Hey Devin! Question for you. I was creating my own sweet potato chips. I weighed the potato before I sliced it, and then again after I cooked and dehydrated them in my oven. What weight do I go by to determine the true calories of the snack? I didnt add excess calories to them. – Jessica L., Pittsburgh, PA
Great question Jessica!
When you dehydrate something, you’re really only extracting/losing water (and maybe some nutrients), so you use the original weight of the sweet potato to determine calories. I love this question because so many people mistake dried fruit to be good for you. And while it is not bad for your heart, it’s a huge concentration of sugars! One of those little dried apricot pieces you eat is the equivalent of ½ of an apricot. If you’re like me, you could eat handfuls of the dried apricots, but would never eat 10 (or more!) fresh ones! Sorry I don’t have better news for you. At least with veggies, there isn’t such a concentration of sugar!
Sweet Snacking!
Devin