On a recent viewing of the show Hot Ones , where celebrities eat wings that get progressively spicier while being interviewed. As the wings continue to get spicier and the Scoville level passes 40,000, I can feel my own throat and skin radiating with heat as I continue watching them even though I’m not the one eating the wings. More so, I sympathize with the urge for celebrities to grab a bottle of milk to drown out the heat. That urge was the moment I grew interested in why

How did the calorie become the standard unit to measure the energy of food? Originally used by scientists, it made its way onto...