Well this is depressing.
I always knew that calorie counts weren't exact on labels. Your food would vary by some percentage because I knew that a calorimeter measures calories by burning the sample; you can get a decent approximation of calories in the food by using samples in the calorimeter tests, but it's only supposed to be a close approximation. "Close enough for hand grenades", I suppose; otherwise you couldn't eat the food if you wanted a more definitive measurement since the food would have to be destroyed in the process of getting the number of calories it contained.
Click here to see why it turns out labels lie.
This article contends that there are other factors that affect calorie intake because our bodies don't burn calories, they digest the food. Things like texture of food and which components are "digested" by gut bacteria before your body gets a whack at it affect how many calories our bodies absorb. Even how a food is cooked, like whether a steak is well done or only medium well done, affects the calories your body can metabolize.
For people like me this is very annoying; I used to track numbers obsessively (and now I track the number of ounces I'm taking in for each meal) so seeing that certain components in foods could or should be adjusted by nearly 20 percent is not only disheartening but a source of anxiety.
What next? That weight loss isn't a matter of calories in vs. calories out? That pills or weeds or sunlight exposure will affect your body weight?
Not surprisingly it was somehow concluded that this was too much of a burden for companies to fix the labeling system for very little benefit. It's sad to see that there is known science behind the argument that the current labeling system is significantly misleading, but it's being ignored simply because it's a pain for someone to have the food properly or at least more accurately labeled.
This isn't a magic bullet, as if finding out that 500 calorie brownie is actually 1,000 calories and that is the real reason someone weighs 400 pounds. But it would be nice to think that the labels we're using to track information for our health is more than just semi-fictional works!
What do you think? Is this something worth having on food items?
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Counting calories becomes always depressive. I never based my food regime on a low calories diet. I rather exercise more often and the effect is even better.
ReplyDeleteInterestingly enough I was about to write something about it that would appear in a few weeks. But the gist of it comes from a recent Time magazine article regarding exercise and weight...
ReplyDeleteCalorie count is extremely important these days, with all the junk food on the market. A lot calorie diet, combined with multivitamins taking, is the perfect solution for good health and beautiful body.
ReplyDeleteLow calorie diets are very common these days. People read more diet books, articles and are very interested in being in shape and leading a healthy life.
ReplyDeleteReally from what I've found calorie count is *the* number one factor in determining weight. Exercise may help and maintain (and give other benefits to health) but for keeping weight down, it's calories, calories, and calories.
ReplyDelete