Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

So my original plan was to take two sample menus each filling the requirements for the food pyramids and see if the calories add up to a 2000 cal. diet. But I can't get anything to burn. Not even dry foods that should burn. If you have ANY advice on a new ideas on getting foods to burn or another idea using the calorimeter I'd really appreciate it (i was thinking about seeing the difference in different brands of the same food-but you can see that off the package so that wouldn't work would it?; or maybe taking the same brand of chips and burning different variations (sour cream & onion; oil and vinger, plain; etc and seeing if the topics add calories?).

It would be helpful to hear what you were doing to try to get them to burn, to hear your experimental technique.

It's easier to advise you on how to get a better result when we know what you've tried to do. As a rule, food is mostly water and is going to require significant heat to burn.