The Truth About Calories

It’s hard to go a day without being confronted by calories. Calories are stamped on every box and bottle at the supermarket, printed on menus at restaurants, and even being tracked on your favourite treadmill in the gym. But what are calories exactly? And what role do they play in our health? The more calories we take in, the more flab we add—and if we cut back on them, then flab starts to recede too, right? After all, at face value, calories seem to be the factor by which all foods should be judged. Unfortunately, it’s not quite that simple. Did you know that different types of food have different calories values per gram? Fat, for example, has more than twice the amount of calories than carbohydrate or protein per gram; one gram of fat delivers 9 calories, while one gram of carbohydrate or protein offers just 4 calories. Here’s where it can get confusing; it is more important to keep track of where your calories are coming from than it is to keep track of your caloric total. Calories are not all created equal. Calories from healthy foods are quite different than calories from unhealthy foods; 500 calories of parsnips is certainly not equivalent to 500 calories of Double Stuff Oreos! Ensuring your calories come from foods that offer more nutrients, vitamins and minerals is the key to maintaining a healthy diet and a healthy you!