries of the plant, vegetables are typically the root. Each does something for the body nutrition-wise, and cooking changes them both structurally/chemically. Like I said, this could be good or bad.
  • Levedi
    Levedi Posts: 290 Member
    It depends on the food and the cooking method. For instance the onions under the broiler caramelize the sugar that's already there, so they may taste different, but they won't have more calories. However, if you broil chicken with the bone in it then the marrow (high in calories) will absorb into the meat a bit so you'll get more calories than you would in boneless chicken breast, even though you of course you wouldn't eat the bones themselves. At the same time cooking on a broiler grill will let more fat drip off the chicken so it will go down a bit in calories.

    At the same time, a potato has fewer effective calories raw than cooked (even without butter or any other add-ons.) This is because the starch in a raw potato is indigestible. It will pass right through you without being absorbed into the blood stream as calories and vitamins. Cook that sucker and voila! You have used heat to chemically break down the starches into a digestible form - that means it can be absorbed as calories. A lot of root vegetables are like this. You could starve to death on raw potatoes and get fat on cooked ones.
  • bruceinbr
    bruceinbr Posts: 1
    After reading this scientific analysis:

    http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/crux/2011/12/08/why-calorie-counts-are-wrong-cooked-food-provides-a-lot-more-energy/

    I would contend that probably MANY foods end up with more available calories after cooking then when uncooked.
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