Food Quality and Design Group, Wageningen University, Wageningen, the Netherlands.
Human Nutrition Unit, Department of Food and Drugs, University of Parma, Parma Italy.
Nutr Rev. 2018 Apr 1;76(4):274-289. doi: 10.1093/nutrit/nux072.
The energy content of food is calculated on the basis of general factors for fat, protein, and carbohydrates. These general factors were derived by W.O. Atwater in the late 19th century, while additional factors for dietary fiber, polyols, and organic acids were introduced more recently. These factors are applied indiscriminately to all types of foods, yet the same nutrient may be digested to different extents to generate energy, depending on the characteristics of the food matrix, the processing methods applied to foods, and the meal composition. As a consequence, the actual energy content of food may differ from what is theoretically calculated with the Atwater factors. In this review, the relationship of macronutrient digestibility with food structure, macronutrient structure, and food composition is examined, and the implications for the amount of energy achievable through diet are highlighted. Estimates of the discrepancy between calculated energy content and actual energy content are provided for different diets. The findings may have implications for consumer purchasing decisions as well as for the design of dietary interventions.
食物的能量含量是根据脂肪、蛋白质和碳水化合物的一般因素来计算的。这些一般因素是由 W.O.阿特沃特在 19 世纪后期得出的，而最近又引入了膳食纤维、多元醇和有机酸的额外因素。这些因素被不加区分地应用于所有类型的食物，但同一种营养素可能因食物基质的特性、应用于食物的加工方法以及膳食组成而被不同程度地消化以产生能量。因此，食物的实际能量含量可能与阿特沃特因素理论计算的结果不同。在这篇综述中，考察了宏量营养素消化率与食物结构、宏量营养素结构和食物组成的关系，并强调了这对通过饮食获得能量的量的影响。针对不同的饮食提供了对计算能量含量与实际能量含量之间差异的估计。这些发现可能对消费者的购买决策以及饮食干预措施的设计具有重要意义。
