Determining # of Calories: Raw vs. Fried Jicama

[jennifer ^v^]

I'm having a bit of trouble with figuring out how to measure the calories for a dish I prepared, so I figured I'd ask people here.

I weighed out ~350 grams of raw jicama, which according to nutritiondata.com equaled ~ three cups. I used it in a recipe where I deep fried it like french fries, but because of the water content (and the fact that I tend to "over-fry" them until they're very dark brown), the weight of the finished, deep-fried jicama was ~75 grams.

The amount of raw jicama had ~138 calories.

That's the nice part.

But because I'm to the point where I'm tweaking not only carb intake but caloric intake, I wanted to try to estimate the amount of calories in the deep-fried jicama. As much as I tried, I couldn't find a number for that dish, so I decided to use one for french fries. I know the carb level wouldn't be remotely the same, but I at least wanted something that would probably be the same weight and fried for the same amount of time. The average number of calories I found for 350 grams of french fries was ~1116.53.

That number isn't sitting well with me, though, because the final deep-fried weight of the jicama used was, again, ~75 grams. The average number of calories I found for that amount of french fries was ~200.

Which number would be more accurate for a rough, rough ballpark total, the former or latter?

Thanks in advance; I know this question is kinda nit-picky, but for something that can potentially pack as many calories as this, I sure don't want to think I'm consuming one thing when I'm actually consuming almost 75% of the total number of calories I normally eat in a day.

[not2late]

Re: Determining # of Calories: Raw vs. Fried Jicama

It depends on how much oil the jicama soaked up during the cooking process.

For example, you know you used 1 cup of oil and fried the jicama. After frying you re-measured the oil, it is now 1/2 cup. So the jicama soaked up about 1/2 cup of the oil. If you let the excess oil drain off by placing the jicama on a wire rack, you can go as far as measuring the oil that dripped off.

That's the only way to really measure it, because some of that oil will cling to the food after it's been fried.

[jennifer ^v^]

Re: Determining # of Calories: Raw vs. Fried Jicama

Ah! I'll have to try doing that.

I've gotten over eating oil/fat in my food, but I still have the weirdest feelings of fear whenever I deep-fry something...which is why I've started doing it, to try to face up to it and not run the other way whenever a remotely unidentifiable amount of oil was used in something I'm eating.

Anyway, thanks!

[scott123]

Re: Determining # of Calories: Raw vs. Fried Jicama

Unless you've discovered a new food type, fat is the most caloric type there is. 75 grams of pure fat would be 675 calories and I can guarantee you that your jicama fries weren't pure fat.

Starch has a tendency to absorb fat, so I'm certain that starchy french fries will be fattier than relatively starchless fried jicama. Not to mention that jicama contains a ton of calorie free fiber. For these reasons, I'd wager that the jicama is less than 200 - probably quite a bit so.

The one mitigating factor is surface area. If the jicama is shredded, that creates a lot of surface area for the fat to cling to. Still, taking into account jicama's lack of absorptive abilities, I wouldn't place 75 g of shredded fried jicama above 250 cal.

P.S. The calorie count you had listed for raw jicama seem extraordinarily high, so I checked the USDA National Nutrient Database and this is what they list:

Yambean (jicama), raw

Refuse: 8% (Ends and skin)
Scientific Name: Pachyrhizus spp.
NDB No: 11603 (Nutrient values and weights are for edible portion)

Nutrient Units Value per
350 grams
Energy kca 133
Protein g 2.52
Total lipid (fat) g 0.32
Ash g 1.05
Carbohydrate, by difference g 30.87
Fiber, total dietary g 17.2
Sugars, total g 6.30

Now... calorically speaking, there's no way in heck this could be 133 calories. First of all, the carbs listed, 30.87, can't be net carbs because the grand total of water + carbs + fiber = 362 and this only weighs 350 g to begin with. So... carbs - fiber = 13.67 net carbs. With that information, we're able to compute the correct calorie count

2.52 g protein x 4 cal/g = 10.2 cal.
.32 g fat x 9 cal/g = 2.88 cal.
13.67 g carbs x 4 cal/g = 54.68 cal.

For a grand total of... 67.76 cal.

[jennifer ^v^]

Re: Determining # of Calories: Raw vs. Fried Jicama

Sorry for the delay in response...but thank you so much for your help! The calorie amount for the raw jicama looked a bit off to me as well considering how much water the vegetable contains.