Are these foods "negative calorie" foods?

Question

I saw this on a website:

Vegetables
Asparagus
Beet Root
Broccoli
Cabbage
Carrot
Cauliflower
Celery Chicory
Hot Chili
Cucumber
Garden cress
Garlic
Green Beans
Lettuce
Onion
Radish
Spinach
Turnip
Zucchini

Fruits
Apple
Cranberry
Grapefruit Lemon/Lime
Mango
Orange
Papaya Pineapple
Raspberry
Strawberry
Tangerine

All of those foods are, according to the website, negative calorie foods. That doesn't seem right to me...I mean, maybe lettuce and celery, but not the others! Is this true???

Answer 1

the only "negative" calorie foods that I know of are radishes and celery because they use more calories to digest than they actually have in them. fruits have sugar, hence calories, even though they're good for you :)

Answer 2

No, they are not negative calories.

A calorie is a measure of the energy a food product contains. It is actually related to amount of energy required to heat water 1 degree Celsius.

What most people don't realize is that the body is not 100% efficient at extracting calories from food, so just because a food is "x" calories doesn't mean you actually receive "x" calories from it.

For example, protein requires quite a bit of energy to digest. To be used as energy, the body must "deaminate" or strip a nitrogen molecule from the protein. This means that protein may require up to 1/3 of its calories to digest ... in other words, it may take 30 calories to digest 100 calories of protein, so the "net" calories you receive are 70.

With the foods listed, most are good, quality, nutrient dense foods. This means that for whatever calories they provide, you are getting quite a bit of vitamins, minerals, water, and fiber. Fiber does slow digestion and possibly increase the energy your body expends digesting this.

However, there is no "free" ticket. While this is a great, healthy list of foods, they are not magic and cannot reverse the law of thermodynamics (that states energy must be conserved). In other words, it's not an effective strategy to eat apples, cranberries, oranges, rasberries, strawberries, and tangerines all day long to "counteract" the other calories you are eating. This just won't work (if it did, everyone would just eat fruit and magically lose weight).

There is no substitue for quality nutrition, exercise, and an overall balanced approach.

Jeremy Likness

Answer 3

The only true negative calorie foods are apples and celery, they take more calories to digest than they have in them. All the others are just a hoax.

Answer 4

The only food I know of that is negative calories is celery. But yes, your body burns calories digesting it.

Answer 5

That is an excellent answer by Jeremy.

My background in exercise physiology and nutrition can certainly verify what he said.

The human body has to obey the laws of physics.

Answer 6

Fruits. Bananas are my favorite. btw did you know that tomatoes are the #1 selling fresh fruit? true beans

Answer 7

fruit grows on shrub or vines and fresh vegetables grow in the earth.

Answer 8

there are no negative calorie foods - all foods have nutritional value and energy value.
vegetables have less calories, some have very few.
fruit have lots of calories and fructose.

Answer 9

my mom told me your burn more calories chewing celery than you are consuming..

Answer 10

yes mam =)
but for fruits, make sure to eat in moderation, they have a lot of natural sugar.