Energy and Calories

The latter is an obsolete unit for energy anyway. The SI unit is Joules. 1 J = 1 N * 1 m = 1 kg * 1 m²/s² = etc etc – see that’s the whole idea of the SI system – you don’t have any coefficients.

Yet using Calories further makes it easier to construct misconceptions like the advertisement for Hydrive energy drinks: they give you lots of energy and are healthy because they have low Calories.

http://www.hydriveenergy.com/

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2 Responses to Energy and Calories

  1. Rob says:

    I miss your point completely. Hydrive is rating their beverage in the same manner as every other food and drink maker as nearly as I can see. If they said 125,520 joules per bottle, few potential purchasers would have a clue. Maybe your point is that they claim to “give you energy” when low calories means low energy when taken literally, but considering that a bottle has 145 milligrams (or .000145 kilograms) of caffeine among other CNS stimulants, I’m sure they’d state that they’re referring to increasing metabolic rate.

    What am I missing here?

  2. crf says:

    Rob,
    You can’t claim to have low calories and high energy.

    The trick may work because many people don’t understand that calories are a measure of energy.

    And many consumers would also fervently deny that their body doesn’t care what form food energy comes in. They would instead explain that the normal kind of energy found in food is probably broken down further into good and bad kinds (fat=bad energy, complex carbs=good energy, “nutrient dense”=good, etc).

    Also many people may think food has two types of energy: Vitalism-style stuff that makes you feel “energized” (like caffeine, maybe, or vitamins), and energy (normal kind, measured in calories or joules).

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