The health of an organism it is maintained through nutrition and, in particular, thanks to dietary principles that food supplies to the body and which are necessary to obtain the energy essential for vital functions, to build and renew cells and to regulate and maintain metabolism.
The unit of measurement of this energy, necessary for the body to perform all its functions is, in fact, la kilocaloria. Let's find out more about its meaning.
What are calories
In 1850, the British physicist James Prescott Joule he defined the concept of calorie thanks to his experiment, known as the “Joule whirl”. The concept of calorie varies slightly depending on the field in which it is considered, but in biology, a Calorie is defined (or already properly kcal, kilocalorie) the energy needed to raise the temperature of a kg of distilled water placed at sea level by 1 ° C.
In nutrition, kcal is used for indicate the average energy intake of a food in relation to the unit of mass expressed in g.
It is possible to calculate the average energy intake of each food based on the calorie intake of carbohydrates, proteins and lipids. Particularly:
- 1 g of carbohydrates develops 3,8 kcal,
- 1 g in protein 4 kcal
- 1 g of lipids 9,3 kcal.
Discover also the Lipetz diet: a diet that separates the good calories from the bad ones
Foods with fewer calories
Among the foods with less calories, they are in first place water (0 kcal) and salt (0 kcal). Followed by:
- Infusion of chamomile 1 kcal
- Te 1 kcal
- Chicory of field 10 kcal
- escarole 11 kcal
- Bamboo shoots 11 kcal
- lemons 11 kcal
- Cucumbers, without peel 12 kcal
- radicchio green 13 kcal
- Soncino 14 kcal
Our guides
The guides in this section provide information on calories from the most common natural foods between fruit, vegetables, legumes, cereals and oil seeds. Accompanied by information on the composition and nutritional values, they also provide useful information on the properties of food.
