Post by youngblood on Oct 18, 2005 21:34:07 GMT -5
Hey, it's all about the calories, right? Not!
October 17, 2005
By Jonny Bowden, MA, CN, CNS
Gather round, folks, cause I'm gonna tell you a story.
Once upon a time- around 1890 actually- a scientist named Wilbur Atw*ter got
the bright idea of putting food into a special machine, burning it and
measuring the amount of heat it produced. The machine was called a
calorimeter, and old Wilbur decided to call the energy produced by burning
the food into ash "calories". Thus he was able to figure how many calories
were contained in just about any food you could think of.
Shortly afterwards, scientists applied the same concept to exercise. Using a
few calculations, they soon figured out how many calories were "burned"
doing everything from sleeping to cross-country skiing.
Within no time, an idea was born: weight gain happened when a person took in
more calories than he burned up. The body, it was reasoned, behaves like a
calorimeter. Put in calories (from food) use up calories (from living,
exercising, digesting, etc) and look at your balance sheet. If more is
coming in than going out, you gain weight. If more goes out than came in,
you lose. Simple. Especially if the body behaved like a calorimeter.
But it doesn't.
The people who sell empty, useless, nutritionally dead calories- sugar
anyone?- love the calorie theory. According to them, since weight loss is
only a matter of eating less calories, sugar is perfectly acceptable. Just
don't eat so many darn calories and you won't get fat. If you do, says the
sugar industry, don't blame us. Sugar doesn't cause weight gain, as long as
you don't eat more calories than you "burn".
Course that ignores all the other things that sugar does besides provide
(empty) calories: like raise blood sugar, depress the immune system, rob the
body of calcium and use up mineral stores. But that's another story.
Then there's one other itty bitty problem: the body doesn't behave like a
calorimeter. It behaves like a chemistry lab.
Here's an example: Eat a bar that's 100 calories of sugar. Your blood sugar
jumps up. The pancreas responds with a big shot of insulin, whose job it is
to bring blood sugar down. In some people it doesn't do such a great job,
leaving them with high blood sugar and high insulin, both risk factors for
heart disease. In others it does the job OK, but the sugar winds up in the
fat cells. Either way, you lose. And we're not talking about losing fat!
On the other hand, let's say you eat a bar that's 100 calories of protein,
fat and fiber. The protein provides nutrients necessary for the building of
the body's architecture- bones, muscles, enzymes, neurotransmitters. It also
makes you feel full so you're less likely to overeat. The fiber slows the
entrance of sugar into the bloodstream and also helps protect against
cancer. The fat provides important building blocks for cell membranes and
hormones. Protein has only a mild effect on blood sugar and insulin, and
neither fiber nor fat have any effect at all. While both bars are equal from
a calorie point of view, they are anything but equal from the point of view
of hormones, fat storage and health.
The effect of different sources of calories on blood sugar and hormones like
insulin is one of the most important concepts in nutrition, and one which
dietitians still haven't figured out
The bottom line: Eat foods that have the least impact on blood sugar- fiber,
for example, and fat, along with green leafy vegetables, low sugar fruit and
plenty of protein, all of which provide nutrients, building blocks and
health benefits. Sugar on the other hand provides none of those, and will
instead keep you on the blood sugar roller coaster that inevitably leads to
health problems such as obesity.
So if you're looking only at calories, you're missing the fine print. Take
two typical "low carb" bars. While both have about 200 calories, Bar One has
only 1 measly gram of fiber, 14 grams of protein, and 20 grams of sugar
alcohols. Bar Two, on the other hand, has a whopping 10 grams of fiber, 19
grams of protein and a mere 4 grams of sugar alcohols, a sweetener which
usually does not have a significant impact on blood sugar or insulin.
That's the fine print that's missing if you only pay attention to calories.
Calories do matter- but they're very far from the whole story.
Remember, God is in the details- or in this case, in the fine print.
October 17, 2005
By Jonny Bowden, MA, CN, CNS
Gather round, folks, cause I'm gonna tell you a story.
Once upon a time- around 1890 actually- a scientist named Wilbur Atw*ter got
the bright idea of putting food into a special machine, burning it and
measuring the amount of heat it produced. The machine was called a
calorimeter, and old Wilbur decided to call the energy produced by burning
the food into ash "calories". Thus he was able to figure how many calories
were contained in just about any food you could think of.
Shortly afterwards, scientists applied the same concept to exercise. Using a
few calculations, they soon figured out how many calories were "burned"
doing everything from sleeping to cross-country skiing.
Within no time, an idea was born: weight gain happened when a person took in
more calories than he burned up. The body, it was reasoned, behaves like a
calorimeter. Put in calories (from food) use up calories (from living,
exercising, digesting, etc) and look at your balance sheet. If more is
coming in than going out, you gain weight. If more goes out than came in,
you lose. Simple. Especially if the body behaved like a calorimeter.
But it doesn't.
The people who sell empty, useless, nutritionally dead calories- sugar
anyone?- love the calorie theory. According to them, since weight loss is
only a matter of eating less calories, sugar is perfectly acceptable. Just
don't eat so many darn calories and you won't get fat. If you do, says the
sugar industry, don't blame us. Sugar doesn't cause weight gain, as long as
you don't eat more calories than you "burn".
Course that ignores all the other things that sugar does besides provide
(empty) calories: like raise blood sugar, depress the immune system, rob the
body of calcium and use up mineral stores. But that's another story.
Then there's one other itty bitty problem: the body doesn't behave like a
calorimeter. It behaves like a chemistry lab.
Here's an example: Eat a bar that's 100 calories of sugar. Your blood sugar
jumps up. The pancreas responds with a big shot of insulin, whose job it is
to bring blood sugar down. In some people it doesn't do such a great job,
leaving them with high blood sugar and high insulin, both risk factors for
heart disease. In others it does the job OK, but the sugar winds up in the
fat cells. Either way, you lose. And we're not talking about losing fat!
On the other hand, let's say you eat a bar that's 100 calories of protein,
fat and fiber. The protein provides nutrients necessary for the building of
the body's architecture- bones, muscles, enzymes, neurotransmitters. It also
makes you feel full so you're less likely to overeat. The fiber slows the
entrance of sugar into the bloodstream and also helps protect against
cancer. The fat provides important building blocks for cell membranes and
hormones. Protein has only a mild effect on blood sugar and insulin, and
neither fiber nor fat have any effect at all. While both bars are equal from
a calorie point of view, they are anything but equal from the point of view
of hormones, fat storage and health.
The effect of different sources of calories on blood sugar and hormones like
insulin is one of the most important concepts in nutrition, and one which
dietitians still haven't figured out
The bottom line: Eat foods that have the least impact on blood sugar- fiber,
for example, and fat, along with green leafy vegetables, low sugar fruit and
plenty of protein, all of which provide nutrients, building blocks and
health benefits. Sugar on the other hand provides none of those, and will
instead keep you on the blood sugar roller coaster that inevitably leads to
health problems such as obesity.
So if you're looking only at calories, you're missing the fine print. Take
two typical "low carb" bars. While both have about 200 calories, Bar One has
only 1 measly gram of fiber, 14 grams of protein, and 20 grams of sugar
alcohols. Bar Two, on the other hand, has a whopping 10 grams of fiber, 19
grams of protein and a mere 4 grams of sugar alcohols, a sweetener which
usually does not have a significant impact on blood sugar or insulin.
That's the fine print that's missing if you only pay attention to calories.
Calories do matter- but they're very far from the whole story.
Remember, God is in the details- or in this case, in the fine print.
