An article in the New Scientist (15 July 2009) “The Calorie Delusion: Why Food Labels are Wrong” says that according to a small band of researchers, using the information on food labels to estimate calorie intake could be a very bad idea. They argue that calorie estimates on food labels are based on flawed and outdated science, and provide misleading information on how much energy your body will actually get from a food. Some food labels may over or underestimate this figure by as much as 25 per cent, enough to foil any diet, and over time even lead to obesity.

The problem appears to be based on the method used to calculate calories – burning small samples of food in controlled conditions and measuring the amount of energy released in the form of heat – whereas our bodies don’t incinerate food, they digest it and digestion – from chewing food to moving it through the gut and chemically breaking it down along the way – takes a different amount of energy for different foods.

Read the full article in the New Scientist

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