A negative-calorie food is food that supposedly requires more
food energy
Food energy is chemical energy that animals and humans derive from food to sustain their metabolism and muscular activity.
Most animals derive most of their energy from aerobic respiration, namely combining the carbohydrates, fats, and protein ...
to be
digested
Digestion is the breakdown of large insoluble food compounds into small water-soluble components so that they can be absorbed into the blood plasma. In certain organisms, these smaller substances are absorbed through the small intestine into th ...
than the food provides. Its thermic effect or
specific dynamic action—the caloric "cost" of digesting the food—would be greater than its food energy content. Despite its recurring popularity in
dieting
Dieting is the practice of eating food in a regulated way to decrease, maintain, or increase body weight, or to prevent and treat diseases such as diabetes and obesity. As weight loss depends on calorie intake, List of diets, different kinds of ...
guides, there is no evidence supporting the idea that any food is calorically negative. While some chilled beverages are calorically negative, the effect is minimal
and requires drinking very large amounts of water, which can be dangerous, as it can cause
water intoxication
Water intoxication, also known as water poisoning, hyperhydration, overhydration, or water toxemia, is a potentially fatal disturbance in brain functions that can result when the normal balance of electrolytes in the body is pushed outside safe ...
.
Controversy
There is no evidence to show that any of these foods have a negative calorific impact.
Foods claimed to be negative in calories are mostly low-calorie fruits and vegetables such as celery, grapefruit, orange, lemon, lime, apple, lettuce, broccoli, and cabbage.
However, celery has a
thermic effect of around 8%, much less than the 100% or more required for a food to have "negative calories", unless consumed frozen or in smoothie form.
Diets based on negative-calorie food do not work as advertised but can lead to weight loss because they satisfy hunger by filling the stomach with food that is not calorically dense.
[ A 2005 study based on a low-fat ]plant-based diet
A plant-based diet is a diet consisting mostly or entirely of plant-based foods. It encompasses a wide range of dietary patterns that contain low amounts of animal products and high amounts of fiber-rich plant products such as vegetables ...
found that the average participant lost over fourteen weeks, and attributed the weight loss to the reduced energy density of the foods resulting from their low fat content and high fiber content, and the increased thermic effect.Chewing gum
Chewing gum is a soft, cohesive substance designed to be chewed without being swallowed. Modern chewing gum is composed of gum base, sweeteners, softeners/plasticizers, flavors, colors, and, typically, a hard or powdered polyol coating. Its tex ...
has been speculated as a "negative-calorie food"; A study on chewing gum reported mastication
Chewing or mastication is the process by which food is comminution, crushed and ground by the teeth. It is the first step in the process of digestion, allowing a greater surface area for digestive enzymes to break down the foods.
During the mast ...
burns roughly per hour.
See also
* Diet
Diet may refer to:
Food
* Diet (nutrition), the sum of the food consumed by an organism or group
* Dieting, the deliberate selection of food to control body weight or nutrient intake
** Diet food, foods that aid in creating a diet for weight loss ...
* Dieting
Dieting is the practice of eating food in a regulated way to decrease, maintain, or increase body weight, or to prevent and treat diseases such as diabetes and obesity. As weight loss depends on calorie intake, List of diets, different kinds of ...
* Calorie restriction
Calorie restriction (CR, also known as caloric restriction or energy restriction) is a dietary regimen that reduces the energy intake from foods and beverages without incurring malnutrition. The possible effect of calorie restriction on body w ...
* List of diets
An individual's Diet (nutrition), diet is the sum of food and drink that one habitually consumes. Dieting is the practice of attempting to achieve or maintain a certain weight through diet. People's dietary choices are often affected by a variet ...
* Very-low-calorie diet
A very-low-calorie diet (VLCD), also known as semistarvation diet and crash diet, is a type of diet with very or extremely low daily food energy consumption. VLCDs are defined as a diet of per day or less. Modern medically supervised VLCDs use me ...
* Fad diet
A fad diet is a diet that is popular, generally only for a short time, similar to fads in fashion, without being a standard scientific dietary recommendation, and often making unreasonable claims for fast weight loss or health improvements; ...
* Protein poisoning
Protein toxicity is the effect of the buildup of protein metabolic waste compounds, like urea, uric acid, ammonia, and creatinine. Protein toxicity has many causes, including urea cycle disorders, genetic mutations, excessive protein intake, and i ...
References
{{reflist, 30em, refs=
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€“190 , quote= What are these magic foods? Just the low-calorie, high-nutrient-density fruits and vegetables that you might expect to be recommended to someone who is dieting: celery, grapefruit, lemon, lime, apple, lettuce, broccoli, cabbage, and other such items.
[{{cite news, url=http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1896439_1896359_1896346,00.html, archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090509065606/http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1896439_1896359_1896346,00.html, url-status=dead, archive-date=9 May 2009, title=There Are No Negative-Calorie Foods: Debunking 10 Myths About Dieting, last=Snyderman, first= Nancy, date= 6 May 2009, magazine=]Time
Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...
[{{cite book, title=100 Questions & Answers About Anorexia Nervosa, first=Sari Fine, last=Shepphird, chapter=Question 74, publisher=Jones & Bartlett, year=2009, pag]
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[{{cite journal, last1=Barnard, first1=Neal D., last2=Scialli, first2=Anthony R., last3=Turner-McGrievy, first3=Gabrielle, last4=Lanou, first4=Amy J., last5=Glass, first5=Jolie, title=The effects of a low-fat, plant-based dietary intervention on body weight, metabolism, and insulin sensitivity, journal=The American Journal of Medicine, date=September 2005, volume=118, issue=9, pages=991–997, doi=10.1016/j.amjmed.2005.03.039, pmid=16164885]
[{{cite journal, title=The Energy Expended in Chewing Gum, last=Levine, first=James, date= 30 December 1999, journal=The New England Journal of Medicine, volume=341 , issue=27 , page=2100 , doi=10.1056/NEJM199912303412718, pmid=10627208 , doi-access=free]
Pseudoscience
Diets
Metabolism