The negative calorie phrase refers to a small list of foods which contain such little energy that the body uses more energy to digest and absorb the energy and nutrients.This means just from eating these foods there is potential for a net loss of calories from the body or a negative calorie balance. This is required in order to lose weight. There is much controversy about the negative calorie diet. The amount of energy used may be relative to the amount and complexity of the meal ingested. In other words, the energy cost to digest and absorb may be set as a general percentage of the energy contained in each specific food, thus there cannot ever be foods with negative calories.
See also: Negative, Calorie, Diet
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