Childhood obesity on rise in US; parents deny problem. "84 percent of the polled parents rated their children as fit, healthy or normal, while that fact was that they were obese."
Fifty-seven percent said they considered themselves overweight, with 8 percent saying they were obese. In reality 33 percent were overweight and 34 percent obese, according to the data.
"The naked truth is always better than the best dressed lie." A. Landers
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When I was in Germany I saw very few overweight folks. Everyday the vast majority of Germans walk, or ride bicycles to commute to wherever they are going. After work they buy fresh foods from the small markets that are scattered throughout towns and villages or pick there own berries and such at one of the many farms close to town. They do not have large food stores with lots of processed foods. The shop daily for they what they need for the day. They do enjoy their beer too, but it's made under the German beer laws which state only, hops, malts, barley and yeast can be used along with water, no preservatives or other substances can be added. Maybe the States could learn something from that culture........;)
Calorie science. Like other forms of energy, food energy is expressed in calories or joules. Some countries use the food calorie, which is equal to 1 kilocalorie (kcal), or 1,000 calories. In the context of nutrition, and especially food labeling, the calories are large calories approximately equal to 4.1868 kilojoules (kJ).
Food energy is the amount of energy obtained from food that is available through cellular respiration. Cellular respiration is one of the key ways cells gain energy. It is a set of metabolic reactions and processes that convert biochemical energy to ATP.
Fiber, fats, proteins, organic acids, polyols, and ethanol all release energy during cellular respiration. When the food providing the fuel, reacts with oxygen in the cells, energy is released. All foods are made up of a combination of these six nutrients, and some non-caloric nutrients as well, such as water, vitamins, minerals, caffeine, spices, and natural flavors. Tea and coffee cannot be respired to release calories without sugar or milk added. Nutritionists usually talk about the number of calories in a gram of a nutrient, but this implies that the food actually “contains” energy, which is false. A gram of food is associated with a particular amount of energy which is released during the process of cellular respiration.
Fats and ethanol have the greatest “food energy density” per gram, 9 and 7 kcal/g. Proteins and most carbs have about 4kcal/g. Polyols, including sugar alcohols and organic acids have less than 4 kcal/g.
Each food item has a specific metabolizable energy intake. This value can be obtained by multiplying the total amount of energy associated with a food item by 85%, which is the typical amount of energy obtained by a human after cellular respiration has been completed. Fuel intake not respired is stored as fat.
The conversion efficiency of energy from respiration into Physical Power depends on the type of food and on the type of physical energy usage (which muscles are used, whether the muscle is used aerobically or anaerobically). In general muscle efficiency is low: only about 18 to 26% of the energy available from respiration is converted to mechanical energy.
The differing energy density of foods lies in their varying proportions of oxidizable carbon atoms. Release of energy from food follows transfer of electrons from carbon and hydrogen to carbon dioxide and water.
Swings in body temperature – either hotter or cooler- increase the metabolic rate, thus burning more energy, by as much as 5-20% depending on the climate.
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