ZOE Science & Nutrition The great calorie deception: Are food labels misleading?
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Aug 24, 2023 
In a riveting discussion, Dr. Sarah Berry, a nutrition and food science expert, dives into the mysteries of calorie counting and food labels. She challenges the effectiveness of traditional calorie measurements, revealing that they often misrepresent energy absorption in the body. Highlights include the surprising inaccuracies in calorie content, particularly with nuts, where processing drastically alters nutrient availability. Dr. Berry advocates for a personalized approach to nutrition, urging listeners to rethink how they understand food energy.
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Calories Defined
- A calorie measures food energy, quantifying how much energy a food provides.
- It's the energy needed to raise one liter of water by one degree Celsius.
Atwater's Calorie Studies
- Wilbur Atwater used a bomb calorimeter to measure food energy and human waste.
- This 20-year study calculated available calories by analyzing the difference.
Atwater Factors
- Atwater factors (9 for fat, 4 for carbs/protein) estimate calorie content.
- Food labels use these factors, but they don't account for digestion variations.