Calculating the calorie content of tree nuts like walnuts and almonds based on

methods developed over a century ago should be reviewed as they are

"inaccurate", according to a top US government researcher.
Scientists from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) this month
announced that they found that walnuts have 21 per cent fewer calories than
previously thought. Historically, the calorie value for walnuts, almonds
and pistachios have been determined using the Atwater factors, which were
developed in the late 19th century and calculates metabolisable energy, or
energy available to the body, for many foods, Dr David J Baer, Supervisory
Research Physiologist at the USDA's Agricultural Research Service, said.
Baer's research found that the metabolisable energy of walnuts was 21 per
cent less than that predicted by the Atwater factors.
"This is a third study that we have published investigating the calorie content
of tree nuts. We have previously found that for pistachios and almonds, the
current approach for calculating the calorie content of nuts (using the Atwater
factors) also is inaccurate," Baer said.

He said the discrepancy found by the researchers could be attributed to

evolving methods for calculating calories in foods. Scientists in the 1950s
grouped walnuts and other tree nuts with other plant-based foods, such as

dry beans, legumes and peas, and estimated that each gram of protein or
carbohydrate in those foods contained an average of 4 calories of energy,
while each gram of fat contained an average of 9 calories.
Baer said the system can work well for estimating calories in mixed diets
involving several foods, but not so well for estimating specific calories for
certain foods individually, such as tree nuts. Few studies over the years have
focused on how individual foods are absorbed by the body, and little scientific
data has been collected on tree nuts, he said.