How do they arrive at the number of calories in a specific food item. How is it measured . Can we do it ?
- posted
15 years ago
Calories
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- posted
15 years ago
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- posted
15 years ago
It is done by building a list of the calorific value of the ingredients and calculating their sum. The calorific values per weight of standard ingredients is (sugar, oil etc) is known. These were derived from measurements where the substance was burned under controlled conditions to measure the heat produced per unit of weight.
Yes you can do it by getting a calory counter book which has tables of basic substances and of some prepared foods and tediously weighing each component of your meal and doing the sums.
David
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- posted
15 years ago
Yes. Calories determined strictly by combustion would not be as accurate because stuff like fiber that burns would not be digested in the human body:
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