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Although the number of calories on a food product can give an indication of what the product will mean for your body, this number doesn’t actually tell you that much.
Are food products with more calories necessarily worse than those with fewer calories? The answer is not simply yes or no.
First things first! What is a calorie?
According to the Dikke Van Dale is a calorie the unit in which the energy value of foods is expressed. Calories in food provide our body with the necessary energy to function. Our body burns calories as fuel.
For cars, there are big differences in the quality of different types of fuel, and it’s no different for our bodies!
Quality beats quantity
If you want to lose weight, you just eat fewer calories and that’s it, right?! Not exactly.
It’s not just the amount of calories alone. It’s the combination of the type of calorie, the amount of calories, and the distribution throughout the day that ensures a healthy diet.
In the classic calorie counting system, many people fall into the trap. They are convinced that if they count calories carefully and make sure not to exceed the set amount, they will definitely lose weight and live healthily.
There are 2 big pitfalls here:
- The intake of calories is not nicely spread throughout the day
Your body has a certain energy need throughout the day. Even if you don’t exercise or are physically active, your body functions need energy to function optimally. Think of your brain to come up with your fantastic brain twists, your heart that pumps your blood, and much more.
If you eat a lot of calories at once, your body cannot process that sudden abundance and will convert it into fat. Moreover, at other times during the day, your body will not get what it needs. So even if you don’t eat too many calories according to a classic system, you can still gain weight.
- The total calories remain neatly limited, but your body has barely received what it needs
You can perfectly stay within your ‘point total’ by, for example, eating 2 chocolate bars at once and not eating much else. You are still perfectly within your calorie limit. But your body gets nothing of what it needs to function well. No vitamins, minerals, macronutrients,... Nothing, nada, zip… Healthy, you think? Not really... just saying.
The quality of the calories you eat is incredibly important. Many more important than the amount of calories.
Even if you don't necessarily want to lose weight, but want to live as healthily as possible With a balanced diet, it is important to choose calories of the right quality that give your body what it needs.
Good versus bad calories
The quality of calories can actually be divided into 3 categories: the good, the bad, and the terribly bad.
The good calories can be found in real foods like fruit, vegetables, nuts, kernels, and seeds, proteins, whole grain foods, ... These calories give your body what it needs to provide you with optimal health full of energy.
Bad calories, you guessed it, can be found in candy, soft drinks, all kinds of sugary products, … These are ‘empty’ calories that offer your body nothing and quickly give you a huge sugar crash, hunger attacks, and a short temper. In the long term, you deplete your body and its reserves, and these empty calories even burden you with increased cholesterol, high blood pressure, fatigue, and more.
And the terribly bad calories then? They are found in products with trans fats, ready-made meals, heavily processed foods, … These calories not only provide nothing to your body, they can even harm your health.
An example, anyone?
For example, if you eat a handful of nuts and dried fruits, you might be shocked by the number of calories they contain. But they give you more than just a handful of vitamins, dietary fiber, minerals, and antioxidants in return, which ensure your body can function optimally.
When you eat nuts, seeds, and kernels, you feel full for much longer. This allows you to go on without hunger until your next (healthy) meal and makes you less likely to binge on too much and/or unhealthy food. The many good nutrients in nuts and seeds can reduce the risk of numerous chronic diseases and increase protection against cardiovascular diseases because they help lower LDL cholesterol (also called ‘bad cholesterol’).
These good calories give your body the much-needed fuel and so it is not a good idea to avoid them.
Bad calories, on the other hand, do nothing for your body, quite the opposite. For example, trans fats cannot be digested by our body, accumulate in our abdominal wall, and are linked to inflammatory reactions in your body that you definitely don’t want.
Conclusion
Dare to move away from just counting calories. Choose a healthy, balanced diet with good calories that give your body what it needs: vitamins, minerals, dietary fiber, healthy fats, proteins, and complex carbohydrates.
Choose to have a healthy amount of good calories distributed in a balanced way throughout the day and you won’t know what to do with all that regained energy!
JustBite can help you get started with ourhealthy snacks and the tips and tricks that we would like to share with you.