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I'm guessing this list as the same pitfall as food labels and is showing quantities based on the amount of energy (calories) in the raw material rather than using the amount of energy the human digestive system can actually exploit. For example while you might get nearly 200 calories of from 200 of white bread, you would only actually get 150 calories from 200 calories of many meats. I think that if nutrition labels changed to estimated "exploitable calories" that a lot of the magic diet nonsense would evaporate.


How is the exploitable amount of calories determined, exactly? Is there a layperson-readable resource somewhere that you might recommend?


I'm not sure what exactly OP is referring to, but there is a difference in the nutritional data of, for example, raw chicken breast (which is marked on the packaging) and baked chicken breast (which is what gets digested [unless you actually eat it raw]).

See http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/poultry-products/701/2 VS http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/poultry-products/703/2

Make sure you line up the serving sizes.


Self.com has great data tables for many variations of foods.


It's not, for the most part.




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