How accurate are these estimated calories on products?

[steiconi]

The whole idea of counting calories was promoted by food manufacturers, who didn't want dieters to avoid their sugar-laden foods.
"Food doesn't make you fat, calories make you fat!" and
"Calories in/calories out," giving the impression that you can eat cookies instead of veggies (or whatever is "healthy" this week).

In my opinion, you can pretty much eat all the fresh salmon and garlic-stuffed olives you can stand, and still be healthy. Just stay downwind, okay?

[guidoLaMoto]

https://www.merckmanuals.com/home/mu...n%20the%20food.
Calorie content of a food is determined by taking a measured quantity (say 1 gm) and literally lighting it on fire and measuring how much warmer a quantity if water gets. One calorie is the energy it takes to heat 1 gm of water by 1 deg C....That doesn't necessarily mean you can use that calorie. How well you absorb and digest the food is what really matters. Eg- a chunk of wood may contain X cal, but if you swallow it, you get O cal because you can't digest wood.

The tests themselves may not be all that accurate and as noted by others here +/-20% is good enough for govt work.

BTW-- when you use your deep fryer, how long before you have to add more oil? How much oil sticks to the food? How many extra calories does frying account for? Not much.

[steiconi]

Originally Posted by guidoLaMoto

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BTW-- when you use your deep fryer, how long before you have to add more oil? How much oil sticks to the food? How many extra calories does frying account for? Not much.

Florence Henderson used to do an ad for oil (Mazola?) that claimed just a tablespoon of oil was used up when frying chicken. I don't think they really said how much chicken was fried, maybe just a wing...

But oil consumption probably depends on the type and quantity of the coating, as well as the temperature of the oil. You get greasy chicken with cooler oil.

[Malloric]

Originally Posted by steiconi

Florence Henderson used to do an ad for oil (Mazola?) that claimed just a tablespoon of oil was used up when frying chicken. I don't think they really said how much chicken was fried, maybe just a wing...

But oil consumption probably depends on the type and quantity of the coating, as well as the temperature of the oil. You get greasy chicken with cooler oil.

Opposite actually. Higher temperature more moisture comes out of the food and when the moisture comes out is when the oil gets absorbed. Oil and water don't mix so the less water you've steamed out by frying at lower temperature the greasier the surface is.

And yes, potatoes and anything breaded soak up a lot of oil. There's nothing wrong with fat but it does pack a heavy punch in calories. There's a good reason a bottle of olive oil is my go-to calorie bump when backpacking. Those fries for example, about 40 percent of the calories are fat. It's not exactly rocket science how all that fat got in the fries.

The other problem is the palatability. A plain boiled potatoes isn't that appealing. Nobody has cravings for a tablespoon of vegetable oil. Fry the thinly sliced potato in the vegetable oil and apply salt and I'll have another.