The Hamburger Diet? Why Hamburgers and Apples Lower Total Calorie Intake

A simple look at food intake might lead one to believe that eating a high calorie food, such as a hamburger, must lead to an increase of daily calorie consumption of exactly the amount of the food. However, it is possible that foods may displace or compound the total calories eaten in a day. Using food intake data from NHANES 2007–2008, we examine how various foods interact with total calorie consumption. We find that for several foods, such as salty snacks and sodas, that a calorie consumed is correlated with more than a calorie of total daily intake, suggesting that these foods compound total calorie consumption. However for other foods, such as hamburgers and fruits, a calorie consumed is correlated with less than a calorie increase of total intake, with coefficients of 0.78 and 0.69 respectively. This suggests that these foods displace more calories than they contribute to total consumption. By examining how foods interact with total consumption we can gain a richer view of which foods dieters should be truly leery of.