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The calorie is a unit of energy that originated from the caloric theory of heat. [1] [2] The large calorie, food calorie, dietary calorie, or kilogram calorie is defined as the amount of heat needed to raise the temperature of one liter of water by one degree Celsius (or one kelvin).
Food energy is chemical energy that animals (including humans) derive from their food to sustain their metabolism, including their muscular activity. [ 1 ] Most animals derive most of their energy from aerobic respiration , namely combining the carbohydrates , fats , and proteins with oxygen from air or dissolved in water . [ 2 ]
The calorie is defined as the amount of thermal energy necessary to raise the temperature of one gram of water by 1 Celsius degree, from a temperature of 14.5 °C, at a pressure of 1 atm. For thermochemistry a calorie of 4.184 J is used, but other calories have also been defined, such as the International Steam Table calorie of 4.1868 J.
A nutritional Calorie is equivalent to a thousand chemical or thermodynamic calories (abbreviated "cal" with a lower case "c") or one kilocalorie (kcal). Because food energy is commonly measured in Calories, the energy density of food is commonly called "caloric density". [7]
Calories provide the energy needed to stay alive, but some foods pack in more "empty" calories, i.e. those that don't offer much nutritional value (think: highly processed, overly sugary, and ...
A kilocalorie is the equivalent of 1000 calories or one dietary Calorie, which contains 4184 joules of energy.The notion that "a calorie is a calorie" is related to the idea that weight maintenance is a result of equalizing calorie input and calorie output, [4] and may lead to the practice of calorie restriction.
Scientific analysis of food and nutrients began during the chemical revolution in the late 18th century. Chemists in the 18th and 19th centuries experimented with different elements and food sources to develop theories of nutrition. [1] Modern nutrition science began in the 1910s as individual micronutrients began to be identified.
Though calories are probably far from your mind when you're treating yourself to a fast food meal, many chains have become much more transparent about calorie counts. Do you know if Burger King's ...