Addictions and Eating Disorders, Class on December 4, 2015

Joseph Dixon ♦ December 2, 2015 ♦ Leave a comment

Question Concerning the Exercise Assignment

Question:   Just wanted to ask you about the kcal content of favorite snacks part of the exercise assignment. When we put down our favorite snack is it ok if I use a decimal? For example, I chose 1 cup of popcorn as one of my snacks and thats about 64 calories but when you convert it to kcal you get 0.064.

Answer:
Thank you for your very important question.  The Nutrition Calorie is the Kilocalorie (Kcal).  If it wasn’t, then 1 cup of popcorn would be 0.064 Kcal as you say below.   How would it be possible that 1 cup of popcorn would provide less than one Kcal when your energy expenditure is something like 2000 Kcal?   If this were the case, you could eat 2000 cups of popcorn and still not reach your daily energy expenditure!   The ANSWER is that it is not possible, and in fact, the calories listed on the package are Kcal, and not calories (in small case). This is a very common misconception, and I am happy you brought it up!  Another student visited my office yesterday with the same question!