How many calories are there in a human? Scientists create disturbing nutritional guide for cannibals
A thigh provides a stonking 13,354 calories while kidneys tot up 376 a pop
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SCIENTISTS have worked out how many calories you would consume if you tucked into a human.
They were trying to work out whether prehistoric cannibals benefited from munching a pal instead of an animal, so created a nutritional guide to the average male.
A man provides around 125,822 calories, according to Dr James Cole, who lead the study which was .
Cole stopped short of chopping up unfortunate volunteers in the name of science, and instead analysed several studies from the 1940s and 1950s with protein and fat figures.
Based on four men aged between 25 and 60 and weighing around 145 pounds, he calculated how many calories would be released.
This included a one-pound heart - about 650 calories- three pounds of nerve tissue - approximately 2,0001 - and a four-pound liver, which would make up around 2,569 calories.
Combining them, he created the bizarre nutritional guide.
The figures prove that the average male would have provided a lot less fat and protein - and therefore less energy - than animals that roamed the Earth at that time.
This means that cannibalism by our ancestors, called hominims, was unlikely to be out of necessity, and could have been a cultural trend.
Cole said: "The use of the human nutritional template presented here highlights that humans (and by inference hominins) fall within the expected range of calories for an animal of our average body weight. We are, however, significantly lower in calorie value when compared to single large fauna (such as mammoth, bison, cattle and horse) that have a much greater calorific return per individual than many of the groups of cannibalised human remains.
Average male in calories
Skeletal Muscle 32375.50 calories
Torso and Head 5418.67 calories
Upper arms 7451.16 calories
Forearms 1664.48 calories
Thighs 13354.88 calories
Calves 4486.3
Brain, Spinal Cord, Nerve Trunks 2706.00
Lungs 1596.50
Heart 650.75
Kidneys 376.00
Liver 2569.50
Skin 10278.00
Skeleton 25331.50
Teeth 36.00
Nerve Tissue 2001.00
Spleen 128.33
Pancreas 160.50
Remaining Tissue:
Liquid 469.50
Solid 13890.50
"This return must therefore question the viability of hunting and consuming hominins for strictly nutritional reasons."
Millions of humans are doomed to become cannibals as drought and famine sweep the world, one expert has warned.
Famine and overpopulation in the poorest countries in the world could spark a new era of humans feasting on each other, claimed biology professor and research associate at the American Natural Museum of History, Bill Schutt.
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