What are calories?

How can you tell the distinction between caloriesand kilocalories?

The "calorie" we refer to in our food is actually the Kilocalorie. One (1) Kilocalorie is the same as an (1) Calorie (uppercase C). Kilocalories are the amount of heat needed to increase the temperature of one kilogram of water by one degree Celsius.

How is how is the caloric value of food calculated?

One could think that it's due to the way they contribute to weight gain, but that's not the case. Nope.

Avery an excellent topic to discuss because most people do not understand the concept of calories. First off, an calorie isn't a thing that is able to be filled or empty. You cannot put calories into a bottle. One calorie is a energy measurement. It is an amount that is required to raise the temperature of one mL, (which is also one grams), or water to one degree Celsius. If you really want to be a stickler for precision, this is the energy needed to raise it from 14.5 up to 15.5 to 15.5 degrees C. The word calorie was actually coined by the famous French chemical engineer Antoine Lavoisier who used it to refer to our body's thermal energy.

A food calorieis in reality an actual "kilocalorie." In other words , it's the amount of energy needed to increase the temperature of one liter of water by one degree. In the beginning, the calorie amount of food item was measured by a calorimeter. A known amount of food, which has had their water content evaporated, was put in a container that was surrounded by a certain volume of water. The container was then sealed, oxygen was piped into it and the food was ignited. The temperature rose of the water then the calorie content of the food items was calculated.

There are some problems with this kind process of calorie determination. Food can contain ingredients such as fiber that be burned by a calorimeter but don't get absorbed into bloodstream and therefore are not able to contribute calories. Nowadays, food producers employ"the "Atwater indirect system" to calculate calories by adding the calories that are provided by energy-rich nutrients: protein, carbohydrate fat, alcohol, and protein. Since carbohydrates have fiber that isn't taken in and utilized by the body, this fiber is typically subtracted from the total carbohydrate prior to being able to calculate the calories.

The Atwater system employs the average values of 4 Kcal/g for protein, 4 Kcal/g to carbohydrate and 9 Kcal/g to describe fat, and 7 Kcal/g for alcohol. The values were determined by burning the substances with the calorimeter. (There there is some rounding off because simple sugars contain less as well as polysaccharides higher then 4 Kcal/g). Therefore, the label on a 45 grams KitKat which contains 3 grams of proteinand 29 grams of carbohydrates (22 grams, of which 22 grams comprise simple sugars) and 12 grams of fat is 230 Calories.

A variety of interesting information emerges from such analyses. It is found that the caloriecontent in doughnuts of around 350 Kcal is found roughly the same as that of a dynamite stick. The difference , of course, is that the energy from the dynamite is released instantly when it is ignited, whereas the doughnut releases its energy content within the body in a slower manner. So you don't blow up from the doughnut. It's not true.