![]() Your choice will probably come down to these factors: AvailabilityĪll physical nutrition labels in Australia list energy in kJ, and some list both kilojoules and Calories. The most important aspect of both kilojoules and calories is that we can use either to record and compare what we consume (or plan to consume) at any given time. Having covered the difference between kilojoules and calories, and figured out how to swap them, we can answer the question: does it matter which one we use? In theory, since both are standard units which measure energy, it ultimately should not matter. Convert kilojoules to Calories InfographicĪn infographic showing the kJ to Cal conversion formula:īesides the conversion (1 kcal = 4.814kJ), there is no difference in the food energy value in terms of kcal and kJ. You’re on safe ground to assume that whenever the word “calorie” or the abbreviation “cal” is commonly used, the true meaning is kilocalories (kcal/Cal). To make things even more confusing, when most people talk about calories, they really mean kilocalories! That is, kcal or Cal rather than cal. Trying to convert 1,200 calories with one of those converters gives you the result 5 kilojoules, which is obviously wrong (5kJ is what is in one third of a gram of Weet-Bix). This is why some health tools seem to offer wildly different results, depending on whether or not the users are expecting to see kilocalories. ![]() How many kilojoules in a calorie? Conversion Confusion! The abbreviation for Calories/kilocalories is “kcal” or “Cal” whereas the abbreviation for calories is “cal”. The two meanings often get mixed up and people do not use a capital “C”, even when they mean kilocalories rather than calories. Here comes the the tricky part: the generally accepted convention is to call kilocalories “Calories”, with an uppercase “C”, whilst calories (one thousandth of a kilocalorie) keep their lowercase “c”. Tellingly, the Chinese word for food energy, derived from English, is “kaluli” rather than “kilojuli”.įrom this example of pop culture and many others, we can see that the word has seeped deeply into the world’s culture, whereas “kilojoules” has not. This massive hit from China is about the health conscious performers’ futile attempt to avoid calories (“kaluli”). Watch the music video “Kaluli” at the bottom of this page. As a result of almost every book, movie, TV show, podcast, webcast, song and article using “calories” rather than “kilojoules”, we do the same. That’s 30 million people supposedly saying they eat “kilojoules”, versus 400 million eating “calories”. Australia and New Zealand are arguably the only significant English-speaking countries to have officially opted for kJ over kcal. ![]() A difference, which makes no difference, is not a difference! Even people born after 1974 when the big changes happened have stubbornly clung to the old system. Reason 1 – for most of our nation’s history, calories is the word most people used (and still use). We still use calories instead of kilojoules for two main reasons: That is why packaging labels list kJ instead of Cal today. Parliament passed the Australian Metric Conversion Act in 1970, and government agencies therefore followed through shortly thereafter. From then on, kids were taught kJ rather than Cal. The switch was just another one of the things that changed when we adopted the SI metric measurement system. Average body count for a 21 year old guy.Calorie Counter Australia lists both Cal and kJ
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