Many health practitioners, especially those educated years ago,
continue to repeat the mantra that, "A calories is a calorie" like they
are all interchangeable. To lose weight, many still recommend counting
and cutting calories below your current level, taking the position that
calories from fats, proteins and carbs are the same! Many doctors and
weight-loss companies also focus on cutting calories to lose weight. We
even have computer apps to track and count calories, making the approach
seem legitimate. It's not!
What's a calorie:
Some of you might remember that a calorie is: the amount of heat required to raise the temperature of water by 1 degree Celsius. It's essentially a measurement of energy production. It's also an abstraction, removed from nutrition and physiology in key ways!
Digestion and metabolism are the key
The reason that calories are not equal is because the approach doesn't account for the digestive and metabolic process, where different foods are processed differently.
During digestion, sugars and refined carbs break down quickly, starting with chewing and saliva. They are absorbed quickly after leaving the stomach, spiking blood sugar. Proteins and fats need more time in stomach acid, bile (from the gall bladder), and other enzymes to break down, so those nutrients take significantly longer to digest. The simple speed list for digestion is: fats are slowest, proteins second slowest, and carbs, especially sugar/refined carbs like soda, cookies and crackers, are quickest. Refined carbs, those with a high-glycemic index, often spike blood glucose, and high sugar levels are toxic to tissues! The result is extra weight, fat and other health problems.
A flawed approach for weight loss
People who use calorie restriction for weight loss often gain all the weight back, plus more! So if you follow that flawed advice of cutting calories to lose weight, it will backfire! Why?
Calorie restriction is unwise and unhealthy. You lose important vitamins and minerals, as well as lean muscle and bone. It also puts your body into starvation mode, which slows your metabolism further! And any loss of muscle means you now have a smaller engine to use food calories, making weight gain faster and easier once you stop calorie restriction or dieting. In fact, the whole concept of "dieting" or cutting calories/food intake for a few weeks to lose weight is a myth! You will be worse off than when you started!
Consider 2 meals with similar calorie totals (values approximate)
Here is a comparison of 2 meals, a 4-oz. chicken breast, a large serving of mixed veggies with olive oil and spices, a medium serving of brown/wild rice and mug of green tea, VS. a 3-oz. beef burger on a bun, small french fries, and a small, 6-oz. soda.
1. For the chicken/veggie meal, the overall nutrient totals are:
Results
The impact on weight and health is clear! The lower-nutrient burger meal has 54 grams of more high-glycemic carbs, along with lower protein levels. That combo will spike your blood sugar faster and higher (think of a steep rise and fall like a sharp mountain peak), adding to weight gain and inflammation (the sugars, refined carbs and veggie oils are more pro-inflammatory).
The higher-nutrient chicken meal with nutrient-rich veggies (vitamins, minerals, fiber, antioxidants), rice blend and higher protein will digest far more slowly. It will keep blood sugar more stable compared to the burger meal (picture a gradual rise and fall over several hours like a small hill). With the slower rise, you can burn off those calories with normal activity more easily, resulting in little or no fat storage. You might even lose weight! It's also a low-inflammatory meal because it has more complex, healthy nutrients and fats. The green tea also adds anti-inflammatory polyphenols.
So the outcome on health is very different for the 2 meals: One leads to probable weight gain and inflammation/health problems (the burger meal), while the other leads to stable weight or weight loss, and can actually help to lower inflammation and improve health (chicken/veggie meal).
In fact, the typical meal of a burger, fries and soda will spike your blood sugar in an hour (or less), adding to weight gain after insulin is released and glucose is removed from the blood and stored as fat. Unless you are very active after you eat, you will probably store them!
I'll burn those calories!
How much activity does it take to burn off the glucose-spiking burger meal? How about 30-45 minutes of running, cycling or jumping rope to keep from gaining weight! That's about how much exercise you will need to do to burn up the calories and the surge in blood glucose! How many people have these fast-food meals (or make them at home), and are working out for 30-45 minutes every time they eat that way?
Keep in mind, many burger/cheeseburger, fries and soda combinations have much larger portion sizes than I used, reaching 700-1,000 total calories. That means it could take a good hour of exercise to use up the calories and spiking blood sugar for one meal! No wonder so many people gain weight, year after year!
If you've seen my other article and posts, you know that the burger meal, with its refined carbs and inflammatory foods, will also contribute to a host of health conditions and diseases, such as heart disease, atherosclerosis, high BP, diabetes, arthritis, cancer and more! Those problems add to the misinformation that all calories are the same. They are clearly not!
What's a calorie:
Some of you might remember that a calorie is: the amount of heat required to raise the temperature of water by 1 degree Celsius. It's essentially a measurement of energy production. It's also an abstraction, removed from nutrition and physiology in key ways!
Digestion and metabolism are the key
The reason that calories are not equal is because the approach doesn't account for the digestive and metabolic process, where different foods are processed differently.
During digestion, sugars and refined carbs break down quickly, starting with chewing and saliva. They are absorbed quickly after leaving the stomach, spiking blood sugar. Proteins and fats need more time in stomach acid, bile (from the gall bladder), and other enzymes to break down, so those nutrients take significantly longer to digest. The simple speed list for digestion is: fats are slowest, proteins second slowest, and carbs, especially sugar/refined carbs like soda, cookies and crackers, are quickest. Refined carbs, those with a high-glycemic index, often spike blood glucose, and high sugar levels are toxic to tissues! The result is extra weight, fat and other health problems.
A flawed approach for weight loss
People who use calorie restriction for weight loss often gain all the weight back, plus more! So if you follow that flawed advice of cutting calories to lose weight, it will backfire! Why?
Calorie restriction is unwise and unhealthy. You lose important vitamins and minerals, as well as lean muscle and bone. It also puts your body into starvation mode, which slows your metabolism further! And any loss of muscle means you now have a smaller engine to use food calories, making weight gain faster and easier once you stop calorie restriction or dieting. In fact, the whole concept of "dieting" or cutting calories/food intake for a few weeks to lose weight is a myth! You will be worse off than when you started!
Consider 2 meals with similar calorie totals (values approximate)
Here is a comparison of 2 meals, a 4-oz. chicken breast, a large serving of mixed veggies with olive oil and spices, a medium serving of brown/wild rice and mug of green tea, VS. a 3-oz. beef burger on a bun, small french fries, and a small, 6-oz. soda.
1. For the chicken/veggie meal, the overall nutrient totals are:
- 480 calories for the chicken breast, veggies, rice mix and tea
- 32 grams of protein
- 28 grams of complex, high-fiber carbs
- 22 grams of fat, mostly healthy
- 500 calories for the burger, bun, fries and small soda
- 24 grams of protein
- 54 grams of low-fiber, high-glycemic carbs
- 23 grams of mostly unhealthy fat
Results
- What stands out the most is that the burger/fries meal has far more refined, low-fiber carbs, and almost twice as many total carbs, 54 vs. 28. Those refined carbs (bun, fries, soda) will spike your blood sugar more quickly, whereas the veggies and rice blend in the chicken meal are more complex carbs. They will digest far more slowly, even slower than protein.
- The chicken meal has more protein grams (32 vs. 24 grams for the burger), meaning the chicken meal will also digest more slowly because of the extra protein.
- The fats in both meals were similar but the chicken meal had less saturated fat and more healthy, monounsaturated fat from the olive oil.
- The chicken meal will give you more sustained energy over a longer period of time, resulting in little or no weight gain!
The impact on weight and health is clear! The lower-nutrient burger meal has 54 grams of more high-glycemic carbs, along with lower protein levels. That combo will spike your blood sugar faster and higher (think of a steep rise and fall like a sharp mountain peak), adding to weight gain and inflammation (the sugars, refined carbs and veggie oils are more pro-inflammatory).
The higher-nutrient chicken meal with nutrient-rich veggies (vitamins, minerals, fiber, antioxidants), rice blend and higher protein will digest far more slowly. It will keep blood sugar more stable compared to the burger meal (picture a gradual rise and fall over several hours like a small hill). With the slower rise, you can burn off those calories with normal activity more easily, resulting in little or no fat storage. You might even lose weight! It's also a low-inflammatory meal because it has more complex, healthy nutrients and fats. The green tea also adds anti-inflammatory polyphenols.
So the outcome on health is very different for the 2 meals: One leads to probable weight gain and inflammation/health problems (the burger meal), while the other leads to stable weight or weight loss, and can actually help to lower inflammation and improve health (chicken/veggie meal).
In fact, the typical meal of a burger, fries and soda will spike your blood sugar in an hour (or less), adding to weight gain after insulin is released and glucose is removed from the blood and stored as fat. Unless you are very active after you eat, you will probably store them!
I'll burn those calories!
How much activity does it take to burn off the glucose-spiking burger meal? How about 30-45 minutes of running, cycling or jumping rope to keep from gaining weight! That's about how much exercise you will need to do to burn up the calories and the surge in blood glucose! How many people have these fast-food meals (or make them at home), and are working out for 30-45 minutes every time they eat that way?
Keep in mind, many burger/cheeseburger, fries and soda combinations have much larger portion sizes than I used, reaching 700-1,000 total calories. That means it could take a good hour of exercise to use up the calories and spiking blood sugar for one meal! No wonder so many people gain weight, year after year!
If you've seen my other article and posts, you know that the burger meal, with its refined carbs and inflammatory foods, will also contribute to a host of health conditions and diseases, such as heart disease, atherosclerosis, high BP, diabetes, arthritis, cancer and more! Those problems add to the misinformation that all calories are the same. They are clearly not!
For complete nutritional details on each meal and source links, see first link below
Helpful links:
http://www.endsicknessnow.com/a-calorie-is-not-a-calorie
http://www.endsicknessnow.com/blast-5-pounds-and-boost-energy
© 2012 by Steve Carney/End Sickness Now
No comments :
Post a Comment