Question about calories in Mac and Cheese

Factual Questions
1

Something’s been bugging me for a while. I’m on a pseudo-diet (nothing hardcore, just a couple of pounds I’d like to rid myself of) so I was perusing the Nutrition Facts on a box of President’s Choice Mac and Cheese a friend gave me trying to calculate the calories in my head.

There are two listings for calories, “Dry Mix” and “Prepared”, with 1/3 of a package being 280 calories dry and 400 prepared- with the caveat that prepared means plus butter and 2% milk.

That’s quite a huge leap, and I was wondering whether the increase is due purely to the addition of milk and butter? Or does “dry mix” mean just the pasta, not the powder sauce that comes with it?

I’m a college student, and normally dispense with both the butter and milk, as I find the excess water after draining is more than enough.

So Dopers, where do all the extra calories come from?

2

It sounds about right, for the butter and milk. “Dry mix” means everything in the box. Of course when I make it I add a handful of extra cheddar and eat the whole thing, not just 1/3. That explains a lot about me.

3

I’m a die hard Blue Box fan, but I’m too old for the calories any more. Making it with just the milk cuts down the calories without hurting the taste, even to my honed pallet.

4

But the box stuff is so yuk, compared to a three cheese, sour cream & milk baked casserole of mac and cheese with the browned top, as our Grandmoms used to make.

Yeah, I know-it’s high calorie, high fat, and high taste. :wink:

5

Oh, I have no illusions about the fact that I’ll eat the whole box in one go :smiley: I was just stating the values they printed.

Really, all that extra calories come from butter and milk? I guess they’re more caloric than I though.

6

[QUOTE=ThirdCultureKid]
Really, all that extra calories come from butter and milk? I guess they’re more caloric than I though.
[/QUOTE]

Hie thee to a nutrition class, son. (Daughter?)

Butter* is* calories. About 100 of them in a Tablespoon. Milk can vary, of course, with higher fat milk having more calories.

Any macronutrient has a fixed number of Calories per gram. Carbohydrates have 4 Calories per gram - doesn’t matter where it comes from, if it’s a digestible carbohydrate (including sugar), it’s got 4 Calories per gram. Protein has 4 Calories per gram - chicken, fish, beans ‘n’ rice - whatever, 4 per gram of protein. Fat has 9 Calories per gram - nearly double the Calories in the same weight* of food!

One gram is about the weight of a pen cap, by the way.

So what does this mean? It means fat offers a lot of calories in very little space or weight of food. You can easily eat your daily caloric allotment in cheese or butter without filling your stomach to a satisfying volume. That’s why those of us with weight issues are urged to add low calorie dense foods like vegetables and whole grains which have lots of water weight and undigestible fiber to add bulk to our stomachs and make us feel fuller without eating more calories.

When I first started Weight Watchers, I spent a few days just tracking what I was already eating, to find out where I needed to make changes. (WW uses Points, which is a formula of Calories, fat and fiber, to track your dietary intake.) I decided to make a salad: 2 cups lettuce - 0 Points. Cool! 1 red bell pepper, sliced - 0 Points…nice. 6 baby carrots - 1 Point. Hmm…okay, I can live with that. 1 Roma tomato - 0 Points. Man, this WW thing is going to be a snap! 1/4 cup dried cranberries - 3 Points. 1/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese - 2 Points. 2 Tablespoons bleu cheese dressing - 5 POINTS?! Holy… Total: 11 POINTS!? I only (at that point) got 32 Points for the whole day! (11 Points is somewhere in the vicinity of 500 Calories, by the way.) And almost all from the cheese and the salad dressing (the Calorie dense dried cranberries didn’t help much.) I had always heard that salad dressing was the Calorie culprit, but I didn’t appreciate quite how much until I did it myself.
*To head off the nitpickers: okay, okay, MASS. But as he’s not going to be weighing his food on the moon, it’s the same damn thing for nutritional purposes!

7

[QUOTE=WhyNot]
When I first started Weight Watchers, I spent a few days just tracking what I was already eating, to find out where I needed to make changes. (WW uses Points, which is a formula of Calories, fat and fiber, to track your dietary intake.) I decided to make a salad: 2 cups lettuce - 0 Points. Cool! 1 red bell pepper, sliced - 0 Points…nice. 6 baby carrots - 1 Point. Hmm…okay, I can live with that. 1 Roma tomato - 0 Points. Man, this WW thing is going to be a snap! 1/4 cup dried cranberries - 3 Points. 1/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese - 2 Points. 2 Tablespoons bleu cheese dressing - 5 POINTS?! Holy… Total: 11 POINTS!? I only (at that point) got 32 Points for the whole day! (11 Points is somewhere in the vicinity of 500 Calories, by the way.) And almost all from the cheese and the salad dressing (the Calorie dense dried cranberries didn’t help much.) I had always heard that salad dressing was the Calorie culprit, but I didn’t appreciate quite how much until I did it myself.
[/QUOTE]

On the other hand, Vinegar = 0 points. Olive Oil = 2 points (and you’re supposed to have it anyway). Dried herbs and spices, salt & pepper = 0 points. You can shave off more than half the points in that bleu cheese dressing by making your own vinaigrette. Even better if you substitute bacon salt for the table salt…

8

[QUOTE=jayjay]
On the other hand, Vinegar = 0 points. Olive Oil = 2 points (and you’re supposed to have it anyway). Dried herbs and spices, salt & pepper = 0 points. You can shave off more than half the points in that bleu cheese dressing by making your own vinaigrette. Even better if you substitute bacon salt for the table salt…
[/QUOTE]

Yep. I’ve been pleasantly surprised at how much my diet hasn’t changed, and I’m losing weight. Little changes here and there really do add up, just like “they” say! Yesterday I even had a mashed potato bowl from KFC - used up almost half my Points to do it, but when I plan it, I can have it! Woo!

9

[QUOTE=WhyNot]
Yep. I’ve been pleasantly surprised at how much my diet hasn’t changed, and I’m losing weight. Little changes here and there really do add up, just like “they” say! Yesterday I even had a mashed potato bowl from KFC - used up almost half my Points to do it, but when I plan it, I can have it! Woo!
[/QUOTE]

Wouldn’t you have rather had the mashed potatoes? I mean, I know diets are all the rage and such, but eating the bowl?? :eek:

<ducking and running>

10

Mmmm, mashed potatoes shaped into a bowl and deep fried like a tosada.

And then filled with fried chicken.

Smothered in gravy.

:cool:

11

[QUOTE=DSYoungEsq]
Wouldn’t you have rather had the mashed potatoes? I mean, I know diets are all the rage and such, but eating the bowl?? :eek:

<ducking and running>
[/QUOTE]

Hey, fiber is my friend! :smiley:

(By the way, just after posting I figured out my Points for yesterday (I didn’t have my little checklist with me before) and I actually messed up - I didn’t eat all my daily Points because that yummy bowl (of mashed potatoes, fried chicken, corn, cheese and gravy) filled me up for almost the whole freakin’ day. I came up 9 Points short, which is a fairly big *oops *on the Plan. (If you don’t eat all your Daily Points on a regular basis, your metabolism gets slower in response.) But since I used 10 of my weekly Points late on Sunday, I’m hoping it all evened out.)

12

Thanks for all the replies! This is why I love this place, something as mundane as Mac and Cheese gets nice, concise answers :slight_smile:

WhyNot, I’ve taken one nutrition supplement in HS Chem, but we mainly burnt stuff in a Bomb Calorimetre. My whole idea of food is that there is “good” food, and “sinful” food (as categorised by my Mum). The former is normal food - sandwiches, salad, meat, veggies, potatoes, etc, and the latter is stuff like chips, ice cream, v.v. fatty cheese, hamburgers, and so on. In my household, we normally used margarine, so butter wasn’t used for much except baking. I guess my mind thought it could be placed in the “good” category. Thanks for fighting my ignorance.
And it’s “daughter” - maybe I should have been ThirdCultureGal?

On a side note, I was very depressed when I found out how many calories are in my beloved skim mocha. You can take away my chips, but I’ll be damned if you take away my coffee!

Pullet - damn you, now I’m hungry.