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Throughout our lives, we accept many claims as facts without ever questioning them. However, upon careful examination, these claims may turn out to be more akin to folklore. One such claim is that the calorie content of food is relevant to our body’s energy management systems, i.e., metabolism, as well as weight regulation. 🧐
What is a Calorie?
A calorie is a unit of heat that determines how much heat is needed to raise the temperature of one gram of water by one degree Celsius. When talking about food, we usually refer to kilocalories, which means the amount of heat needed to raise the temperature of one kilogram of water by one degree Celsius. This concept was first applied to food in the United States by Wilbur O. Atwater in 1887, who learned it from German researchers.
Calories and Fuel
Interestingly, the use of calories to measure the energy or heat content of food was based on methods used to analyze fuels. Fuels are burned or exploded to generate mechanical energy, such as how car engines work. However, this method was not validated for foods; it was merely assumed that this measurement of heat would correlate with our body’s reaction to eating.
Determining Calories
The thermal calorie as a unit of heat was only fully defined in the 20th century. However, American nutritional guidelines had already been using calories earlier, without a scientific basis since there was no accepted definition.
How is the calorie content of food determined? The process involves completely dehydrating the food and placing it in a device called a food calorimeter. This is a closed device. The food is burned in a high-oxygen environment, and the increase in water temperature determines the calorie content of the food.
For example, if we burn popcorn, we can measure the heat produced and determine the calories. However, unlike fuels that burn in car engines, food does not burn in our stomachs. Instead, there is something called diet-induced thermogenesis, which refers to the increase in our body’s heat production after eating.
Diet-Induced Thermogenesis
Diet-induced thermogenesis is not directly related to the calorie content of the food. Instead, the time of day (morning, noon, evening) and the composition of the food affect the amount of heat produced by the body. This lack of correlation explains why calorie recommendations do not always achieve the desired results.
Where Does Our Energy Come From?
If calories are not directly converted into energy, where does our body’s energy come from? One of the largest energy consumers in our physiology is the resting membrane potential, which is the voltage across the cell membrane. This voltage is critical for cell function and health. The widely accepted theory is that the sodium-potassium pump, which exchanges sodium and potassium ions across the cell membrane, maintains this voltage using ATP generated from food.
The Discovery of Structured Water
However, biologist Gilbert Ling debunked this theory. He showed that typical cells do not produce enough ATP to maintain this voltage and perform other functions. This led to the discovery of another energy source, which is structured water.
Gerald Pollack discovered that water has unique properties and can form a fourth phase known as structured or EZ water. This water, when next to hydrophilic structures in our bodies and exposed to infrared light, can create voltage. Pollack’s experiments showed that this process could establish voltage without ATP or sodium-potassium pumps.
Sunlight as an Energy Source
It seems that at least some of our body’s energy comes from sunlight, particularly the infrared spectrum. This challenges the assumption that food is our primary energy source and suggests that sunlight plays a significant role in biological processes.
Summary
In summary, today we have debunked the relationship between food calories and our body’s energy use. The concept of food calories was based on assumptions, and later research found no direct correlation between calories and our body’s heat production after eating. Additionally, it appears that biological processes in our bodies are at least partially driven by sunlight, particularly the infrared spectrum.
Thank you for joining us today. We hope this discussion has given you new insights into how our bodies manage energy and the role of food and sunlight. 🌞🌿
Post credit: Andrew Kaufman. His full video about the topic:
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