Term:kalories: Difference between revisions
(Created page with "===Why spell kalories with a k?=== A kalorie is a food calorie. The 'k' is to prevent confusion with an older historical unit "calorie", which is 1000 times smaller. When someone says "An apple has 95 calories", technically the "proper" wording would be "An apple has 95 kilocalories". But that could easily confuse people more, as "95 kilocalories" sounds like enough food for a hundred meals! So a better solution is to say "An apple has 95 kalories" - the "kilo" is impli...") |
|||
| (5 intermediate revisions by the same user not shown) | |||
| Line 1: | Line 1: | ||
===Why spell kalories with a k?=== | ===Why spell kalories with a k?=== | ||
A kalorie is a food calorie. The 'k' is to prevent confusion with an older historical unit "calorie", which is 1000 times smaller. | A kalorie is a ''food calorie''. The 'k' is to prevent confusion with an older historical unit "calorie", which is 1000 times smaller. | ||
Most scientific reports instead say "kilocalorie" or "kcal", which is technically correct, but could easily confuse people in other ways. So we prefer "kalorie", which is pronounced the same as "calorie", but spelled with a pedantic 'k' for 'kilo'. | |||
The 'k' is only needed when specifying numbers, for example: | |||
* "An apple has 95 kalories." | |||
* "This diet is 2400 kalories/day." | |||
The 'k' is ''not'' needed for general comparisons, for example: | |||
* "Most of the calories in these chips come from fat." | |||
* "This [[crop yields]] a lot of calories." | |||
'''Non-food usage'''<br /> | |||
Since ''kalorie'' is still a [[energy units|unit of energy]], it can still be used in non-[[food]] contexts, in place of ''kilocalorie'' or ''kcal''. | |||
==See also== | |||
* [[Food]] | |||
* [[Energy]] | |||
* [[Energy units]] | |||
Latest revision as of 14:35, 17 October 2023
Why spell kalories with a k?
A kalorie is a food calorie. The 'k' is to prevent confusion with an older historical unit "calorie", which is 1000 times smaller.
Most scientific reports instead say "kilocalorie" or "kcal", which is technically correct, but could easily confuse people in other ways. So we prefer "kalorie", which is pronounced the same as "calorie", but spelled with a pedantic 'k' for 'kilo'.
The 'k' is only needed when specifying numbers, for example:
- "An apple has 95 kalories."
- "This diet is 2400 kalories/day."
The 'k' is not needed for general comparisons, for example:
- "Most of the calories in these chips come from fat."
- "This crop yields a lot of calories."
Non-food usage
Since kalorie is still a unit of energy, it can still be used in non-food contexts, in place of kilocalorie or kcal.