A friend of mine told me that if I wanted a low-calorie snack, I should eat celery because it actually has negative calories. He claimed this meant that I would burn more calories chewing and digesting the celery than I would actually get from it. Is what he claims true? Are there any other negative-calorie foods? Oh, and you wouldn’t happen to know a good low-calorie dip for the celery, would you? –Christopher Moore, via the Internet
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Cecil has been hearing this for years, and for just as long has been disinclined to believe it. Nosing about on the Web, however, I started to wonder. As you might expect, you find quite a few hucksters touting the benefits of alleged “negative calorie” foods, including not just celery but asparagus, broccoli, lettuce, grapefruit, and a long list of other fruits and vegetables–and for a small fee these helpful folks will reveal to you their foolproof fat-burning diet plans. More scientifically minded parties dismiss these schemes, but tend to do so in such sniffy terms that one suspects they haven’t really considered the question of negative-calorie foods on its merits. Moreover, one usually reliable source, the Urban Legends Reference Pages at www.snopes.com, says that while the negative-calorie shtick on the whole is a crock, what you’ve heard about celery is true. However, no corroboration of this statement is supplied.
We then commenced a rigorous regimen of celery consumption. This was tougher than you might think–you don’t lay into a plateful of celery with the same enthusiasm you might have for an equivalent quantity of barbecued ribs. After an hour I’d eaten eight stalks. (I was interrupted a couple times, thankfully.) All things considered, I think I packed away as much of the stringy stuff as could reasonably be expected. Total consumption: 514 grams. Total calories ingested: 72.
