How much energy is in a kiss?

by Jonathan M. Forester, Posted Jan 22nd 2007 @ 6:35PM

So how much energy is in a kiss? I guess it depends upon the kiss. Is it a kiss by Helen of Troy? Or a Hershey's kiss? Well Helen's days of kissing are long gone, but scientists have calculated the energy in a Hershey's kiss (and any other food) and you would be amazed. They use something called a bomb calorimeter which is designed to hold small food explosions and then measure the heat produced by the explosion.

A Hershey's kiss has 26 calories. Now that's not much, but if you look at calories from a scientific viewpoint, and the energy they measure, then that tiny little kiss can provide enough energy to lift a 8,600 lb. SUV over six feet into the air. There's a heck of a lot more energy in our food than you think. If you want to learn more about this check out the article at www.NPR.org.

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Filed Under: Science, Did you know?, Ingredients
Tags: calories, calorimeter, chocolate, did you know, energy, explode, hersheys kisses, HersheysKisses, Joules, suv

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Reader comments (Page 1 of 1)

1-22-2007 @8:13PM plumpy said... The article sure did make an impossible confusion of the difference between Calories and calories. A Hershey's kiss has 26,000 calories, but only 26 Calories.

They say: "But almost every nutrition reference in the United States refers to Calories but calls them calories."

Really? Every food label I just glanced at said "Calories". They mix the two definitions in the article creating an terrible jumble. In one sentence, they use "calorie" correctly, in the next they use it to mean "Calorie".

And this is just wrong: "We're all used to thinking about "small c" calories -- the calories on American food labels."

The Calories on American food labels are "big c" Calories... and they're identified correctly! That's two mistakes in once sentence!

It's still an interesting article if you can wade through the sloppy notation errors.
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