How to Compare Different Amounts of Energy in Different Foods

The energy contained in food is held within the chemical bonds of the carbohydrate, fat, and protein molecules that make up food. To release the energy stored in food, your body systematically (through the processes of digestion and cellular respiration) breaks down the foods you eat until the chemical bonds which form the energy containing molecules in your food are broken apart. We measure the amount of energy freed by this dissolution in units of Calories. To compare the amount of energy in one food in contrast to another food, you have to compare the calorie amounts of each food.

Things You'll Need

• Unit conversion calculator
• Pencil
• Paper

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Instructions

• 1

  Examine your foods nutrition labels. Make a note of the listed "serving size" for each food. The serving size on a nutrition label is the point of reference for all the other information listed in the nutrition facts. For example, when a nutrition label says that a food contains sixty Calories, it does not necessarily mean that there are sixty Calories in the entire food container. It means every serving size amount for this food contains sixty Calories.

• 2

  Convert the unit of measurement used to indicate each food's serving size to the same unit of measurement. Typical food serving sizes are: gallon, quart, pint, cup, fl. oz. (fluid ounce), tbsp. (tablespoon), tsp. (teaspoon), ml (milliliter), liter, pound, oz. (ounce) and g (gram). In order to compare the energy amount contained in an 8-oz. steak to 1 cup of orange juice, for instance, you need to know that 8 ounces are equal to 1.6 cups. You can use the unit conversion tool on the Nutrition Data website (see the link in the resources) to help you perform your conversion.

• 3

  Calculate the amount you need to adjust the serving size on each of the foods you're evaluating to make them all equal. For example, if one food's serving size reads 1 cup, and another food's serving size reads half a cup, you will need to double all the values listed on the second food's nutritional label in order to accurately compare the two foods.

• 4

  Compare the total calorie amount for each food when their serving sizes are the same. The more calories a food contains, the more energy it likewise contains.