I always wonder how “they” can know the exact amount of fiber, protein, carbs and sugars, etc when I’m reading ingredient labels.
PS: couldn’t decide between biology or chemistry flair since I guess my question relates to biochemistry! Haha
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When things are burned (lit on fire) they let off a certain amount of heat. A ‘calorie’ is defined as the amount of energy (heat) required to raise the temperature of 1 gram of water by 1 degree celcius.
In the lab, they literally combust the food items and use the heat put off to warm up water. By measuring how many degrees the water increases in temperature, they calculate how much energy or ‘calories’ were in the food.
If you burn a cracker and the resulting heat warms 1 gram of water up by 4 degrees, there were 4 calories in the cracker.
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