[Sca-cooks] Metric calories?

[Decker, Terry D.]

The calorie in the CGS (centimeter gram second) system, also known as the
gram calorie or the small calorie, is the amount of heat required to raise,
at one atmosphere, the temperature of one gram of water by one degree
Celsius.  The actual heat required varies with the water temperature, so a
common base is to establish the change between 14.5 and 15.5 C (the 15
degree calorie)  or 4.1858 joules.  Other calorie standards are the
thermochemical calorie at 4.1848 joules and the international steam table
calorie (IT calorie)at 4.1868 joules.

The Calorie in the MKS (meter kilogram second) system, also known as the
kilogram calorie or large calorie, is the one used in counting calories.  It
represents the amount of heat required at one atmosphere to raise the
temperature of 1 kilogram of water one degree Celsius, or 4.1868 kilojoules.

There are two different measures, but the U.S. and Europe use the same one
to measure food energy.

Bear

> I've had this question for a while, and never remembered to
> ask it until
> now.  Having looked at some european snack foods, ones that
> weren't labeled
> quite for the American market, I started to think that Europe
> may not use
> quite the same system for counting calories that we do
> stateside (obscenely
> higher, perhaps?  something struck me as way off kilter,
> regardless).  Am I
> just hallucinating horribly, or is there in fact a difference
> between the
> calculation?
>
> Steinn Karlsson