Do negative calorie foods still count in my intake?
The phrase negative calorie food is used to refer to foods that require more energy to digest than they provide nutritionally. No food can literally have negative calories in the sense of not releasing energy when digested. However, some foods provide very few calories, and the body may use up more energy to digest them than it gains. The result is a net calorie deficit. Low nutrient, high cellulose foods like celery are generally agreed to consume slightly more energy to digest than they provide nutritionally. These foods may be consumed within a weight-loss diet to potentially relieve the feeling of hunger without contributing to total caloric intake. Limiting a diet to only these foods would result in malnutrition. Celery has 20 calories per stalk. Some say that many vegetables and fruits promoted as “negative calorie” contain more calories than are consumed in digestion, but they may have a low amount of calories relative to the amount of satiation they provide. These foods would i
