How Is the Energy in Food Measured?
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Calories
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A calorie is a measurement of the amount of energy in any food. Every person needs calories to survive. The amount of calories differs based on the type of food, portion size, and fat content.
How Many Calories Are In This?
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There is a mathematical equation that can help a person determine how many calories are in the food being consumed. Every gram of carbohydrate has four calories, every gram of protein has four calories, and every gram of fat has nine calories. You multiply the grams of carbohydrates by four, multiply the grams of protein by four, and multiply the fat grams by nine. Add these numbers together to get the total number of calories.
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Counting Calories
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Although everyone needs calories to survive, consuming too many calories can be unhealthy. A person uses energy, also known as burning calories, every time that he or she performs any action. However, if you consume more calories than you use, the body continues to store them. As the body stores more and more unused calories, a person will gain weight.
Bad Calories
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Aside from consuming too many calories, ingesting too many empty and fat calories can be very bad for a person's health. Empty calories are often found in deep-fried foods, refined foods, and alcoholic beverages. They are food and drinks that are high in calories, but contain no real nutritional value. Basically, they will make a person feel less hungry but not provide with body with any real nutrients that can be used.
Meanwhile, fat calories are the ones that the body tends to store for later use. It will use other types of calories first such as protein, carbohydrate and use fat calories last. Because fat calories have a high concentration of energy, the body naturally wants to save these and use the lesser concentrations of energy.
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