Food and drinks are used for energy. If you intake something that’s 0 calories how does your body process that? Is it still used as enegery? Is it just discarded by our body?
In: Biology
Your body doesn’t use it for energy but it still might make use of the nutrients in the food in the form of minerals and vitamins. The excess is cycled through.
your body burns carbs, fat, and protein to get energy out of them. a food that has 0 calories probably has none of those things and instead has other nutrients that your body uses in other ways, like vitamins etc. your body digests it like normal, it just doesn’t get any “fuel” when it does.
Some “zero calorie sweeteners” aren’t literally zero calorie, they still contain energy in them like sugar or other foods. The difference is our bodies cannot metabolize them to extract that energy, so yes, it essentially just passes through the digestive tract and is discarded.
There are some suggestions that these substances can affect the gut bacteria, or even that just tasting sweetness without getting the acompanying calories can change the way your body metabolizes things, but that’s another conversation.
In addition to what others have said, keep in mind that companies are allowed to round down the calories/serving. So things that say 0 Calories may actually have a few.
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