2 Cans of Soda: A 93% Energy-Inefficient Species

Did you know the amount of energy used to make the aluminum in two cans of soda is the same amount of calories (about 2000 kCal) needed by an average human to survive for a day? Everyone focuses on the calories inside the can (150 kCal) but we ignore the energy we waste into making a can (1000 kCal per can) because we are a species disconnected from nature’s metabolic chain.

An average American uses a can of beverage a day so accounting for the energy used to make the aluminum in the cans, an average American uses about 3000 kCal a day. That makes each of us, metabolically-speaking, 65% efficient because for every 3000 kCal we use up, we actually waste (in non-metabolic ways) about one-third of it. Add to that the energy used to fabricate and transport other disposables (plastics, paper) in our daily lives plus our gasoline consumption, and we become metabolically less than 40% efficient. But we are even more wasteful, energy-wise, than that. Each of us in America uses about25,000 kCal of energy a day in our households (electricity, gas, etc.) which is about 12 times the (food) energy we need to survive. That makes us metabolically about 7% efficient!

Even our food metabolism is not efficient! Compared to an average human of the same weight, an orangutan, for instance, burns about 35-40% less calories per day and is a lot more active so it buries a lot less fat than us! If we add the non-food calories (oil, gas or electricity) discussed above, which humans borrow from nature and consume in their households (for heating, cooling, cooking, disposables, etc.) orangutans use about 90-95% less energy than humans per unit weight. By the time we add industrial energy consumption to our residential usage, we are no doubt the most metabolically inefficient species ever.

In my book (available soon), I will explain, in simple science, how energy is the universal currency in nature and how many of our problems are linked to our metabolic inefficiency and unlinking from nature’s metabolic symbiotic chains. So the next time you hear people debate about the best diet (Keto, paleo, Mediterranean, etc.), calories in a soda drink, public health policies, COVID-19 co-morbidities, economic recession, global warming, wars in the Middle East, and climate change, please share this little factoid with them. And ask them to order my book to see how metabolic inefficiency is the root of disease, disorder and discord.