cmtuggl said:
crazy how all you guys knew the calorie thing as fact yet the science world hasn't changed it's law of thermodynamics (1 calorie = 1 calorie).
I understand what you guys are saying...but this IS news because no one has ever proved the law of thermodynamics wrong. Silent Method made some since out of the article...but that still doesn't explain WHERE the calories go...they don't just disappear. ...I'm sure some scientist will have a sure fire answer for us within the next year or so.
I think you are looking at this wrongly. No law of thermodynamics is being broken. Rather, the series of transfer of states of energy involved in burning the food in a can versus metabolism in a human body differ.
Burn wood chips and cotton in a bomb calorimeter and you will get a fairly high energy measure. The calories are there, stored in the fuel. However, eat wood chips on cotton and your body will not be able to free that same energy and utilize it.
Think of it this way. Lets say kerosene is the stored energy source. Light it on fire inside of a can and you will get a given energy figure. Fill up a brand new car with kerosene, try to start the car and you may get it to sputter a bit. The chemical energy stored in the fuel is the same as it was in the can. However, the energy that can be harnessed by the car is different. The dynamics of the car in the processing of that kerosene simply cannot take efficient advantage of the stored energy.
Take a look at another chemical fuel source - ATP. We know it has a given energy level and behaves in accordance with the law of thermodynamics. What if you could fill up your car with ATP? The energy would be there, but it would not run your car.
Burning food in a can and measuring the heat is one thing. Eating it, processing it, and running the innumerable functions of human metabolism, of which heat is only a small part, is a different animal.
So in food, where do the calories go? Well, you shit a great deal of calories into the toilet everyday. Some is used for heat (a good deal of heat is simply waste - energy that was never harnessed), some is used for locomotion, some is used for neuro function, the list goes on and on.
The different macronutrients are different in structure. The body is very, very, very dynamic. It processes these thre chemicals differently. The actual energy is will FREE and then HARNESS from the different chemicals is different.
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