Dear John,
A close reading of this article will reveal that the word calorie is
used on each occasion as a synonym for the word 'energy' and not as a
unit for measuring energy. This is in keeping with Dr Lulu Hunt-Peters
1918 goal of changing the meaning of the word calorie to mean the
energy in food when she wrote:
'… hereafter you are going to eat calories of food. Instead of saying
one slice
of bread, or a piece of pie, you will say 100 calories of bread, 350
calories of pie.'
This reference might help with this topic:
http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/msg34909.html
By the way, it is interesting to look at the time it takes for a new
word or a new realistic definition of a word takes to enter the public
consciousness. Here are three examples:
Weight vs mass Defined by Isaac Newton in 1687 Still widely unknown
and misunderstood after 323 years
Energy vs power Defined by the BAAS in 1889 Still widely unknown and
misunderstood after 121 years
Calorie vs kilojoule Defined by the BAAS in 1889 Still widely
unknown and misunderstood after 121 years
Note: there's an oddity. I wrote calorie with a lower case c and
because it was at the beginning of a line and the beginning of a
sentence my word processor kindly change the lower case c to an upper
case C and in doing so altered the value of the calorie to a Calorie –
1000 times larger than I intended! Oh, well, I'll leave it as the
calorie and the Calorie have both been deprecated by the BIPM since
1948 anyway.
Cheers,
Pat Naughtin
Author of the ebook, Metrication Leaders Guide, that you can obtain
from http://metricationmatters.com/MetricationLeadersGuideInfo.html
PO Box 305 Belmont 3216,
Geelong, Australia
Phone: 61 3 5241 2008
Metric system consultant, writer, and speaker, Pat Naughtin, has
helped thousands of people and hundreds of companies upgrade to the
modern metric system smoothly, quickly, and so economically that they
now save thousands each year when buying, processing, or selling for
their businesses. Pat provides services and resources for many
different trades, crafts, and professions for commercial, industrial
and government metrication leaders in Asia, Europe, and in the USA.
Pat's clients include the Australian Government, Google, NASA, NIST,
and the metric associations of Canada, the UK, and the USA. See http://www.metricationmatters.com
for more metrication information, contact Pat at [email protected]
or to get the free 'Metrication matters' newsletter go to: http://www.metricationmatters.com/newsletter
to subscribe.
On 2010/02/22, at 05:50 , John M. Steele wrote:
Why would Australia post fast-food nutritional info in Calories when
they use kilojoules?
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/fast-food-outlets-could-be-forced-to-provide-calorie-counts/story-e6frf7jo-1225832750633
[snippets quoted]
FAST-food outlets may be forced to provide a calorie count on their
products in a radical plan to fight Victoria's diabetes epidemic.
Premier John Brumby has ordered a top-level inquiry to counter the
effect of the millions of fast-food meals consumed every week. . . .
The new plan is based on a similar program in New York and would
make it compulsory for major fast-food outlets across the state to
have the calorie content on menus. . . .
Ms Stanton said the one problem with the plan was the use of
calories when the Australian metric system measured food energy in
kilojoules.
Mr Brumby said: "Calorie disclosure at fast-food stores is proving
successful in other parts of the world, such as New York.
[end]
When you copy ideas, be sure to adjust for local conditions. :)
