Calories are essential for human health as they give us the energy to function. The body needs calories to survive. Everyone needs varying amounts of energy daily, depending on factors like age, sex, and activity level.
Humans absorb energy from the food and drink consumed daily. Without this energy, and calories in our food cells in the body can start to die off.
The key is understanding and consuming the right amount you need, not too much and not too little. Everybody needs different amounts of calories daily depending on lifestyle due to different metabolisms and energy burn rates due to activity levels.
What are calories?
Calories are units of energy that are in the food or drink we consume.
The term calorie well kilocalories (kcal) started back in early 19th century, when scientists used it to define the amount of heat food generated and how long it took to raise the temperature of water. The term kilocalorie became just calories moving into the 20th century when calories became scientifically known as joules – Kilojoules (kJ).
Finding Calorie Details
Calories are listed on food packaging to indicate the amount of energy they offer but not all calories are equal. Foods, such as higher fatty food, fried foods, and processed foods, have higher calories but far less nutritional value.
Foods like fruit and vegetables, tend to have fewer calories but provide a higher more varied nutritional range which hugely benefits health.
Calories give us enough energy to be active and move around, even staying warm requires energy, and just thinking about calories requires energy. We need calories to function.
How many calories do we need?
How many calories we require each day depends on many things like age, whether we’re on a diet trying to lose weight, how much sport or how active our jobs are, and many other factors.
