Need to know: CALORIES

Key to the Calories

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Definition to learn:

CALORIE; symbol C.; a heat unit and food value unit; is that amount of heat necessary to raise one pound of water 4 degrees Fahrenheit.

Pronounced Kal'-o-ri

There is a good deal of effort expended by many semi-educated individuals to discredit the knowledge of calories, saying that it is a foolish food science, a fallacy, a fetish, and so forth.

They reason, or rather say, that because there are no calories in some of the very vital elements of foods—the vitamines and the mineral salts—therefore it is not necessary to know about them. They further argue that their grandfathers never heard of calories and they got along all right. That grandfather argument always enrages my mortal mind.

A Unit of Measure

Now you know that a calorie is a unit of measuring heat and food. It is not heat, not food; simply a unit of measure. And as food is of supreme importance, certainly a knowledge of how it should be measured is also of supreme importance.

Yes, They Are Kosher

You should know and also use the word calorie as frequently, or more frequently, than you use the words foot, yard, quart, gallon, and so forth, as measures of length and of liquids. Hereafter you are going to eat calories of food. Instead of saying one slice of bread, or a piece of pie, you will say 100 Calories of bread, 350 Calories of pie.

The following is the way the calorie is determined:

An apparatus known as the bomb calorimeter has two chambers, the inner, which contains the dry food to be burned, say a definite amount of sugar, and an outer, which is filled with water. The food is ignited with an electric connection and burned. This heat is transferred to the water. When one pound of water is raised 4 degrees Fahrenheit, the amount of heat used is arbitrarily chosen as the unit of heat, and is called the Calorie.

Food burned (oxydized) in the body has been proved to give off approximately the same amount of heat or energy as when burned in the calorimeter.

Approximate Measures

1 oz. Fat	= 275 C.
	—about 255 in the body.
1 oz. Protein (dry)	= 120 C.
	—about 113 in the body.
1 oz. Carbohydrates (dry)	= 120 C.
	—about 113 in the body.
	(ROSE.)

Can you see now why fats are valuable? Why they make fat more than any other food? They give off more than two and one-fourth times as much heat, or energy, as the other foods.

See Next Chapter for Definitions

Notice that protein and carbohydrates have the same food value as to heat or energy, each 113 Calories to the dry ounce. However, they are not interchangeable; that is, carbohydrates will not take the place of protein for protein is absolutely necessary to build and repair tissue, and carbohydrates cannot do that. But fats and carbohydrates are interchangeable as fuel or energy foods.

Calories Needed per Day for Normal Individuals

Business of Growing

This depends upon age, weight, and physical activities; the baby and the growing child needing many more calories per pound per day than the adult, who has to supply only his energy and repair needs. The aged require still less than the young adult. As to weight; I have told you why overweight individuals need so little. As to physical activities; the more active, obviously the more calories needed, for every movement consumes calories.

Many Know Nothing of This

The Maine lumbermen, for instance, while working during the winter months, consume from 5000 to 8000 Calories per day. But they do a tremendous amount of physical work.

Mental work does not require added nourishment. This has been proved, and if an excess be taken over what is needed at rest (if considerable exercise is not taken while doing the mental work) the work is not so well done.

Calories Required for Normal

	Per pound
	per day
Infants require	40-50 C.
Growing Children	30-40 C.
Adults (depending upon activity)	15-20 C.
Old age requires	15 or less C.

In Round Numbers for the Day

Child 2-6	1000 to 1600 C. per day
Child 6-12	1600 to 2500 C. per day
Youth 12-18	2500 to 3000 C. per day

Growth Demands

(Remember that in general the boy needs as much as his father, and the girl as much as her mother.)

MAN (per day):
At rest	1800 to 2000 C.
Sedentary	2200 to 2800 C.
Working	3500 to 4000 C.
WOMAN (per day):
At rest	1600 to 1800 C.
Sedentary occupations (bookkeeper, etc.)	2000 to 2200 C.
Occupations involving standing, walking, or
manual labor (general housekeeping, etc.)	2200 to 2500 C.
Occupations requiring strength (laundress, etc.)	2500 to 3000 C.
	(ROSE.) By Lulu Hunt Peters, A.B., M.D.