#18 Are all calories the same ?

Are All Calories The Same?

If one pound of feathers and one pound of lead is dropped from a bridge, which will hit first? In a vacuum they hit at the same time, but with air resisitance the lead will hit faster everytime. Resistance is real and calories behave in the same way. When calories are burned in a lab, they are all created equal and release the same amount of energy. There is no difference between a 100 calories of kidney beans and and 100 calorie blue berry muffin. Your body's metabolism is like the air resistance in the feather example. The calories you ate are absorbed at different rates and have different amounts of fiber, carbohydrates, potein, fat and nutients --all of which translate into different complex metabolic signals that control your energy.

For example the sugar from a pop enters the blood stream very rapidly, with the excess calories being stored as fat. The same amount of sugar in the kidney beans enters your blood stream very slowly and the excess has a better chance of being used up over time. The fiber makes it so the more will be used and less stored. The fiber content of the beans, causes not all the calories will be absorbed. SO -- Not all calories are created equal. Many weight watchers think that consuming fewer calories will help them lose wight.

It isn't the amount of calores as much as the type of calories you consume that makes a difference in how much you weigh or how much energy you have. Dropping extra pounds is not a simple mattter of eating less. In fact, if you eat too little you set off a chain of molecular events inside your body that will actually cause you to gain weight. Don't be fooled, a calorie is not a calorie. No need to count calories; figure out serving sizes; ascertain which specific nutrients or phytochemicals are present in a food; or become confused by the flip-flop contradictory research on particular food components or on separated (often synthetic) nutrients. Just choose a variety of real, whole, organically-raised foods. It's the WHOLE diet and real food lifestyle that makes the difference.