The End of the Calorie

Gastropod

Cynthia Graber and Nicola Twilley

Science, Food, History, Arts

4.7 • 3.5K Ratings

🗓️ 26 January 2016

⏱️ 44 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

For most of us, the calorie is just a number on the back of the packet or on the display at the gym. But what is it, exactly? And how did we end up with this one unit with which to measure our food? Is a calorie the same no matter what type of food it comes from? And is one calorie for you exactly the same as one calorie for me? To find out, we visit the special rooms scientists use to measure how many calories we burn, and the labs where researchers are discovering that the calorie is broken. And we pose the question: If not the calorie, then what? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	I don't really buy into this calorie, the calorie thing.
0:05.1	In the end, and I guess this is said of treating it as a chemist, calories, a calorie,
0:11.0	it's a unit of energy.
0:13.9	I think all calories are not the same when it comes to how satisfying they are.
0:18.4	You can't count calories anyway.
0:20.9	It's not really possible for anybody who's just an eater to figure out how many calories
0:25.0	you're eating.
0:26.0	But calories, the only darn thing we've got in this game at the moment, isn't it?
0:30.7	But it gives us a sort of unfair sense of precision.
0:36.2	The calorie is a somewhat dangerous item because it leads us to thinking that we solve the problems
0:43.1	when in fact we haven't.
0:45.1	Hello and welcome back.
0:46.8	This is the first episode of a new season of Gastropod, the podcast that looks at food
0:51.0	through the lens of science and history.
0:53.0	I'm Nicola Twilly.
0:54.1	And I'm Cynthia Grayburn.
0:55.4	And I bet you listeners have no idea what we're going to be covering in this episode.
0:59.5	Seriously, if you can't guess already, then go and get yourself a coffee and take this
1:04.0	again from the top.
1:05.0	Yes, that's right.
1:06.0	We are not easing into things this season.
1:08.7	We're stepping boldly into one of the thorniest food controversies of all, the calorie.
	...

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