A negative-calorie food is food that supposedly requires more

food energy Food energy is chemical energy that animals (including humans) derive from their food to sustain their metabolism, including their muscular activity. Most animals derive most of their energy from aerobic respiration, namely combining the carbohy ...

to be digested than the food provides. Its thermic effect or specific dynamic action—the caloric "cost" of digesting the food—would be greater than its food energy content. Despite its recurring popularity in dieting guides, there is no evidence supporting the idea that any food is calorically negative. While some chilled beverages are calorically negative, the effect is minimal and requires drinking very large amounts of water, which can be dangerous, as it can cause

water intoxication Water intoxication, also known as water poisoning, hyperhydration, overhydration, or water toxemia, is a potentially fatal disturbance in brain functions that results when the normal balance of electrolytes in the body is pushed outside safe li ...

Controversy

There is no evidence to show that any of these foods have a negative calorific impact. Foods claimed to be negative in calories are mostly low-calorie fruits and vegetables such as celery, grapefruit, orange, lemon, lime, apple, lettuce, broccoli, and cabbage. However, celery has a thermic effect of around 8%, much less than the 100% or more required for a food to have "negative calories". Diets based on negative-calorie food do not work as advertised but can lead to weight loss because they satisfy hunger by filling the stomach with food that is not calorically dense. A 2005 study based on a low-fat

plant-based diet A plant-based diet is a diet consisting mostly or entirely of plant-based foods. Plant-based diets encompass a wide range of dietary patterns that contain low amounts of animal products and high amounts of plant products such as vegetables, fru ...

found that the average participant lost over fourteen weeks, and attributed the weight loss to the reduced energy density of the foods resulting from their low fat content and high fiber content, and the increased thermic effect. Nevertheless, these diets are not "negative-calorie" since they bear energy. Another study demonstrated that negative-calorie diets (NCDs) have the same efficacy to low-calorie diets (LCDs) in inducing weight loss when both of these diets are combined with exercise. Chewing gum was once speculated as "negative-calorie food"; however, a study on chewing gum reported mastication burns roughly per hour. Therefore, one stick of gum which contains around 10 kcal would require being chewed for one or more hours to reach "negative-calorie".

References

{{reflist, 30em, refs= {{cite news, last1=Webber, first1=Roxanne, title=Does Drinking Ice Water Burn Calories?, url-status=dead, archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220318051538/https://www.chowhound.com/food-news/54270/does-drinking-ice-water-burn-calories/, url=http://www.chowhound.com/food-news/54270/does-drinking-ice-water-burn-calories/, archive-date=18 March 2022, access-date=17 April 2022, work=Chowhound, publisher=CBS Interactive, date=3 January 2008 {{cite book, first1=Marion, last1= Nestle, first2=Malden, last2= Nesheim, title=Why Calories Count: From Science to Politics, url=https://archive.org/details/whycaloriescount0000nest, url-access=registration, access-date=8 February 2013, date=18 April 2012, publisher=University of California Press, isbn=978-0-520-26288-1, page
189
��190 , quote= What are these magic foods? Just the low-calorie, high-nutrient-density fruits and vegetables that you might expect to be recommended to someone who is dieting: celery, grapefruit, lemon, lime, apple, lettuce, broccoli, cabbage, and other such items. {{cite news, url=http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1896439_1896359_1896346,00.html, archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090509065606/http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1896439_1896359_1896346,00.html, url-status=dead, archive-date=9 May 2009, title=There Are No Negative-Calorie Foods: Debunking 10 Myths About Dieting, last=Snyderman, first= Nancy, date= 6 May 2009, magazine=

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, ...

{{cite book, title=100 Questions & Answers About Anorexia Nervosa, first=Sari Fine, last=Shepphird, chapter=Question 74, publisher=Jones & Bartlett, year=2009, pag
171
isbn=978-0-7637-5450-1, chapter-url-access=registration, chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/100questionsansw0000shep/page/171 {{cite journal, last1=Barnard, first1=Neal D., last2=Scialli, first2=Anthony R., last3=Turner-McGrievy, first3=Gabrielle, last4=Lanou, first4=Amy J., last5=Glass, first5=Jolie, title=The effects of a low-fat, plant-based dietary intervention on body weight, metabolism, and insulin sensitivity, journal=The American Journal of Medicine, date=September 2005, volume=118, issue=9, pages=991–997, doi=10.1016/j.amjmed.2005.03.039, pmid=16164885 {{cite journal, title=The Energy Expended in Chewing Gum, last=Levine, first=James, date= 30 December 1999, journal=The New England Journal of Medicine, volume=341 , issue=27 , page=2100 , doi=10.1056/NEJM199912303412718 Pseudoscience Diets Metabolism

Controversy

See also

References