Calorie Intake

Those pesky calorie numbers.  You just can't get away from them.  Either you have someone telling you something related to them or your reading the back of every package or can to see how many are inside.  But what does it all mean?  First a calorie is a measurement of heat a particular food will provide.  Another way of saying this might be it is amount of energy that is either available to be burned or stored.

Of course, if we store it, we call it fat. So here are some daily calorie numbers that we can use as a gauge.
1200-1500 was the estimated daily calorie that was consumed during WWII for the average European.

2,000 calories was considered the minimum an individual can endure on for a limited period of time with reasonable health during WWII.
Today, it is recommended that for a woman 1800-2000 calories be consumed and for men 2000-2800 generally.  The current USA recommended portion plate can be seen in the graphic.  You can read the the current USA government food recommendations report at  http://www.dietaryguidelines.gov


Currently Americans generally consume 2700-3800 calories a day and we wonder why we are overweight. In contrast, Ethiopia's daily calorie intake is about 1800 when available.