Timeline for How are the calories in food calculated?
Current License: CC BY-SA 2.5
8 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Feb 2, 2011 at 23:11 | comment | added | user68 | Please don't mix getting energy with detoxication -- liver will oxidate ethanol, bit this is to inactivate it not to gather energy (in fact the whole process will consume more energy than produce). | |
| Jan 20, 2011 at 17:21 | comment | added | Luboš Motl | Oh, @gigacyan, so if it is not taken into account, it still means that I (or an average person) won't be able to climb Mt Everest on the same number of calories - but the needed calories will still depend on the type of food? That sucks. | |
| Jan 20, 2011 at 7:57 | comment | added | gigacyan | @Luboš: both ways you get $CO_2$ and water as products so it is a valid assumption. Of course, some energy will be wasted, the efficiency of Krebs cycle (in which major part of energy conversion takes place) is around 60%. I also believe that sugar is digested more efficiently than fat but I doubt that these factors are taken into account when food energy is calculated. | |
| Jan 20, 2011 at 5:53 | comment | added | Mark Eichenlaub | @Joe I think that depends on where you live. | |
| Jan 19, 2011 at 17:34 | comment | added | Joe | 'Calorie' for food is case sensitive -- uppercase C; 1 Calorie = 1000 calorie = 1 kilocalorie | |
| Jan 19, 2011 at 13:44 | comment | added | Luboš Motl | Oh, I see. So it is assumed that the human body does burn all of fat just like the calorimeter does, thanks! +1. | |
| Jan 19, 2011 at 13:13 | comment | added | Georg | The calories of the digestable parts (eg the named 9 kcal/g of fat) come from calorimetry. Measured heats of combustion for all "basic" chemicals are listed since about 100 years. | |
| Jan 19, 2011 at 10:53 | history | answered | Luboš Motl | CC BY-SA 2.5 |