Everything about Food Energy totally explained
Food energy is the amount of
energy in food that's available through
digestion. The values for food energy are expressed in kilocalories (kcal) and kilojoules (kJ).
One food
Calorie (1 kcal or 1,000 calories) is the amount of digestively available food energy (heat) that will raise the temperature of one kilogram of water one degree Celsius. Some advocate the convention of the capitalizing the
C in these so that one Calorie is equal to 1000 lowercase calories, but that convention isn't generally followed. The large Calorie is sometimes abbreviated kcal, to indicate clearly that's 1000 times as large as the small calorie formerly common in chemistry and physics usage. Consequently, the prefix kilo- isn't used with large Calories. Food calories are also more specifically called
kilocalories on the basis of the small calorie usage. This term, which makes it clear that large calories are intended, is widely used by professional nutritionists when speaking in terms of calories rather than joules, but the term
kilocalorie for the large calorie is less often used by laypersons.
The
International System of Units unit
kilojoule (kJ) is becoming more common and is the unit officially recommended by the
World Health Organization and other international organizations. In some countries (Australia, for example) only the kilojoule is normally used. Some types of food contain more food energy per gram than others:
fats and
ethanol have particularly high values for food
energy density: 9 and 7 kcal/g, respectively. Sugars and
proteins have about 4 kcal/g. One (small) calorie is approximately equal to 4.1868
joules. One kcal is 4.1868 kJ.
Each food item has a specific metabolizable energy intake (MEI). For a normal human this value is obtained by multiplying the number of kilocalories or kilojoules contained in a food item by 85%, which is the amount of energy actually obtained by a human after the digestive processes have been completed.
Measuring food energy
The following process details how to measure food energy, as specified by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) in the early 1900s:
The particular food being measured must be burned in a
calorimeter, so that the
heat released from the food can be accurately measured. This amount is used to ascertain the G.E.V. of the specified food. This number is then multiplied by, usually, 85%; which represents the loss happening during human digestion.
Food labels
The "calorie" has become a common household term because
dietitians recommend in cases of
obesity to reduce body weight by increasing exercise (energy expenditure) and reducing energy intake. Many governments require food manufacturers to label the energy content of their products, to help consumers control their energy intake. In
Europe, manufacturers of prepackaged food must label the nutritional energy of their products in both kilocalories ("kcal") and kilojoules ("kJ"). In the
United States, the equivalent mandatory labels display only "Calories", often as a substitute for the name of the quantity being measured, food energy; an additional kilojoules figure is optional and is rarely used. The energy content of food is usually given on labels for 100 g and/or for what the manufacturer claims is a typical serving size.
The amount of food energy in a particular food could be measured by completely burning the dried food in a
bomb calorimeter, a method known as direct
calorimetry. However, the values given on food labels are not determined this way, because it overestimates the amount of energy that the human digestive system can extract, by also burning
dietary fiber. Moreover, not all food energy eaten is actually resorbed by the body (fecal and urinal losses). Instead, standardized chemical tests or an analysis of the recipe using reference tables for common ingredients are used to estimate the product's digestible constituents (
protein,
carbohydrate,
fat, etc.). These results are then converted into an equivalent energy value based on a standardized table of energy densities:
Other substances found in food (water, non-digestible fibre, minerals, vitamins) don't contribute to this calculated energy density.
Recommended daily energy intake values for young adults are: 2500 kcal/
d (10 MJ/d, 2.8 kWh) for men and 2000 kcal/d (8 MJ/d, 2.3 kWh) for women (cf for conversions). Children, sedentary and older people require less energy, physically active people more.
Energy usage in the human body
Energy intake to the body that isn't used up is mostly stored as fat in the
fat tissue. Consider the following theoretical calculation: About 3,500 kcal are contained in 1 pound of fat. If you eat 3,500 kcal more than your body needs, you'll put on about 1 pound of fat. If you burn 3,500 kcal more than you eat, you'll lose about 1 pound of fat. This assumes that all the weight gained and lost is in the form of fat. In reality, muscle and organ mass will change as well.
Similarly, the exact conversion efficiency of food energy into physical
power also depends on the exact form of energy source (type of food) and on the type of physical energy usage (for example which muscles are used, whether the muscle is used
aerobically or
anaerobically). In general, the efficiency of muscles is rather low, and roughly speaking, only about 15% of the food energy is actually converted into mechanical energy. For example, gym equipment manufacturers multiply the value of physical power (for example 150
watts on an exercise bike) by a factor of 8 when converting into "calories" (by which they mean large calories of food energy, for example 17 kcal/min which is 150 W × 8 = 1200 W).
Further Information
Get more info on 'Food Energy'.
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