Stick To Nature Instead Of Counting Calories! Myths To Avoid…

Before science and technology, there was no such thing as a “calorie”. The energy of food always existed, however, and the calories from the foods that were free naturally were perfect. There weren’t carcinogenic calories that cause inflammation and excessive weight gain. Our paleo ancestors did not sit around and calculate calories before or after eating a meal. Food has taken on a different shape since then. A calorie is a unit of energy. It’s known that when we eat and drink more calories than we use up, our bodies store the excess as body fat. However, some people can eat the same number of calories as someone else, yet have very different outcomes when it comes to your weight. This is for a few reasons… 

Myth 1: That all calories are equal! 

Calories are not equal and it doesn’t take a degree to understand this. 500 calories from fried fast foods react differently in the body than 500 calories from homemade fries at home-cooked in olive oil for example. It’s quality over quantity. Some calories are anxiogenic (produce anxiety) whereas other calories are anxiolytic (relieve anxiety and inflammation). 

Myth 2: Calories from sugar are equal

There’s no sugar-coating it, they are not equal. Even some medical doctors say all sugar is sugar, but it’s not. For example monk fruit, things that are sweetened with monk fruit “sugar” hits the body differently. Monk fruit is mostly eliminated from the gastrointestinal tract, while small amounts are absorbed into the bloodstream and excreted in the urine. This is good news as they do not have a direct impact on blood glucose since they are not absorbed. Therefore even though monk fruit is incredibly sweet, the calories from monk fruit are zero! Versus calories from corn syrup, 57 calories for 1 tablespoon of sugar is 60 calories. The impact those calories have on the body and astronomical, they are proven carcinogens and neurotoxins. 

So it’s obvious to choose a treat or dessert sweetened with monk fruit over refined white sugar, even if they have the same amount of “calories”. 

Myth 3: There are negative calorie foods 

Even celery has calories! Chewing doesn’t take away the calories. 

Myth 4: Calorie labels are always correct 

Believe it or not but they aren’t! Food companies make mistakes all the time and have to relabel. The calorie calculators aren’t always accurate and neither are always the people putting the ingredients into the calculators. 

Myth 5: Counting calories leads to weight loss

This isn’t always the case. The body needs energy to burn fat. The body needs nourishment. Simply using more calories than consuming isn’t the way to weight loss. How your body burns calories depends on several factors, including the quality and type of food you eat, your body's metabolism, and even the type of organisms living in your digestive system! You can eat the same number of calories as someone else, yet have very different outcomes when it comes to your weight. 

Myth 6: Juice calories are most often not accurate 

When people are calculating the calories of a juice they are taking into consideration the entire vegetable or fruit, for example, an apple, and a cucumber, however when it’s juiced the fiber is removed! Calorie calculators do not consider this. 

Myth 7: Calorie science is up to date 

Calorie values are based on 120-year-old science. They also don’t take into account what happens to food when we eat and cook it, it changes the calories and many calories are cooked out of the food! 

Myth 8: We digest every calorie we consume 

Most of these counts are inaccurate because Calories on labels ignore the complexity of digestion. Digestion is so intricate and so different for each person that even if we try to improve calorie counts, we will likely never make them exactly accurate. 

Myth 9: Cutting calories leads to weight loss

The body is always compensating and will make adjustments to maintain energy balance below the level of your operability. 

Resource:

https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/stop-counting-calories