What are calories?

Which is more important? caloriesand kilocalories?

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

How do you determine determined the caloric value of food determined?

One could think that it's through the observation of how they lead to weight gain. However, it's not so. But it's not the case.

Avery important question to address because many people do not have a solid understanding the concept of calories. First , the term calorie is not a thing and therefore cannot be full or empty. You cannot put calories into the bottle. An calorie is a energy measurement. Particularly, it's how much energy that is needed to increase the temperature of an mL, (which is also one grams) in water, by one degree Celsius. If you're really determined to remain a snob about details, consider the amount of energy required to raise temperatures from 14.5 in 15.5 degrees C. The term calorie was originally coined by the great French chemist Antoine Lavoisier who used it to describe heating the internal temperature of your body.

A food calorieis actually an actual "kilocalorie." In other terms, it's the amount of energy needed to increase the temperature of one Liter of water by one degree. Originally, the calorie content of food was measured in the form of a calorimeter. A food item that was known to have calories that was able to have their water content evaporated was placed into a vessel that was surrounded by a certain size of liquid. The container was sealed, oxygen piped in, and the food ignited. The temperature rose of the water and the food, the calorie content of the food item was calculated.

There are some problems in this method process of calorie determination. Food products can have components such as fiber which be burned in a calorimeter, but are not absorbed into the bloodstream and do not contribute calories. Today, manufacturers use"the "Atwater indirect system" to calculate calories by adding up the calories provided by the energy-containing nutrients: protein, carbohydrate, fat and alcohol. Because carbohydrates contain some fiber that is not consumed and used to the extent required by our bodies, this fiber component is usually added to the amount of carbohydrates before being able to calculate the calories.

The Atwater system employs the standard values of 4Kcal/g for protein, 4 Kcal/g of carbohydrate, 9 Kcal/g for fat and 7 kcal/g for alcohol that were determined by burning these elements in a calorimeter. (There are some rounds, as simple sugars offer less and polysaccharides slightly more than 4 Kcal/g). Thus , the label on 45 gram KitKat that has 3 grams of protein(including 29 g of carbohydrate (22 grams, of which 22 grams comprise simple sugars) and 12 g of fat will read 230 Calories.

A few interesting facts emerge from such studies. A caloriecontent from doughnuts, around 450 Kcal is found to be similar to that of a dynamite stick. The difference of course is that the energy of dynamite is released instantly when it is ignited, whereas the doughnut releases the energy in the body more slowly. Therefore, you won't explode from the doughnut. In fact, not at all.