To accompany feature “Cool Jobs: Counting calories”

SCIENCE 

Before Reading: 

1.  What are calories?

2.  What are some ways you can learn about how many calories are in foods? Why does it matter how many calories are in different foods?

During Reading: 

1.  What is one way scientists can determine how many calories are in a food?

2.  How does a bomb calorimeter work?

3.  What does a calorie measure?

4.  What have David Baer and his colleagues discovered about calories in whole nuts?

5.   How does the Instinct Diet differ from the foods that most people regularly eat?

6.   What major finding did Susan Roberts report after looking at brain activity in volunteers on the Instinct Diet?

7.   How does Susan Roberts’ work in Guinea-Bissau differ from her work in the United States?  

8.   What is resistant starch?

9.   What method did Sudhair James use to reduce the number of calories in rice?

10. What role do gut bacteria play in nutrition and health?

After Reading:

1.  What are some factors that affect how much energy a person gets from eating a food?

2.  How can understanding calories help you make healthy food choices?