The Hidden Truths about Calories

By Rob Dunn

Odds are you sometimes think about calories. They are among the most often counted things in the universe. When the calorie was originally conceived it was in the context of human work. More calories meant more capacity for work, more chemical fire with which to get the job done, coal in the human stove. Fat, it has been estimated, has nine calories per gram, whereas carbohydrates and proteins have just four; fiber is sometimes counted separately and gets awarded a piddling two. Every box of every food you have ever bought is labeled based on these estimates; too bad then that they are so often wrong.

A Food is Not a Food—Estimates of the number of calories in different kinds of foods measure the average number of calories we could get from those foods based only on the proportions of fat, carbohydrates, protein and sometimes fiber they contain (In essence, calories ingested minus calories egested). A variety of standard systems exist, all of which derive from the original developed by Wilbur Atwater more than a hundred years ago. They are all systems of averages. No food is average.

Differences exist even within a given kind of food. Take, for example, cooked vegetables. Cell walls in some plants are tougher to break down than those in others; nature, of course, varies in everything. If the plant material we eat has more of its cell walls broken down we can more of the calories from the goodies inside. In some plants, cooking ruptures most cell walls; in others, such as cassava, cell walls hold strong and hoard their precious calories in such a way that many of them pass through our bodies intact.
It is not just cooked vegetables though. Nuts flagrantly do their own thing, which might be expected given that nuts are really seeds whose mothers are invested in having them escape digestion. Peanuts, pistachios and almonds all seem to be less completely digested than their levels of protein, fat, carbohydrates and fiber would suggest. How much? Just this month, a new study by Janet Novotny and colleagues at the USDA found that when the “average” person eats almonds she receives just 128 calories per serving rather than the 170 calories “on the label.”

[Image 1. Some of the calories our bodies do not digest go to the dung beetles
and flies whose empire rises around our inefficiencies.
Photo of the species Garreta nitens by Piotr Naskrecki]

It is not totally clear why nuts such as almonds or pistachios yield fewer calories than they “should.” Tough cell walls? Maybe. But there are other options too, if not for the nuts themselves then for other foods.

For one, our bodies seem to expend different quantities of energy to deal with different kinds of food (the energy expended produces heat and so is referred to by scientists as “diet-induced thermogensis”); some foods require us to do more work than others. Proteins can require ten to twenty times as much heat-energy to digest as fats, but the loss of calories as heat energy is not accounted for at all on packaging.

The Insanity Defense: An Intersection of Morality, Public Policy, and Science

by Ronald Schouten, M.D., J.D. in Almost a Psychopath
 

 There are times when the insanity defense, with all the controversy that surrounds it, is in the news. This is one of those times:

• It is highly likely that James Holmes, who is facing 142 felony counts in connection with the Aurora, Colorado shootings on July 22, 2012, will raise an insanity defense. First, he’ll have to be found competent to stand trial, which is a separate issue. http://www.thealmosteffect.com/blog/trying-the-man-who-shot-gabrielle-giffords/

Breivik_GP4 (Photo credit: Uppdragsmedia)

• Anders Breivik admitted to killing 77 Norwegians in July 2011 in a carefully prepared bombing and mass murder, which he claimed was an act of self-defense against Islamization and multiculturalism in Norway. On August 24, 2012, he will learn the court’s verdict. Prosecutors urged the court to find Breivik legally insane, as this would lead to a lifetime of confinement in a mental hospital. Breivik argued against an insanity verdict, because under Norwegian law he could conceivably be released from prison some day, if found guilty.

 • Clayton Osbon, the JetBlue pilot who disrupted a March 27, 2012 flight from Las Vegas to New York by screaming about terrorists and religion, was found not guilty by reason of insanity on July 3, 2012.

What is the Insanity Defense?
 For a person to be convicted of a crime, the prosecution must prove not only that the person engaged in a guilty act (actus reus), but also that he or she had guilty intent (mens rea). If a person does not have criminal intent during an act, no crime occurs: a person who takes someone else’s property, honestly believing it is his own, is not guilty of larceny.

But what about situations in which the person commits the act, and intended to do so, but was suffering from a mental or physical condition that impairs their ability to appreciate that they are doing something wrong or to control their behavior? That’s where the insanity defense comes in.

While the insanity defense is a legal doctrine, at its heart it is the expression of a moral principle found in societies across time and multiple cultures: individuals should not be punished for their otherwise criminal acts if they lack certain characteristics that relate to the ability to engage in rational thinking, including an appreciation of the wrongfulness and consequences of their actions, or control their behavior. Take, for example, children. A five year old who sets fire to the drapes because the flames are pretty, will not be charged with arson when the house burns down. The same is true for people with severe developmental disabilities. What about people who cause harm to others or commit crimes while sleepwalking? Yes, those cases exist, and the defendants are generally not held criminally responsible.

Why Procrastination is Good for You

By Megan Gambino

In a new book, University of San Diego professor Frank Partnoy argues that the key to success is waiting for the last possible moment to make a decision

 In his new book, Wait: The Art and Science of Delay, Frank Partnoy claims that when faced with a decision, we should assess how long we have to make it, and then wait until the last possible moment to do so.
Book jacket: Courtesy of Pete Garceau; Portrait: Courtesy of Fergus Greer

Sometimes life seems to happen at warp speed. But, decisions, says Frank Partnoy, should not. When the financial market crashed in 2008, the former investment banker and corporate lawyer, now a professor of finance and law and co-director of the Center for Corporate and Securities Law at the University of San Diego, turned his attention to literature on decision-making.
“Much recent research about decisions helps us understand what we should do or how we should do it, but it says little about when,” he says.
In his new book, Wait: The Art and Science of Delay, Partnoy claims that when faced with a decision, we should assess how long we have to make it, and then wait until the last possible moment to do so. Should we take his advice on how to “manage delay,” we will live happier lives.