The End of the Calorie

As anyone who’s spent time by a crackling campfire or a barbecue pit can attest, the scent of smoke is unmistakable—and surprisingly mysterious. Smoke clings to clothing but vanishes in the breeze. You see it, but you can’t hold it. It’s fantastic in whiskey and terrible in toast ...  Show more

Fan favorite Ask Gastropod is back, and we’re celebrating the season by solving a pair of trans-Atlantic mysteries! First up: if you have a purple candy in Europe, it’s nearly guaranteed to be flavored with a tart little berry called blackcurrant—while the same color candy in the ...  Show more

Millions of us are counting calories every day. But do we know if those numbers truly reflect the energy we get from eating? It’s about time that we debunked the “one-size-fits-all” approach to calorie counting and unmasked the outdated methodologies that contribute to inaccuraci ...  Show more

Weight loss is as simple as “calories in, calories out,” right? Or — gasp — could the reply guys be wrong!? This week, we dig in on the surprisingly complex science behind a seemingly simple calculation.

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We’re breaking down everything you’ve ever wanted to know about calories and calorie counting. From what a calorie actually is to why it’s become such a hot topic in diet culture, we’re exploring the science and the psychology behind it all. We’ll talk about why calorie counting ...  Show more

Calories are ubiquitous across most of the world and have been used to help people manage their weight for more than a century. But have we been counting them wrong all along? In this episode, Emily Thomas finds out how the calorie is a lot more complex than many of us realise. H ...  Show more