Calories (nutritional) conversion

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Calories (nutritional)

Abbreviation/Symbol:

  • Calorie (nutritional)
  • Cal

Unit of:

  • Energy and power

Worldwide use:

  • Although the SI unit of nutritional energy is the Kilojoule, most people still use the Kilocalorie (often refered to as a Calorie)

Definition:

One nutritional calorie is the amount of energy needed to warm 1 kilogram of water by 1° C. It is equal to 4,184 J

Origin:

The calorie was first defined by Nicolas Clément as a unit of heat in 1824. It is a metric unit but its use has been superceeded in the SI units by the Joule

Common references:

  • There are 139 nutritional kilocalories in a 330ml can of Coca Cola. A medium-sized banana typically contains approximately 100 nutritional kilocalories. A typical pint of full fat milk contains 128 nutritional kilocalories

Usage context:

Commonly used to measure food energy

Component units:

  • The kilogram calorie can be split into 1,000 calories