Calorie Count: What is it?

Title: Calorie Count: What is it?
Date: 6 October 2011
Category: Outside of Class

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             We consume food every day, gradually increasing our calorie intake in a day. More and more people are becoming obsessed with the idea of eating a “well-being” diet (especially in Korea) which causes them to control the amount of calories of consumption per day. Yet is this method effective? Why are calories often viewed upon as being negative? What do calories really represent? [Wonderings]

            Through media, we’re able to see food products being marketed with phrases similar to either “reduced fat” or “no extra sugar added”. This way of advertising is misleading as it doesn’t state by how much the calorie or fat is reduced [Connection to vagueness] However, once we look at the information regarding its nutrients, the number usually appears to be around 100. How can one determine what is considered as high or low calorie foods? Who decides this standard and how did they decide? How do we know if the number of calories truly represents the amount of energy in the food? How do the nutritionists derive the calorie number? [Knowledge Issues]  Is the calorie simply the sum of the individual ingredients relative to the amount of the ingredient used? [Connection to reductionism] Does the calorie consumption give the same amount of energy to all types of people – young, old, male, female? How can we test this? [Wonderings]

            The number of calorie in the product is calculated through the conversion 1 calorie = 4.184 joules. This is standardized. However, who decided this conversion rate? How did the scientists measure the number of calorie and the number of joules to formulate this conversion? Is it reliable? Can we assume that they did not make any mistakes in their calculations, observations or experiments? If numbering a human-made concept, what does the number of calories represent in the non-human-made world? [Knowledge Issues]