Calories versus Nutrients

Most people these days are calorie rich and nutrient poor! The impact of this on your health is dramatic.

Degenerative diseases like Cancer, Heart Disease, Diabetess, Dementia and Alzheimer’s are on the rise.

“8 of the top 10 causes of death are directly related to poor nutrition.” said Dr. C. Everett Koop, former US Surgeon General.

By far the majority of people today are malnourished - they consume nutrient deficient calories so their food intake is below Calorie\Nutrient Parity. They are not taking in the variety, quality or quantity of nutrients their body needs to maintain optimal health. And they are taking in too many toxins. As a result they lack energy, get sick and die earlier than is necessary.

Why? Put simply, because you have been mislead. You’ve been told things are healthy that aren’t, you've been told fats are bad when they are not, and you’ve been told to look in the wrong direction. The Nutrition Information Panel data on the back of food packets is next to useless garbage when it comes to maximising your health span. Let me explain.

What is the definition of a Calorie?

It is the amount of energy necessary to heat one gram of water one degree Celsius.

Water does not need nutrition to heat it, it only needs heat from energy.

So Calories measure energy but contain nutrients in widely varying degrees.

Calories can be nutrient rich or nearly devoid of nutrients - what some people call empty calories.

For instance sugar is an empty calorie.

Say you and I were marooned on a desert island with nothing to eat but a kilo of sugar. I ate some every day and you ate none. I would die before you. So sugar is not merely empty calories, it is a toxin, a slow acting poison.

So if a calorie measures energy, not nutrition, why are we measuring energy rather than nutrition? Why call it a “Nutrition” Inforamtion Panel when it is an “Energy” Information Panel?

From a useful and healthful perspective it is completely misleading because it gets us to focus 180 degrees in the wrong direction! Calories instead of nutrients.

Why? Because it’s cheaper, simpler and easier.

Nutrients don’t just count amongst their number the dozen odd vitamins and 70 odd minerals. There are hundreds and hundreds of different nutrients, way too many for you and I to track. Each year more nutrients are being identified and more is being learnt about their properties and benefits.

If most of us have difficulty tracking calories then there are way too many different nutrients for you and I to track daily. That’s why people promote counting calories. It is nutritional folly, but it is easy to communicate. As a society we are off-track by focusing on calories over nutrition.

So, what can you and I do to get the most from the food we eat? Let's analyse it.

You can get calories without nutrients but you can’t get nutrients without calories.

You can continue the failed philosophy of focusing on calories and get too little nutrition (to the point where, like most people, you die from a nutritional deficiency) or you can change your priority to focus on eating genuinely nourishing food which will also get you the calories you need for energy.

So what does it make more sense to do?

Concentrate on getting the best nutrition and take the calories as a side benefit or maintain your attention on calories and potentially die from lack of nutrients?

There is an old money management saying, “Look after the pennies and the pounds will take care of themselves.” Based on the weight loss experiences of some of my bar eaters I believe it could also be true to say, “Look after the nutrients and the calories will look after themselves.”

That’s why I believe that in order to live the healthiest life possible we need to throw out the current calorie counting paradigm and change our food focus to one of Calorie\Nutrient Parity.

If you have allergies, food intolerances or dietary preferances, click here for an handy reference guide as to which of my products contain what ingredients. To download a pdf of it, click here.

And like all my products, what I leave out is as important as what I put in:

No artificial colours		No artificial flavours		No artificial fragrances
No cane sugar		No excitotoxins		No flavour enhancers
No detectable gluten		No added preservatives		No trans-fats