Calories don’t matter. Context does.
“Calories don’t matter?”
Yes, they do. But the form in which we consume our calories--the foods we eat--are even more important.
The calorie (or “kilocalorie”) is a unit of energy defined as the amount of heat needed to raise one kilogrram of water by one degree of temperature. It was first used in nutrtion as a measurement of food energy by Wilbur Olin Atwater in 1887.
Is the calorie concept still useful?
Yes. But it’s not as simple as calories in, calories out when it comes to managing weight. What we eat has a cascading effect on metabolic health, good or bad. The outcomes are up to you.
Dr. Mark Hyman illustrates this difference by detailing what happens when you consume 750 calories in soda (a 7-11 “Double Gulp”).
The calories in the Double Gulp are all fiber-free sugar (186 teaspoons worth!), which means the sugar races into your bloodstrea--all gas, no brakes. Your blood sugar spikes, and then insulin. Chaos ensues:
•Insulin increases storage of body fat
•Fatburning stops
•Inflammation increases
•Triglycerides increase
•HDL (“good” cholesterol) falls
•Blood pressures rises
•Testosterone lowers in men
•Appetite increases as leptin is blocked
•The fructose triggers the liver to start manufacturing fat
Double-gulp, indeed.
And the effects only get worse over time, with repeated extreme sugar consumption.
If that same 750 calories is consumed in, say, broccoli? (That would equal 21 cups, by the way, but hang with me here).
The five alarm sugar fire, and it’s lasting effects, are avoided. Even though 68% of broccoli’s calories come from carbhoydrates, it contains very little sugar, will digest slowly, and your blood sugar stays low.
Calories matter. But what we choose to eat defines the tragectory of our metabolic health in the short and long term, and nothing is more imporant to our physical well-being.