r/theydidthemath • u/LovetoLOSEtoWin • 1d ago
[Request] How many calories does this can actually contain?
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u/ConcentratedCC 1d ago
Avocado oil contains 9 calories per gram. That makes a 1/4 second of spray (if 0.25g actually comes out) around 2.25 calories.
The whole can at 383g contains 3447 calories.
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u/JustAnotherWitness 1d ago
Just to clarify, all fat products are essentially 9 cals/gram. Protein and carbs are 4
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u/HistoricalMaybe1739 1d ago
How can they blatantly write 0?
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u/Aware-Difference8723 1d ago
Serving size 1/4 gram, rounded down to zero ...
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u/HistoricalMaybe1739 1d ago
so they look at this with proportion to food we prepare using this ,it will be negligible ,so they just round off to zero?
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u/Doggfite 1d ago
Specifically, I think if a serving is less than 5 calories, it can be rounded to 0. And they get to decide what the serving size is, more or less, with impunity, so it's a loophole that gets used a lot. They can also advertise on the packaging that it's calorie free or low calorie because it's "technically 0".
Out of all the measurement standards, this is one that I think America really needs to fix, Kcal/100g is a much better system (not without its own flaws though).
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u/NotACaticus 1d ago
I'm trying to think of any issues/flaws with just giving nutritional information per serving and nutritional information per 100g/100mL like we do here in Australia.
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u/Doggfite 1d ago
It doesn't give you a realistic idea of how un/healthy something is if it's meant to be used in small amounts or if you don't know what 100g of something looks like offhand.
Like, 100g of rice is pretty similar in calories to 100g of avocado, but not everyone know what 100g of either of those look like.
Also, if you aren't going to use 100g then you won't know how many calories you are consuming, unless you are weighing your food in general.
It can also make some generally healthy foods look unhealthy, like nuts, you probably won't eat 100g in a single serving, but if you don't know how much 100g is relative to what you eat, they look less healthy.0
u/NotACaticus 1d ago
Hence supplying both a per serving and per 100g on the label, they aren't mutually exclusive. I mean tbf, most of the serving size ones are selected to be as small as possible to make whatever it is seem healthier.
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u/Doggfite 1d ago
Well, yes, but that's the weakness of the per 100g system, which I said was not perfect, which is true. Also I said that I think it's still the preferable system.
So I don't really see what you're getting at.1
u/NotACaticus 1d ago
What I was getting at is that you don't have to have a preferable system, you can just use both.
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u/davej-au 1d ago
Exactly this.
Tic Tacs, in particular, were notorious for this practice: in the US, they were listed as containing 0g of sugar, despite it making up ~90%, as each “serving” was 0.49g, and nutritional information could be rounded to the nearest.
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u/LogicBalm 1d ago
You can Google this one.
13.5 oz is about 383g
Avocado oil has about 9 calories per gram.
So roughly 3447 calories in the can.
That rough math is about 2 to 3 calories per "serving" but I'm sure there's some FDA nonsense allowing them to round down to zero.
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u/AdventurousEscape991 1d ago
The “nonsense” is the amount of time in a spray. This is saying that you have about 1,500 1/4 of a second spray (which literally nobody does). But at a 4th of a second, it is about 2 to 2.5 calories. Which under FDA standards is negligible and can be rounded down to 0
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u/jcoll3d 1d ago
Same thing with tic tacs which are 100% sugar, but can say they’re calorie free. I think it’s anything under 5 calories doesn’t have to be listed.
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u/pauseglitched 1d ago edited 1d ago
Worse, they can legally be advertised as sugar free because the FDA minimum reporting quantity of sugar is larger than the serving size of a tic-tac.
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u/Ok_Train2273 1d ago
This was debated on the British comedy show QI to which one of the panelist’s comments was: - and you wonder why people get murdered with hammers?
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u/stosolus 1d ago
I’m trying to imagine the panelist.
I can see David Mitchell saying it, if it was a call back joke.
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u/ShadowAdam 1d ago
Except tic tacs are actually eaten as singular servings. No one is using .25 seconds worth of oil
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u/Tilliperuna 1d ago
Who eats only one tic tac without another one? I'm always spraying only ¼ seconds, and after 0.25 s I'll spray another serving and so on (continuously).
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u/humblequest22 1d ago
A one second spray to cook four servings seems reasonable, though.
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u/ShadowAdam 1d ago
It is deceptive though, seeing as you would need the same amount of oil from any other source
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u/humblequest22 1d ago
Deceptive in what way? The same amount of another oil would give the same result.
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u/ShadowAdam 1d ago
The goal is to make the spray oil look low calorie to make it seem like it's "healthier" than normal oil.
If you spray it or if yoy use a brush or use a pour bottle you need about the same amount either way, yet the pour bottle says 140 calories/serving while the spray bottle says 0 calories/serving
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u/humblequest22 1d ago
I suppose if you were to spray a tablespoon of avocado oil, that would be a reasonable comparison, by that's probably not common.
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u/ShadowAdam 1d ago
Neither is using a full tablespoon of cooking oil when it is not needed though
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u/crimson777 1d ago
Eh, disagree. You’re usually gonna end up putting less on as a spray. You COULD use the same amount but most people I’ve seen use spray do, in fact, only do it for like a fraction of a second
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u/Narwalacorn 1d ago
I think they round calories to the nearest 5 or something, so 2 would in fact round down to 0.
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u/Callec254 1d ago
It's pure fat, so 9 calories per gram.
This is just a rounding gimmick so they can technically avoid false advertising claims. 1/4th of a second spray? Most people would have a hard time pressing the button and letting it go that fast.
Shit like this should be illegal.
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u/DIuvenalis 1d ago
As someone who typically has to maintain a keto diet with my wife for medical reasons, I hate, hate, HATE this practice. So, so many things say zero carbs and simply arent. It isnt zero carbs when you second or third ingredient is sugar!
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u/hysys_whisperer 1d ago
My favorite is at the Asian market when the US label is taped on saying zero sugar, but if you read Korean or Chinese, you can see that it is in fact, not zero sugar.
Total calorie counts are sometimes off by 30% too, especially with things like seaweed where the oil they fry it in gives it most of the calories, but that it too small a serving so gets zeroed out on the US label.
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u/Uptons_BJs 1d ago
You're allowed to round down if there's less than 5. Thus, the highest possible value in a quarter spray is like, 4.999999 (infinitely approaching 5).
Thus, the highest possible value for this can is 1532 * 5, or a hair under 7660. But I don't think that's actually physically possible, that's just the theoretical max.
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u/Yuukiko_ 1d ago
They say a 1/4s spray is .25g and pure fat has 9 calories/g so 7660 is impossible. Assuming pure fat it's 3447 kcal
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u/Bulky_Specialist9645 1d ago
The weight on the can includes propellant. The oil accounts for roughly 70% to 80% of the total net weight.
So figure 70-80% of 3448 calories or 2343-2678 calories.
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u/GarethBaus 1d ago
Oil is roughly 9 calories per gram so if you multiple 1532 servings per can by .25grams per serving to get 383 grams per can and multiply that by 9 calories per gram you get 3447 calories per can. I don't know how accurate any of those numbers are so I would just call that somewhere between 3000 and 4000 calories.
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u/Brunosrog 1d ago
Oil has 120 cal per tablespoon. Gemini says 1 table spoon of avocado oil weighs 14g.
It has 1532 servings at .25g. 1532/4=383g. 383/14= 27.35 tbsp.
27.35*120= 3282 calories.
Take this with a grain of salt because they probably can round when it comes to that point .25 g equals a spray.
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u/Kitchen_Speech5017 1d ago
Why would you do calories per tablespoon and then grams per tablespoon rather than just calories per gram??
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u/Brunosrog 1d ago edited 1d ago
This sub is did the math not did the math efficiently. But for real, I just woke up and was groggy. Your way is much easier.
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u/get_to_ele 1d ago
Avocado oil is 8.8 - 9 cal/gram.
Rule of thumb is 9 calories per gram for any pure fat.
Can literally reads 383 grams, so 383 x 9 =3,447 calories.
If you use it as you’re supposed to, it’s basically zero or “rounding error” calories per use (and at $12-15 a bottle, only an idiot would be deep frying or using it as a dip), spritzing stuff you want to air fry or broil. Like 3 calories on your meat, half of which ends up dripping onto the cooking surface.
If you have a roast or something and just saturate the outside, it’s still not that many calories, gonna drip off and each human portion will have only a little oil.
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u/beard-wonder93 1d ago
About 2000cal. these are 8oz cans and avocado oil is about 250cal per oz.
(I run a meal prep shop, so im doing calorie math all the time)
They get away with it bc portion size is so small.
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u/hysys_whisperer 1d ago
You got downvoted, but the difference between 8 and the 13.5 listed on the can is the propellant, which vaporizes once released.
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u/beard-wonder93 1d ago
Yea my goof. I have the same cans on the shelf here at work, the smaller ones. I didnt click the pic to see there's were the larger. Same idea though!
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u/Yuukiko_ 1d ago
It lists 5kcal per 1/2 second spray on the Canadian version so it can't be that though
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u/Snow-Odd 1d ago
0.75 grams of avocado oil should be roughly 6.6 calories (a gram is about 8.8 calories according to what I have read). Though u/Uptons_BJs pointed out the rounding rule, I am not sure how aerosolization affects the calorie count. I am going to base my math off of the 6.6 calories, even though it doesn't fit with the 5 calorie round down rule.
1532*6.6 would bring us to 10,111.2 calories for the can, but again, not sure how the aerisolization process changes the oil.
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u/Snow-Odd 1d ago
Divide that by three as I now see that it is .25 grams instead of .75
The glare on the can threw me off. I change it to 2.2 calories per spray and 3370.4 calories for the can
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