Automatic Calorie Counter

Counting the calories you consume is about to get a whole lot easier! A prototype device has been developed that directly measures the calories in food. Although it currently works only on homogeneous (blended) mixtures, a version is also in the works that will determine the caloric content of a typical plate of food.

A review of the nutritional data on thousands of foods indicates that calories can be estimated within 5 to 10 percent using only three parameters – fat content, water content, and total weight. The new technology is based on the fact that fat and water each have a characteristic effect on microwaves, so by passing low-energy microwaves through a sample and measuring how they are changed, a reasonable estimation of calories can be calculated.

In order to perform similar measurements on non-homogeneous samples, the engineers are looking at developing microwave antennas with more uniform distribution and algorithms that can average readings from multiple points on the plate. The method could someday be incorporated into a microwave appliance that would heat your food and provide a read out of the calories without measuring and without the need to consult endless nutritional charts.