TedTest

From the Ted Talk by Emma Bryce: What is a calorie?

Unscramble the Blue Letters

We hear about calories all the time. How many calories are in this ciooke? How many are bunerd by 100 jipnmug jacks, or long distance running, or fidgeting? But what is a calorie, really, and how many of them do we actually need? Calories are a way of kepineg tacrk of the body's energy budget. A haehlty balance ocurcs when we put in about as much energy as we lose. If we cnotistslney put more energy into our bodies than we burn, the excess will gradually be stored as fat in our cells, and we'll gain weight. If we burn off more energy than we replenish, we'll lose weight. So we have to be able to measure the energy we consume and use, and we do so with a unit caleld the ciroale. One calorie, the kind we measure in food, also called a large calorie, is defined as the amount of energy it would take to raise the temperature of one kilogram of water by one degree Celsius. Everything we consume has a calorie count, a measure of how much energy the item stores in its chemical bndos. The average pizza slice has 272 calories, there are about 78 in a piece of bread, and an apple has about 52. That energy is released during digestion, and stored in other molecules that can be broken down to provide energy when the body needs it. It's used in three ways: about 10% enables digestion, about 20% fuels physical activity, and the beisggt chunk, around 70%, supports the basic fuocnnits of our organs and tissues. That third usage corresponds to your basal metabolic rate, a number of calories you would need to survive if you weren't eating or moving around. Add in some physical activity and digestion, and you arrive at the oicfiafl guidelines for how many calories the average psoren requires each day: 2000 for women and 2500 for men. Those estimates are baesd on factors like agavree weight, physical aivticty and muscle mass. So does that mean everyone should shoot for around 2000 calories? Not necessarily. If you're doing an energy guzzling activity, like cycling the Tour de France, your body could use up to 9000 calories per day. Pregnancy reuqries sihlltgy more calories than usual, and elderly people typically have a slower metabolic rate, energy is burned more gralaudly, so less is needed. Here's something else you should know before you start counting calories. The calorie counts on nutrition labels measure how much energy the food contains, not how much energy you can actually get out of it. Fibrous foods like celery and whole weaht take more energy to digest, so you'd actually wind up with less energy from a 100 calorie sevring of celery than a 100 calorie serving of potato chips. Not to mnteion the fact that some foods offer nutrients like protein and vitamins, while others provide far less nutritional value. Eating too many of those foods could lavee you overweight and malnourished. And even with the exact same food, different people might not get the same number of caloreis. Variations in things like enzyme levels, gut bacteria, and even intestine length, manes that every individual's ability to extract energy from food is a little different. So a calorie is a useful ernegy measure, but to work out exactly how many of them each of us requires we need to factor in things like eexcrise, food type, and our body's aitilby to process energy. Good luck finding all of that on a nutrition lebal.

Open Cloze

We hear about calories all the time. How many calories are in this ______? How many are ______ by 100 _______ jacks, or long distance running, or fidgeting? But what is a calorie, really, and how many of them do we actually need? Calories are a way of _______ _____ of the body's energy budget. A _______ balance ______ when we put in about as much energy as we lose. If we ____________ put more energy into our bodies than we burn, the excess will gradually be stored as fat in our cells, and we'll gain weight. If we burn off more energy than we replenish, we'll lose weight. So we have to be able to measure the energy we consume and use, and we do so with a unit ______ the _______. One calorie, the kind we measure in food, also called a large calorie, is defined as the amount of energy it would take to raise the temperature of one kilogram of water by one degree Celsius. Everything we consume has a calorie count, a measure of how much energy the item stores in its chemical _____. The average pizza slice has 272 calories, there are about 78 in a piece of bread, and an apple has about 52. That energy is released during digestion, and stored in other molecules that can be broken down to provide energy when the body needs it. It's used in three ways: about 10% enables digestion, about 20% fuels physical activity, and the _______ chunk, around 70%, supports the basic _________ of our organs and tissues. That third usage corresponds to your basal metabolic rate, a number of calories you would need to survive if you weren't eating or moving around. Add in some physical activity and digestion, and you arrive at the ________ guidelines for how many calories the average ______ requires each day: 2000 for women and 2500 for men. Those estimates are _____ on factors like _______ weight, physical ________ and muscle mass. So does that mean everyone should shoot for around 2000 calories? Not necessarily. If you're doing an energy guzzling activity, like cycling the Tour de France, your body could use up to 9000 calories per day. Pregnancy ________ ________ more calories than usual, and elderly people typically have a slower metabolic rate, energy is burned more _________, so less is needed. Here's something else you should know before you start counting calories. The calorie counts on nutrition labels measure how much energy the food contains, not how much energy you can actually get out of it. Fibrous foods like celery and whole _____ take more energy to digest, so you'd actually wind up with less energy from a 100 calorie _______ of celery than a 100 calorie serving of potato chips. Not to _______ the fact that some foods offer nutrients like protein and vitamins, while others provide far less nutritional value. Eating too many of those foods could _____ you overweight and malnourished. And even with the exact same food, different people might not get the same number of ________. Variations in things like enzyme levels, gut bacteria, and even intestine length, _____ that every individual's ability to extract energy from food is a little different. So a calorie is a useful ______ measure, but to work out exactly how many of them each of us requires we need to factor in things like ________, food type, and our body's _______ to process energy. Good luck finding all of that on a nutrition _____.

Solution

calorie
activity
average
slightly
requires
keeping
biggest
track
jumping
cookie
ability
healthy
consistently
called
energy
functions
exercise
serving
wheat
bonds
calories
official
based
label
gradually
mention
occurs
means
leave
person
burned

Original Text

We hear about calories all the time. How many calories are in this cookie? How many are burned by 100 jumping jacks, or long distance running, or fidgeting? But what is a calorie, really, and how many of them do we actually need? Calories are a way of keeping track of the body's energy budget. A healthy balance occurs when we put in about as much energy as we lose. If we consistently put more energy into our bodies than we burn, the excess will gradually be stored as fat in our cells, and we'll gain weight. If we burn off more energy than we replenish, we'll lose weight. So we have to be able to measure the energy we consume and use, and we do so with a unit called the calorie. One calorie, the kind we measure in food, also called a large calorie, is defined as the amount of energy it would take to raise the temperature of one kilogram of water by one degree Celsius. Everything we consume has a calorie count, a measure of how much energy the item stores in its chemical bonds. The average pizza slice has 272 calories, there are about 78 in a piece of bread, and an apple has about 52. That energy is released during digestion, and stored in other molecules that can be broken down to provide energy when the body needs it. It's used in three ways: about 10% enables digestion, about 20% fuels physical activity, and the biggest chunk, around 70%, supports the basic functions of our organs and tissues. That third usage corresponds to your basal metabolic rate, a number of calories you would need to survive if you weren't eating or moving around. Add in some physical activity and digestion, and you arrive at the official guidelines for how many calories the average person requires each day: 2000 for women and 2500 for men. Those estimates are based on factors like average weight, physical activity and muscle mass. So does that mean everyone should shoot for around 2000 calories? Not necessarily. If you're doing an energy guzzling activity, like cycling the Tour de France, your body could use up to 9000 calories per day. Pregnancy requires slightly more calories than usual, and elderly people typically have a slower metabolic rate, energy is burned more gradually, so less is needed. Here's something else you should know before you start counting calories. The calorie counts on nutrition labels measure how much energy the food contains, not how much energy you can actually get out of it. Fibrous foods like celery and whole wheat take more energy to digest, so you'd actually wind up with less energy from a 100 calorie serving of celery than a 100 calorie serving of potato chips. Not to mention the fact that some foods offer nutrients like protein and vitamins, while others provide far less nutritional value. Eating too many of those foods could leave you overweight and malnourished. And even with the exact same food, different people might not get the same number of calories. Variations in things like enzyme levels, gut bacteria, and even intestine length, means that every individual's ability to extract energy from food is a little different. So a calorie is a useful energy measure, but to work out exactly how many of them each of us requires we need to factor in things like exercise, food type, and our body's ability to process energy. Good luck finding all of that on a nutrition label.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

ngrams of length 2

collocation	frequency
physical activity	2
calorie serving	2

Important Words

ability
activity
add
amount
apple
arrive
average
bacteria
balance
basal
based
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body
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raise
rate
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slice
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wheat
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