Are all calorie injested = all calories absorbed?

Options
Jeff92se
Jeff92se Posts: 3,369 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Since some think a calorie is a calorie no matter what that is, then I ask if some of the calories of more complex carbohydrates or something like red meat are 100% absorbed by the body. ie.. a huge arsed steak might be 950 calories but the due to the limited time food resides in the body, let's say only 700 of it's calories are absorbed?

VS let's say a dozen donuts?

Replies

  • bosquebrewer
    bosquebrewer Posts: 13 Member
    Options
    I found this article somewhat on the subject interesting. It was linked on the body-improvments.com blog.

    http://www.myosynthesis.com/calories-arent-calories?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+Myosynthesis+(Myosynthesis)&utm_content=Google+Reader
  • BLy82
    BLy82 Posts: 33 Member
    Options
    There is actually always some variation in how many calories you absorb from food.

    Digestion isn't just done by your body (meaning the human cells). It is also partially carried out by the bacterial colonies that live in your gut. Some people have bacterial colonies that do better at digesting certain foods than others (my understanding is that people of Japanese descent are more likely to have colonies in their gut capable of breaking down seaweed well). Everyone has some variation, though, in how efficient their particular set of bacteria is at breaking things down and extracting the energy from it.

    (There is some evidence in studies, btw, that the bacteria that tends to predominate in vegetarians is *slightly* less efficient than the bacteria that dominates in people who eat meat. It has been suggested that this may have some relationship to the observed fact that vegetarians tend to be slightly leaner.)
  • Toddrific
    Toddrific Posts: 1,114 Member
    Options
    I watched a program on Atkins the other day, and I guess ketones are calories excreted in your urine. I'm not sure they really add up to much though.

    Your body has to do some work to process foods, so supposedly all foods aren't equal. Before anyone gets any crazy ideas, you can actually starve to death eating only lean meat.

Categories