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Calorimetry Follow-up Class – Questions for discussion

1. What Calorie values did you calculate for your Cheese Curl?

2. What Calorie values did you calculate for your marshmallow?

3. Why could you not calculate a Calorie value for the carrot?

4. From the Nutrition Facts labels, what are the “real” Calorie values?

5. Why are ours so much smaller?

6. What would a more efficient Calorimeter look like? (we’ll look at some)

7. So what actually gives a food Calories? To understand this, we need to remember photosynthesis and understand a little chemistry.

Let’s recall that plants combine CO2 and H2O to make simplest sugars.

Look at the equation in the slide show.

8. Besides glucose, what are the other forms of simplest sugars?

The sun’s energy is then transformed into potential energy stored in the chemical bonds that hold these atoms together to make these sugar molecules.

When our cells burn this sugar, they break apart the molecules, releasing heat energy. This is the heat of our cells, our bodies. This is what we mean by “burning Calories”.

We saw this on a large scale when we burned the food items last class.

9. Where did the CO2 go?

10. Where did the H2O go?

11. Where was the “energy”?

12. What was the black stuff that got on the glass flask?

13. Since Fats are made up of a lot MORE C, H and O atoms bonded together, how will that affect the amount of energy released when they burn?

14. So which of our food items contained fat?

It turns out that each gram of FAT has 9 Calories,

each gram of CARBOHYDRATE has 4 Calories,

and each gram of PROTEIN has 4 Calories.

Look on page 73 to see which food label gives you this information.

So how could you calculate the Calories of Cheese Curls without burning them?

15. How many grams of fat are in one serving of Cheese Curls?

16. So how many Calories will that fat provide?

17. How many grams of carbohydrate are in one serving of Cheese Curls?

18. So how many Calories will those carbohydrates provide?

19. How many grams of protein are in one serving of Cheese Curls?

20. So how many Calories will that protein provide?

21. Add up those three numbers and you get how many Calories per serving?

22. Why does the Calorie value on the Nutrition Facts label not agree exactly?

23, 24. Perform the same analysis for the marshmallow and the carrot.

25. How much water is in Cheese Curls? How would you figure this out just from this label?

26. How much water is in the marshmallows?

27. How much water is in the carrot?

28. Predict the fullness factors of Cheese Curls, Marshmallows and Carrots and find it on nutritiondata.com

29. Predict the price of Cheese Curls, Marshmallows and Carrots and find it on peapod.com

(search “Cheese puffs”, “marshmallows” and “baby carrots”).

30. Calculate the COST of each Calorie of Cheese Curls, Marshmallows and Carrots in Calories/cent.

Food / Cost in cents / Calories in package / Calories/cent
Cheese Puffs
Marshmallows
Carrots

31. Which Calories are most expensive?

32. If you have little money, which Calories are easiest to afford?

33. How many Calories should an average person consume per day?

34. But if you can only afford NON-FILLING Calories, what might your Calorie intake be like in order to feel full?

35. Think about the relationship of these things:

Poverty, Food Deserts, Food Swamps, Advertising, The Reward Pathway, High Blood Pressure, Cardiovascular Disease, Obesity, Diabetes…

You now have enough information to be an effective advocate for change.