Tidbit #21 - April 16, 2011

When you hear the word Calorie, what's the first thing that comes to mind? Food? Bad? I need to stay away from those? That's what most people hear, because a Calorie has come to be known as the standard cause of weight gain, and something to be avoided at all costs. What lots of people don't REALLY know is what a Calorie is, and why it's always capitalized.

So, for today's tidbit, two questions will be integrated into one.

Question(s): What is a Calorie, and why is it capitalized?


Answer: When asked this question, most people end up stuttering and giving an answer like "it's the fat in.. um.." or "isn't it.. um.. the building blocks.. uh.." or just a flat "i don't know." The problem is, even I know this, and it's a simple answer, too, no summary needed.

It's actually a chemistry definition: a calorie is a specific measure of heat. By definition, a Calorie is the amount of heat needed to raise the temperature of 1 liter of water by 1° celsius.

So, that's one question down, but why is it Capitalized Like This?


Well, strictly speaking, there are two different varieties of the heat measurement: calories and Calories. The difference is in the capitalization of the letter c in the word. A little c calorie has the same proportion to a big C calorie as a gram does to a kilogram. (In other words, 1000 calories = 1 Calorie)


If you didn't catch the answers in there, here they are:


A Calorie is the amount of heat needed to raise the temperature of 1 liter of water by 1° celsius.
There are two types of calories: big C and little c. (1000 calories = 1 Calorie)

Tidbit #8 - April 3, 2011

Food can be one of the most pleasurable aspects of our day. And why? Because we all like the taste. There are entire reality shows (Top Chef, anyone?) based on food and its taste. But not everyone who tastes food knows how we taste it.


Question: How do we taste food?


Answer: If you know anything about the nervous system, then you should know that it's based on nerves. Your senses are caused by nerves, particularly specially made neurotransmitters. Your sense of taste is caused by (what else?) your tongue.

On the surface of your tongue are relatively 9000 different sensory receptors (called taste receptors) that pick up taste, also called taste buds. Different areas of the tongue correspond to different tastes, as shown in the diagram to the left. Speaking definitively, every taste bud on your tongue picks up the different chemicals in the food you eat and sends electrical signals through the neurons to the taste processing center of the brain, causing your food's taste.

By the way, all of those regions on the tongue diagram above which correspond to those tastes send more intense signals to the brain when the food you eat has chemicals that taste that way. (Basically, they taste stronger in those areas of the tongue)