Is a Calorie Just a Calorie? Choosing Quality Over Quantity

By guest blogger Margaret Floyd

If I told you that you could choose between a handful of carrot sticks and two non-fat chocolate chip cookies, that each has the same number of calories and would have the exact same impact on your waistline, which would you choose?

C’mon, be honest. We’d all pick the cookies.

And if we listened to a lot of the messages out there about weight, then that would be the logical choice. After all, isn’t it all about calories-in calories-out, regardless of where those calories came from?

The problem is, calories are just one itty bitty part of the story.

Here’s the deal. A calorie is not just a calorie. It’s what your body does with that calorie that counts, and what determines this factor is the quality of the food.

Consider your afternoon snack. You have two options: an apple, or a bag of potato chips.

Let’s say you pick the apple. When you’ve finished with the apple – a lower calorie, higher quality snack – you’re probably done with apple. Unless you’ve got a “thing” for apples you likely won’t want to eat another, and another, and another. You’re satisfied and go on with your afternoon.

Now let’s say you pick the potato chips. When you’ve finished a single serving (and who eats just a single serving?) of this higher calorie, lower quality snack, are you done? Probably not. My guess is you blow through several servings, and then with your salt fix satisfied you start craving something sweet to balance it out.

But wait a second… If it’s about the amount of calories and not the quality of the food, shouldn’t you be stuffed full after the higher calorie chips? Shouldn’t you be hungry and craving more after the apple?

It doesn’t work that way. The apple – whole, unrefined – is giving your body real nutrients. The potato chips – refined and highly processed – are just teasing your taste buds without any real nutrition. Do they have calories? Heck yeah. But do they actually feed and nourish you? Not at all. In fact, they’re often loaded with chemicals called excitotoxins that can further stimulate your appetite.

Don’t just take my word for it. A recent study published in The New England Journal of Medicine showed that “focusing on overall dietary quality—such as eating less refined sugars and refined grains and more minimally processed foods—is probably more important to long-term health than monitoring total calorie or fat intake or other nutritional markers.” (Daniel Fromson, The Atlantic)

So if you find yourself insatiable and feeling like portion control is your challenge, check in about the quality of those calories you’re eating. Are they coming from real food? Here are three questions that will help you figure that out:

1. Did it grow that way? – if yes, it’s probably food
2. Can you pronounce all the ingredients and are they things you’d have in your pantry? – if yes, it’s probably food. Bonus points if it is an ingredient and doesn’t have ingredients.
3. Would your great-grandmother recognize it as food? – if yes, it’s probably food

Once you switch over the quality of your diet, portion control often takes care of itself.

Have a favorite quality, real food snack? Share it in the comments below!

Margaret Floyd is a Nutritional Therapist, real food advocate, and author of Eat Naked: Unprocessed, unpolluted, and undressed eating for a healthier, sexier you. She works with clients all over North America and Europe, and blogs at www.eatnakednow.com.