Google and various websites says 28g of pecans is between 185 and 195 calories, how in the world are praline pecans much less calories?

  • jordanlund@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    If I were to hazard a guess… and this is ONLY a guess…

    28g of pecans is 100% pecans.
    28g of praline pecans is pecans + other things.

    So you aren’t eating 28g of pecans, let’s say you’re eating 22g of pecans and 6g of other ingredients.

    If those other ingredients are less calorie dense than the pecans themselves, then yes, it could have fewer calories.

    28g of pecans = 196 calories.
    196/28 = 7 calories per gram.
    Sugar = 4 calories per gram.
    Butter = 7 calories per gram.

  • explore_broaden@midwest.social
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    2 months ago

    Sugar only has about 4 calories per gram, so 28 grams would be 112 calories. So a blend of sugar and pecans has less calories per gram (somewhere between). Fat is very dense in calories per gram, and pecans are mostly fats.

  • xmunk@sh.itjust.works
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    2 months ago

    Folks have commented on the caloric density of fat vs sugar but I did want to highlight that Calories aren’t the only thing that matters - we’re much worse at productively using sugars. Praline pecans certainly shouldn’t be viewed as a strictly healthier option.

  • litchralee@sh.itjust.works
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    2 months ago

    This article indicates that the USA FDA allows for up to a 20% margin of error for values required to be on the Nutrition Facts label. The article also describes multiple methods of measuring the calorific value of food, either by burning it in the not-so-TSA-friendly-named bomb calorimeter or through methods that have standardized the calorific value of each constituent nutrient.

    It’s also the case that not every foodstuff is perfectly identical to all other products. A banana is hardly going to be constituted exactly like another banana, and even the most basic measurement of mass will not match up to other bananas. Yet some sort of “standard” banana must be assumed in order to print the nutrition label.

    As an aside, I do fondly remember making a bomb calorimeter in chemistry class using a polystyrene cup as the insulation. It worked remarkably well, IIRC, being within 10% of what we were given as the expected value. Obviously, real measurements would be far more controlled than what some college freshmen can manage, but the concept is sound, if only measuring what the food provides, not necessarily what the human digestive tract can extract.

    As an aside to an aside, celery appears to not be a negative-calorie food, even after considering human digestion.

    • Corkyskog@sh.itjust.worksOP
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      2 months ago

      That’s what I assumed was the thing. I understand that sugar has less calories per gram, but butter is also a big part of the mix. So I assumed it would be much closer to the calories of actual pecans. But even a 10% margin of error would probably allow for that I would assume.

  • listless@lemmy.cringecollective.io
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    2 months ago

    To expand, pecans are about 6kcal/g sugar is 4kcal/g - since the serving size is 28g, not by volume, they have reduced the pecans per serving and added sugar per serving which is less calorie dense per gram.

  • Gasdqwd1d@gehirneimer.de
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    2 months ago

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  • Nikls94@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    Shoosh that’s 570 kcal per 100 grams! And Half of that is sugar-calories!

    Regular pecans have about 700 kcal / 100 grams - no sugar.

    You could do a test: eat 100g of those Praline Pecans one day and 100g of regular Pecans the next day. And write up how you feel for the hours following! It helped me realize how bad sugar was lol