How many calories get absorbed when you cook something and then drain it?

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So, for instance, draining milk from porridge after it's been cooking for half an hour, or draining raspberries from water after having brought it to a boil. These are two examples, I don't know how to log the calories in these scenarios, would it be accurate to half the calorie amount of whatever's being drained? Thanks xx
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Replies

  • musicfan68
    musicfan68 Posts: 1,127 Member
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    Water doesn't have calories, so if you are draining water, you aren't losing any calories from the food. The food still has the calories. If it is milk, I guess you could measure what you pour out and subtract it from the total calories before you drain. Personally, I wouldn't get that specific.
  • kimchidiet
    kimchidiet Posts: 8 Member
    edited November 2022
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    musicfan68 wrote: »
    Water doesn't have calories, so if you are draining water, you aren't losing any calories from the food. The food still has the calories. If it is milk, I guess you could measure what you pour out and subtract it from the total calories before you drain. Personally, I wouldn't get that specific.

    I wasn't draining water, draining raspberries from the water.
    Measuring what you drain is a great idea, but there's other things being drained along with the milk (water, vegetable broth, and spices) so not as exact as I would like unfortunately
  • Retroguy2000
    Retroguy2000 Posts: 1,531 Member
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    Aside from being overkill, why drain milk from porridge? That's where most of the protein is.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,874 Member
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    This is some serious in the weeds minutia with an already inexact science for which the answer is going to be negligible and immaterial to the process.
  • kimchidiet
    kimchidiet Posts: 8 Member
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    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    While I'm about logging accurately for myself, I'd encourage you to keep this sort of thing in perspective: How many calories are we realistically talking about? In a lot of these cases, it just isn't going to be worth the bother arithmetically, IMO.

    Thanks for the response! That's a good idea, I will cook it in water and then add the milk in. And I guess when I remove the raspberries from the water, I can still eat them so the calorie log will be accurate.
    I really am curious about the absorption rate of the calories, I know it will differ from food to food and depends on cooking time and things like that. Too inexact and trivial to have good information on I guess (although, I once found a website that gave the calorie information for 20 liters of diet coke, it was something like .007 calories). Tbh a mathematical formula for this sort of thing would be nice. Based on the responses I've gotten, there doesn't seem to be something like that in existence.
    In my opinion, spending a couple minutes a day calculating this sort of thing is worth it if I can get a near-exact log. However, in this incidence, it seems like I have to chill out :)
  • kimchidiet
    kimchidiet Posts: 8 Member
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    Aside from being overkill, why drain milk from porridge? That's where most of the protein is.

    I was cooking it in the milk and then draining the liquids (water, vegetable broth, as well as milk). When I go to drain the liquids it's hard to separate the milk from everything else. Next time I make porridge, I will add hot milk after everything has been drained and see if it affects the taste or not..
  • Retroguy2000
    Retroguy2000 Posts: 1,531 Member
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    I was cooking it in the milk and then draining the liquids (water, vegetable broth, as well as milk). When I go to drain the liquids it's hard to separate the milk from everything else. Next time I make porridge, I will add hot milk after everything has been drained and see if it affects the taste or not..
    Obviously preferences vary. I make my oatmeal in milk and don't drain anything.
  • glassyo
    glassyo Posts: 7,619 Member
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    Aside from being overkill, why drain milk from porridge? That's where most of the protein is.

    I was cooking it in the milk and then draining the liquids (water, vegetable broth, as well as milk). When I go to drain the liquids it's hard to separate the milk from everything else. Next time I make porridge, I will add hot milk after everything has been drained and see if it affects the taste or not..

    I only make it with water but I nuke that puppy until all the water is absorbed.

    Fun fact: Don't add fiber powder to it. It just liquifies it into soup again :)
  • westrich20940
    westrich20940 Posts: 889 Member
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    While you do need to be as accurate as possible (within reason).....these are not calories you should be worrying about.

    Really. Worrying about calories to this extent (like...every single solitary one) isn't going to help at all. It will all come out in the wash - and it encourages overthinking about food and calories. IMO at least.

    I'd just log the ingredients I used - and if you've overestimated a bit then that's fine.
  • paperpudding
    paperpudding Posts: 9,027 Member
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    And I guess when I remove the raspberries from the water, I can still eat them so the calorie log will be accurate.

    I am a bit lost as to what you are doing here - if you are not eating the raspberries now what is happening to them?? are you making raspberry infused water to drink (which would have almost no calories) and someone else eats the actual raspberries afterward??
  • BarbaraHelen2013
    BarbaraHelen2013 Posts: 1,940 Member
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    kimchidiet wrote: »
    Aside from being overkill, why drain milk from porridge? That's where most of the protein is.

    I was cooking it in the milk and then draining the liquids (water, vegetable broth, as well as milk). When I go to drain the liquids it's hard to separate the milk from everything else. Next time I make porridge, I will add hot milk after everything has been drained and see if it affects the taste or not..

    As well as being confused by the raspberries (are you cooking them in water, or washing them, or as suggested above making infused water to drink?) I’m confused by the porridge!

    I don’t understand the milk, vegetable stock and water combination to cook oats in? What sort of porridge are you making that you have any liquid to drain? Oats absorb liquid, if it needs draining I wonder why you’re using such an excess of liquids in the first place?

    If you added less it’d be so much easier to accurately count the calories because you’d actually be consuming everything you’d used to make the dish.
  • kimchidiet
    kimchidiet Posts: 8 Member
    edited December 2022
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    I am a bit lost as to what you are doing here - if you are not eating the raspberries now what is happening to them?? are you making raspberry infused water to drink (which would have almost no calories) and someone else eats the actual raspberries afterward??

    Yes, raspberry-infused water. It has a strong taste to it, so that's why I wonder about calorie absorption, seeing as a significant amount seems to absorb in the water.
    Afterwards, the actual raspberries get mixed into yogurt, I would eat it

  • kimchidiet
    kimchidiet Posts: 8 Member
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    [/quote]
    As well as being confused by the raspberries (are you cooking them in water, or washing them, or as suggested above making infused water to drink?) I’m confused by the porridge!

    I don’t understand the milk, vegetable stock and water combination to cook oats in? What sort of porridge are you making that you have any liquid to drain? Oats absorb liquid, if it needs draining I wonder why you’re using such an excess of liquids in the first place?

    If you added less it’d be so much easier to accurately count the calories because you’d actually be consuming everything you’d used to make the dish. [/quote]

    Raspberry-infused water
    Not cooking oats... A combination of barley and lentils. I'm sorry, porridge might not be the right terminology? I always cook with a lot of liquids, it makes more volume of food.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,981 Member
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    kimchidiet wrote: »
    Raspberry-infused water
    Not cooking oats... A combination of barley and lentils. I'm sorry, porridge might not be the right terminology? I always cook with a lot of liquids, it makes more volume of food.

    Maybe the word you want is "stew" or "soup"?

    My Indian chana dal (split and polished chickpeas that look like lentils) recipe calls for 4 cups of water, which makes it way too soupy for me - I use 2.5 cups and don't drain it.

    In your case, I'd use the amount of liquids that give it the volume I want without needing to drain it.
  • I_AM_ISRAEL
    I_AM_ISRAEL Posts: 160 Member
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    You’re over thinking it. KISS
  • LifeChangz
    LifeChangz Posts: 457 Member
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    a friend mentioned she drains off and drinks the water from cooking her vegetables so she gets the nourishment that went into the liquids... got me thinking, and now I will use or freeze liquids that I drain off, especially use veggie waters when I make soups or stews.

    I generally don't deduct calories for the liquids I drain off or stuff I burn onto the pan, lol, unless it's a thick layer burned down... Things like raspberry infused water is interesting, especially if much of the fruit breaks down and remains in your water. The residual fruit you pull out - you could eyeball and adjust when it is significant - and love your idea to use that later elsewhere.