What are calories?

What's the main difference between caloriesand kilocalories?

"Current "calorie" we refer to in our food is actually the kilocalorie. One (1) kilocalorie is the equivalent of one (1) Calorie (uppercase C). Kilocalorie is the quantity of heat required to raise the temperature in one kilogram of water to one degree Celsius.

How is the caloric value of food calculated?

One could believe it's due to the way they contribute to weight gain, but it's not the case. But it's not the case.

Avery an excellent topic to discuss as a lot of people do have a good understanding on calories. First , it is important to understand that a calorie isn't a thing so it can't be full or empty. It is not possible to put calories into the bottle. A calorie is a unit of measure of energy. It is that amount needed to increase the temperature of an mL, (which is also one gram) from water one degree Celsius. If you truly want to be meticulous about specifics, you should consider the energy needed to raise it from 14.5 up to 15.5 degrees C. The word calorie was coined by the famous French chemist Antoine Lavoisier who used it to refer to the body's internal heat.

A food calorieis really a "kilocalorie." In other words , it's the amount of energy needed to increase the temperature of one liter of water by one degree. The original method of measuring the calorie amount of food item was measured by the form of a calorimeter. A certain amount of food that had had the water in it evaporated was put in a container with a specified size of liquid. The container was sealed oxygen piped in and the food was ignited. By the increase in temperature of the water and the food, the calorie content of the food was calculated.

There were problems, however with this kind approach to calorie determination. Food products can have components like fiber that be burned in a calorimeter, but aren't absorbed into bloodstream, and thus don't contribute calories. Today, manufacturers use an "Atwater indirect system" to calculate calories by adding up the calories from the energy-rich nutrients: carbohydrate, protein fat, alcohol, and protein. Since carbohydrates have fiber that isn't consumed and used in the human body this fiber component is usually taken out of the overall carbohydrate prior to being able to calculate the calories.

The Atwater system is based on the standard values of 4Kcal/g for protein, 4 Kcal/g to carbohydrate, 9 Kcal/g for fat and 7 Kcal/g of alcohol. They were calculated by burning these compounds in a calorimeter. (There may be some rounding off because simple sugars have a lower amount of calories and polysaccharides somewhat higher than the 4 Kcal/g). So the label on a 45 grams KitKat which contains 3 grams of protein(including 29 g in carbohydrate (22 grams of which are simple sugars) and 12 grams of fat would read 230 Calories.

A variety of interesting information emerges from such calculations. It is found that the caloriecontent in a doughnut, about 45 to 450 Kcal is calculated roughly the same as that of a dynamite stick. The difference , of course, is that the energy produced by dynamite is released immediately when ignited, while the doughnut releases its energy in the body slower. Therefore, you won't explode from a doughnut. But not literally.