More food for thought regarding calorie vs calorie.

jkohan

http://www.elephantjournal.com/2014/11/a-nutrition-myth-that-keeps-us-fat-sick-tired/

ndj1979

sigh here we go …

100 calories of carrots = 100 calories of snickers from an energy stand point. However, they are not nutritional twins, and no one is making that argument.

As for the study, why is it so shocking that a group that was over fed calories with a higher percentage of protein retained/gained more muscle mass and had less fat gain then the low protein group?

whenever one does a bulk everyone always says that macro adherence is important for body composition …so I don't see anything ground breaking here.

And as far as the below, talk about a bunch of hogwash …

Here are a few simple tips to speed up your metabolism and get rid of belly fat. totally unnecessary as one just needs to eat in a deficit to lose fat

Skip the sugar—in all of its forms. Especially liquid calories from any source (soda, juice, alcohol), which store as belly fat. Be on a mission to get high-fructose corn syrup out of your diet, it is especially good at laying down belly fat. no
Ditch the flour—yes, even wheat flour, which converts to sugar. Did you know that two slices of whole wheat bread raise your blood sugar more than two tablespoons of table sugar?no
Start the day with protein—not starch or sugar. Try whole omega-3 eggs, a protein shake, nut butters or even kippers! Skip the bagels, muffins and donuts.Ok, but not necessary for fat loss
Have protein with every meal—try nuts like almonds, walnuts or pecans, seeds like pumpkin, chia or hemp or have beans, chicken, or fish.sure, but again, not necessary for weight loss

sounds like more sugar fear mongering to me...

galgenstrick

A calorie is a unit of energy. Just like a cup is a unit of volume. One cup of water and one cup of oil are the same volume. So a cup is a cup. In the same way, a calorie is a calorie. This article just is trying to say that foods have different nutrition density. A calorie is a calorie. Fact. Not debatable.

isulo_kura

jkohan wrote: »

http://www.elephantjournal.com/2014/11/a-nutrition-myth-that-keeps-us-fat-sick-tired/

I suggest using the forum search and then you can read the hundreds of threads that have debated this over the past 2 weeks and just gone around in circles. A calorie is a unit of energy end of. The same way an inch is a measurement of size and not changeable (unless your a fisherman or a man who feels threatened ;-))

stevencloser

A kilometer is a kilometer. If you walk it it's better for you than if you drive it but you still went 1 kilometer in both cases. This whole argument is putting 2 things that are not the same into the same bucket.
It's like one person walks 1 kilometer while someone else drives 100 and the walker said he won in a contest to see who can go further because walking is healthier than driving.

lemurcat12

As others have said, it would be helpful if people who want to address the "calorie is a calorie" argument would actually address it and not pretend like it means something it doesn't (like that there are no nutritional differences between foods). When people argue with things no one has ever said, it makes me think they aren't actually comprehending the argument or that they are being intentionally disingenuous.

lemurcat12

Re the linked article, it starts with a ridiculous strawman, 750 calories of broccoli vs. the same of soda. But obviously no one recommends drinking 750 calories of soda, and I for one couldn't eat 750 calories of broccoli (and I love broccoli).

Glucose spikes your blood sugar, starting a domino effect of high insulin and a cascade of hormonal responses that kicks bad biochemistry into gear. High insulin increases belly fat, inflammation, blood pressure, and triglycerides while it lowers HDL, decreases testosterone in men, and contributes to infertility in women.

People take arguments like this to think any food that leads to an insulin response is bad, but of course that's ridiculous, seriously uneducated. Also, if you eat a balanced diet you shouldn't have to worry about blood sugar spikes (even without obsessing about stuff like whether a potato is high GI, as opposed to how eating some potato with your dinner actually makes you feel). SOME people have to do more, because they are insulin resistant but I get so tired of advice that assumes we all should pretend like we are diabetics even if we aren't.

Fructose, on the other hand, goes right to your liver, where it starts manufacturing fat.

So fruit makes you fat? This is silly. Whether you net add fat or lose fat over the course of a day or week depends on--wait for it!--calorie balance.

Now, if you ate those 21 cups of broccoli (highly unlikely!), they contain so much fiber that very few of the calories would actually get absorbed. There’d be no blood sugar or insulin spike, no fatty liver, and no hormonal chaos.

Well, you'd probably be in pain. Also, the idea that it's inherently good to eat food where you won't absorb calories from it seems kind of perverted. Isn't one of the major purposes of food (from the perspective of a human eating it, anyway) to provide calories? If you are eating instead to just bulk up your stomach contents and quell some kind of feeling of hunger, that makes me wonder if there's a medical issue or -- more likely -- an emotional one. If you eat a balanced diet you should be able to eat a wide range of food and be perfectly satisfied, not hungry, so I don't know why those who are anti "calorie is a calorie" seem to assume that everyone is running around feeling like they are starving all the time. If you feel that way, your diet is screwed up (or something else is going on), yes, but somehow I can eat a normal diet with some chocolate or ice cream, even, and some of those dreaded potatoes with the high GI too and not feel overly hungry.

So you see, food is more than calories

Who in the world has ever argued that food is only calories. That's dumb. Arguing against things people haven't said may seem an easy way to win an argument, but really it just makes you look like you missed the point or enjoy talking to yourself.