Negative Calorie food are a Myth - Here's Why
Be Healthy: Diets are everywhere, but could eating
“negative calorie” foods, such as celery and grapefruit, help to boost weight
loss?
A calorie is a unit of energy, usually
expressed as kilocalories (kcal) for the energy content in food. The theory
behind negative calorie foods is that some foods have lower calorie (energy)
content than the amount of energy it takes to digest and absorb the food into
the body. This sounds plausible, in theory. But in reality, even the lowest
calorie foods, such as celery, contain more calories than it takes to break
down and absorb them in the body.
Our energy needs are made up of three
components:
The energy needed to maintain a body at
rest, which is the energy needed for our body to carry out its basic processes
so we can live.
The thermic effect of eating, which is
the increase in metabolic rate after eating, while food is digested and
absorbed.
Additional energy needed for activity and
exercise.
Of these, the thermic effect uses the
fewest calories – about 10 per cent of the energy we take in. In other words,
about a tenth of the calories we eat are used to process our food – this
includes chewing our food, moving it through the digestive system, absorbing
nutrients and storing excess energy.
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