Can the calories in a cooked dish be greater than the calories in the ingredients?
Asked by gandra101 on Oct 07, 2009
in Nutrition
Would it be true that the combination of the individual ingredients of lasagna dish for example, under heat, result in a different nutritional value for the the end product?
Answer
Calories do not change when food is cooked; however, the weight of the food may change as it gains or loses water. For instance, foods like oatmeal gain volume from water used in cooking, while foods like fresh spinach lose volume from water. But because water does not contain calories, the calorie content of the finished dish is the same. An exception, though, is calories from alcohol which are largely burned off in cooking.
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