3min chapter

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Calories: How to fuel a human

The Forum

CHAPTER

The Atwater General Factors

Adrian Atwater came up with what we now call the Atwater General Factors. He used a bomb calorimeter to determine how much calories were in typical American foods. Then he fed these foods to human beings and then burnt their poo. And so now, now he knew how much went in the top end. He knew how much came out the bottom end. So all the calories we see everywhere in a packaging and menus are pretty much based on his Atwater General factors.

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