| A Calorie is Not a Calorie |
| Energy from food is called calories. One calorie is actually defined as the amount of energy required to raise one gram of water one degree Celsiius. To measure the amount of heat loss of different foods scientists break the food chemical bonds completely underwater and then measure the change in the temperature of the water from the heat generated from these chemical reaction. Scientists have measured the calories in protein, fats and carbohydrates and have determined that both protein and carbohydrates have four calories per gram and fat has nine calories per gram. This is where all the confusion began. Because the clorie measurments took place in a test tube where no other factors came in play scientists wrongly concluded that fat is twice as fattening as protein and carbohydrates. But this is no TRUE! To your body a hundred calorie snack does not necessarily contain a hundred calories worth of avaiable energy. The hundred calories reflect only the amount possible energy that could be utilized by your body, depending on what kind of food the snack is. If the snack is composed of carbohydrates your body has to use the hundred calories for immediate energy or store that energy as fat. But if the snack is made up of protein and fats your body can use these foods first for building materials (cells, enzymes, hormones, and so on.) leabing fewer calories to be used as energy or stored as fat. For example in a lab you can take 7 ounces of chicken (protein and fat) and broke it down into its basic elements you would find that it contained 380 calories. But when you eat the same piece of chicken your body does not break the chicken down into its basic elements. the protein and fat in the chicken are only partially broken down in to amino acids and fatty acids which are then used to build new proteins (muscle, hair, skin) and fats (myelin sheaths, cell membranes, and hormones). Since chicken was never broken down to its basic elements but instead was reconfigured into new protein and fats all of the bonds were never actually brokes. Therefore all of the potential energy was never released as it is in a lab setting. Beacuse protein and fats are not broken down into energy and are used instead as building material little or none of the proteins and fats goes to fat storage. Carbohydrates however are not used as building materials but instead provide energy that is then used to drive chemical reactions. If the energy derived from carbohydrates is not needed at the moment carbohydrates are stored as energy either in ready energy form as glycogen or in a long-term form as body fat. These days many experts agree that a calorie restricted diet is an obsolete approach to body fat loss. Today we hear that the way to health and fitness is to maintain a strict low fat diet counting fat grams. But low fat diets are even more dangerous to your health than calorie reduced diets beacuse ow fat diets eliminate two of the most essential nutrient groups. |
| References by: Diane schwarzbein, M.D. |