The first steps to stop being obese - part 5
Attention to the most sensitive: the next three statements are very controversial and may hurt sensibilities.
Here you go:
Calories are all the same
Foods with the same calories are not the same
We are all the same but all different
There, it's said!
Now let me dwell on them.
For reasons I cannot understand, these statements generate controversy. They seem to be arguments on which it is impossible to ever reach consensus. There is no reason at all for that to happen because they are all true and scientifically based!
The only explanation for the heated discussions that are generated whenever obesity, diet and weight loss are discussed may be
Let us then look at each of them.
Calories are all the same.
You often hear that "all calories are not equal", that there are "calories that are healthier than others".
Unfortunately that is not true.
The calorie is a unit of energy, fixed and immutable. It is laboratory defined as the energy required to heat a given volume of water. It is what it is. It is similar to saying that your toaster or your magic wand produces 1000W: they both have the same power, even though they use it for different functions.
When two different foods have the same calories it means that the energy load they contain is the same. For simplification purposes, the calories contained in food are no longer calculated as a whole, but are estimated taking into account its constitution in terms of macro-nutrients: fat, protein and carbohydrates.
This is true and scientifically correct. Calories are all the same.
Now, to say that different foods, because they have the same calorie load, have the same impact on obesity is neither true nor scientifically correct. It is, in fact, false and is one of the reasons why we are seeing a general increase in weight (and diabetes) in the world population!
Which brings me to the second statement:
2. Foods with the same calories are not the same
Foods with the same calorie load can have dramatically different effects on weight. There should not even be any doubt about this point!
Can anyone have any doubt that the impact 1000 calories from carbs has on obesity is different than 1000 calories from fat or protein ?!! Can anyone have any doubt that 1000 calories from a fast food hamburger meal has a different impact than 1000 calories from a meat dish with vegetables ?!
Calories have little impact on obesity. The main factor is the physiological, biological and biochemical effect that food has on the body of those who consume it!
Carbohydrates in general stimulate the release of insulin, the hormone responsible for the production and storage of body fat. Proteins and fats have practically no such effect.
The same amount of calories ingested in the form of fat will not have the same effect on weight when compared to carbohydrates.
There can be no doubt about this point.
All obese people have these different reactions to carbohydrates, proteins and fats. But the impact that food has doesn't come down to that equation because we're not all completely the same.
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