🔍 Calories: The big number that says little

Why a measure from the machine age still distorts our view of nutrition today – and what we can do better

A contribution from Food Sherlock – Food Files

“You are what you eat.”
Yes – but if the industry has its way, you are, above all, a calorie count.

We live in an era where food is no longer just sustenance, but has increasingly become a matter of numbers . It dominates every package, every diet, every tracking tool: the calorie.
A measure that originally comes from thermodynamics – and yet has become the currency of our food culture.

Time to take a critical look at it.

🔥 Where does the calorie come from – and why do we use it?

The calorie was introduced in the early 19th century – interestingly, not by a nutritionist , but by a French physicist and engineer:

👉 Nicolas Clément (1779–1841)

Clément was a professor of industrial chemistry in Paris and worked on steam engines, thermal efficiency, and thermodynamics . To make thermal energy precisely measurable, he coined the term "calorie" around 1824 —defined as:

“The amount of energy required to heat 1 gram of water by 1 degree Celsius.”

This unit was designed to understand technical combustion processes – not biological ones.
The fact that they were later transferred to human nutrition was a practical short circuit , but not a precise one.

🧬 Man is not an oven

Our body is a highly complex biological system—not a pressure cooker. Food isn't simply burned, but goes through many steps:

• Digestion through enzymes
• Utilization by microorganisms
• Storage and conversion into cellular energy (ATP)
• Influenced by hormones, insulin, stress, genetics

The calorimeter ignores all of this. It measures heat, not energy .

⚖️ Same amount of calories – completely different effects

Imagine:

• 200 kcal from sugar
• 200 kcal from avocado
• 200 kcal from protein shake
• 200 kcal from wine

Same number, same energy? On paper: yes.
In the body: completely different.

Sugar affects insulin, fat provides long-term satiety, protein builds muscle, and alcohol is partially metabolized as a toxin. But the calorie count makes it all the same.

This equation is convenient – but misleading.

💡 Why do we still hold on to it?

Because the calorie is simple . And because simplicity sells.
Diet programs, nutritional information tables, and light products – they all need a clear comparison figure. The calorie promises control in an overly complex world of eating.

But this control is precisely an illusion.

Because not every body reacts the same way. The microflora, hormone balance, sleep, muscle mass – they all influence how many calories actually arrive and what happens with them.

🧠 What is lost when we only see calories

Food is more than just energy. It is:

• enjoyment
• ritual
• culture
• communication
• remedies

Calories don't know any of this. They reduce the apple to a number—but not to its vitamins, fiber, satiating effect, or origin.

It turns food into data – and us into consumers, not eaters.

✊ Time for a new understanding

The calorie had its historical uses. But in today's world, it is a measure without measure.

What we need is:

• Awareness of quality instead of just quantity
• Understanding individual differences
• Nutrition that thinks holistically , not mathematically

The future does not belong to the number of calories.
It belongs to the person who wants to understand his food again – not just count it.

🕵️♀️ food-sherlock.com/blogs/food-files
We uncover what lies behind numbers, labels and myths – because your food deserves more than a number.